Innovation in Language Learning

This presentation reports on a 4^th-year Russian course designed around information, media and technology literacy and focused on developing Advanced-level proficiency. The goals of this course include development of 21^st century skills, such as communication; critical thinking and problem solving; social and cross-cultural skills; and productivity and accountability. This course follows the core principles of Open Architecture Curricular Design (Leaver & Campbell, 2015), including the use of a theme-based syllabus designed around authentic texts and learner involvement in the selection and delivery of content. The course focuses on current events and uses current authentic materials available through Russian-language news outlets. Students act as co-creators as they select materials for their research projects and share those materials with their peers. The first part of the semester is dedicated to instruction in the basics of media literacy. Among the topics covered are the distinguishing features of advertising, news, and propaganda; the standards of journalism; the journalism of fact versus journalism of opinion; and reliability of sources; Russian information laws and the practice of censorship. The remainder of the course is dedicated to student-driven research. Students engage in three separate research projects: an individual research project, a paired research project, and a group project—all on self-selected topics. The course relies on current media reports available on the Internet rather than a textbook. The course evolved to meet the challenges related to information access following the invasion of Ukraine.  Students compared official Russian Federation sources with Russian-language sources from other locations, as well as anglophone sources. This paper will provide an overview of Open Architecture Curricular design, detail the structure and design of the course as it has evolved since 2016, describe learning tasks and assessments, and conclude with suggestions for teaching media literacy in Russian programs in the wake of the war.