First Day of Class Activities

• Assessment of student perceptions and attitudes about research and psychological research (including asking about their previous experiences with foreign languages and cultures) (see sample assessment tool)
• Ask students to draw on their previous experiences in foreign language courses as a reference point, such as by understanding that the process involves frustration, making mistakes, and lots of practice
• Invite a foreign language instructor to the class, have them introduce themselves in the foreign language, speaking and asking questions in that language. Ask students how they felt about this presentation and then draw parallels between another language speaker and a “research” speaker
• Parallels to highlight (what we’re trying to do in this course) include: enhancing your research fluency and proficiency; learning the vocabulary; speaking with other language learners; communicating formally in the new language via writing and oral presentations; learning how to “survive” in the foreign culture of psychological research (by speaking, listening, reading, and writing); learning how to speak research in a way that makes you sound like a “native” or fluent speaker (i.e., with no “accent”); asking students what they think being a “fluent research speaker” means;
• Showing students how the various class learning objectives, activities, and assignments described in the Syllabus are designed, in part, to meet the goal of “helping you to become a fluent researcher” or “learning to speak fluent research”

 During Semester Activities (creating and maintaining a “learning to speak a new language” theme)

• Asking our students for clarification about what they meant by the use of specific words or phrases; students asking their instructors what a word or procedure “means”
• Telling students that they are now speaking (or writing) like a “fluent research speaker” would speak (or write)
• Learning to describe your research questions clearly, your research design and methodology accurately, and your statistical tests correctly
• Developing your listening comprehension skills by attending to the instructor and the presentations of fellow students
• Listening to “fluent” researchers talk about their research projects (e.g., guest researchers who speak to the class)
• Writing a cover letter (essentially a “response to reviewers” letter) that indicates how they have incorporated and addressed the feedback their instructor has provided on earlier drafts of papers or research designs
• Asking students for clarification by noting that “I don’t understand the language you are speaking” or asking “What is another way of saying this?”
• When giving feedback on written assignments, stress to students that the research writing process is very similar to learning to write in a new or foreign language; encourage them to not be overly sensitive to receiving critical feedback about their research writing

 End of Semester Activities

• Re-assessment of student perceptions and attitudes about research and psychological research as well as their perceptions of the Speaking Fluent Research concepts (see sample assessment tool)
• Illustrate that speaking research allows students to function more comfortably within a specific discipline and better understand its theories and findings (e.g., reading research reports, traveling to professional meetings and conferences, and communicating effectively with other members of the discipline)
• Show how language facility makes it likely that students will be able to connect and establish successful relationships with the members of another culture (other researchers)
• Illustrate how fluency in the research language increases the likelihood that students will be astute consumers of scientific findings or pronouncements, to the extent that they can translate and interpret that information for themselves
• Note that research fluency might also enable students to think about the world differently and be open to research and science when making important life decisions (e.g., about medical, parenting, or financial questions)