Faculty Publications

Facial Cues of the Mouth and Language Learning in an Era of Face Coverings and Virtual Courses

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

The French Review

Volume

94

Issue

3

First Page

111

Last Page

115

Abstract

EDUCATORS ARE ACCUSTOMED to adapting teaching to different learning situations according to external factors imposed upon them. Current challenges include face-to-face (F2F) teaching with face coverings and shifting from F2F to virtual learning. Language teachers have additional layers to consider, given that the content they teach is also the medium by which they teach it. This article focuses on confronting the challenges of teaching a foreign language in person with face coverings or in a virtual setting. In the F2F format where teachers and students are required to wear face coverings, speech becomes muffled and mouth cues are withdrawn. These factors have a direct bearing on the students' perception and processing of aural language input. In a virtual setting, the obstacle of the mask is removed from the equation, but other factors such as resources and course design come into play. After a very brief review of the research on facial cues and language learning, pedagogical considerations will be discussed.

Department

Department of Languages and Literatures

Original Publication Date

Spring 3-2021

DOI of published version

10.1353/tfr.2021.0016

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2021 Elizabeth Zwanziger

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Link to Full Text
Published Version

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