This document outlines a 4-part social media assignment for Portuguese language students. Part 1 requires students to introduce a friend and discuss their daily routine, interests, and plans using YouTube. Part 2 asks students to add annotations in YouTube noting any mistakes or new vocabulary. Part 3 has students comment on or ask questions about 2 classmates' videos. Part 4 is for students to respond to any feedback received. The assignment aims to develop communication skills at an elementary language level.

1. Final Assignment
LARC Social Media Workshop 2012

2. Reflections
INVENTORY: Synchronous activities? Adobe Connect/ Asynchronous
activities? Fronter (our “wikispace”)
Which graded exercise called for an immediate “tech-revamp”?
Final oral presentation! Currently ⇒ students record in audacity ⇒
students upload to individual folder Fronter ⇒ only the teacher has access to
the individual productions.
Challenges? Benefits?

3. Information to set the stage
Language: Portuguese
Student age: 20-65 (mostly 25-35).
Student language level: elementary. Native language: Swedish.
Web 2.0 tool: youtube.com

4. The assignment – part one
Timeline of the assignment (parts 1-4): two weeks
Instructions for the students: PART 1
How? Youtube channel ⇒ upload ⇒ record from webcam
Talk straight to the camera. No reading from scripts allowed. First, shortly
introduce a friend named Miguel and give as much personal information about
him as possible (name, surname, civil status, age, country, profession,
nacionality, where she lives, where she works, interests etc). You should then
proceed to talk about:
1. His daily routine. 2. His interests, likes and dislikes. 3. What his plans for the
future are (use compound future)
Then describe Miguel and a friend of his called Joaquim, both physically and
psychologically (personality/ character). Don't forget to include:
Comparisons between the two men (more … than, less … than, as ... as ...)
Some contrastive examples of “ser” and “estar”
Colors and clothing

5. Make all videos easily available in one single place?
http://legacy.wallwisher.com/wall/PR1011

6. The assignment – part two
Instructions for the students: PART 2
How? Video manager ⇒ uploads ⇒ click on your recording ⇒ annotations
Review your own recording critically and, using the annotations feature, add
notes to your youtube video about, for example:
-Any word you later on realized you’ve mispronounced
-Any grammar mistakes you later on realized have slipped into the
presentation
-Any sentence you found specially difficult to build
-Any particular word/sentence that is BR (Brazilian Portuguese)/PT (European
Portuguese)
-etc
IMPORTANT! Don’t forget to also include in the annotations the translation
of new vocabulary for your classmates.

7. The assignment – part three
Instructions for the students: PART 3
How? Classmates’ video links ⇒comment ⇒ create a video response
Listen to all of your classmates’ videos.
Pick TWO videos to ask questions (in Portuguese) about what was said.
Vary the question words as much as possible. For example:
If recording says: “Miguel likes to collect stamps and play golf”.
Your questions might be: “Where does Miguel buy his stamps? “How often does he
play golf?” “Why does he like stamps/golf?” “Who does he play golf with?” etc
(please give priority to those entries that still don't have any
feedback. Each video must have at least 2 feedbacks)
Your feedback can either be in form of post or another video.

8. The assignment – part three
(alternative)
Instructions for the students: PART 3
How? Classmates’ video links ⇒comment ⇒ create a video response or post
Listen to all of your classmates’ videos.
Pick TWO videos to make comments about (in Portuguese): TWO things you
really liked about the presentation (concerning language, contents,
pronunciation)
and ONE thing that could be improved (concerning language, contents,
pronunciation).
(please give priority to those entries that still don't have any
feedback)
Your feedback can either be in form of post or another video.

9. The assignment – part four
Instructions for the students: PART 3
How? Classmates’ video links ⇒comment ⇒ create a video response or post
Answer all videos responses you have received.
Your feedback can either be in form of post or another video.

10. Additional information
Expected language goals:
(according to the European Language Portfolio for levels A1/A2)
1) “understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic
phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
2) “introduce oneself and others and can ask and answer questions about
personal details such as where one lives, people one knows.”
3) “interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and
clearly and is prepared to help”.
= communication-oriented

11. Additional information
Grading/ assessment – Grade reflects the following factors:
1) Will and capacity to speak
2) Contents: Satisfactory/insufficient, inadequate; level of difficulty
3) Language: Intelligibility; capacity to express oneself in a clear manner;
fluency (use of language with ease and certainty; speed and rhythm); use of
strategies to solve linguistic problems; vocabulary and expressions (scope,
variety and correctness), grammar (scope and correctness)
4) Pronunciation and prosody

12. Pictures