Game Show Assessments: Engaging Students in Competition

With the move to remote instruction, I came across a Netflix reality TV show (The Circle France), which I thought was a great metaphor for living in a lockdown situation. As we stayed on Zoom instruction during the past academic year, I decided to include The Circle France as the assessment piece for my class on French pronunciation. In particular, all weekly oral and written assignments were based on video excerpts from the show. In addition, the four oral projects were designed to replicate the show itself, as each student was supposed to create a player for the show. In this presentation, I will briefly share how I organized the class to make this show a recurring element throughout the semester. I will also share student feedback and comments on the use of this show and on the impact they felt it had on their learning and motivation.

Anne Violin-Wigent is an Associate Professor of French at Michigan State University. She also serves as the Faculty Supervisor for French Basic Language Instruction and is currently redesigning the basic language sequence to integrate language and cultural diversity. Her research focuses on classroom-based learning, in particular in terms of pronunciation as she regularly teaches a class on French phonetics and pronunciation.