created on Oct 15, 2017 modified on Jul 03, 2018 05:52
Singapore is increasingly a popular tourism destination for Russians and Russian-speakers, and yet few hotels cater specifically to Russian tourists. Hotel websites are largely available in English with no Russian version, and the guides available online for Russian tourists rely largely on the typical site-seeing descriptions and the same pictures as every other site. There is a need in Singapore for locally-written, culturally-targeted tourism materials for Russian visitors to Singapore. My students teamed up with the Pan-Pacific hotel to produce a tourism guide for Russian speakers, keeping in mind the cultural contexts of both Singapore and Russia. They utilized their own knowledge of Singapore and their experiences as non-natives navigating the city (none of the students are originally from Singapore) to create their materials.
This 10-week project was designed for Russian First Year, Second Semester learners with Intermediate Low proficiency. The learners are enrolled in a YIL1202R (Beginning Russian 2) in a 4-year program at a Yale-NUS College in a Urban Singapore setting, although our class meets via teledistance. The course meets 3 times per week for two sessions of ninety minutes, one section of sixty minutes, and a sixty-minute session with a local language tutor each week. The students designed tourism materials for Russian tourists staying at the Pan-Pacific Singapore hotel.
This project covers all three modes of communication. Students interact with one another in the TL to create the project. Additionally, by interviewing native TL speakers, students navigate the interpersonal mode of communication in an interview setting. Further, by assigning examples of Russian tourism sites to students and asking them to compare and contrast the resources, students engage in the interpretive mode of communication. Finally, at the end of the project, the students presented their own individual contribution to the larger project to both me and their peers in the TL, engaging in the presentational mode of communication.
My students were most interested in the Marketing Career Cluster, and so decided to design a tourist pamphlet. Using Adobe InDesign, the students formatted need-to-know information about 12 different tourism sites in Singapore. Additionally, by working with the Pan Pacific hotel, the students learned more and became engaged in the Hospitality and Tourism Career Cluster. They thoroughly researched what Russian tourism habits entail, asked professionals at the Pan Pacific about the perceived needs of their guests, and created content to meet those needs.
1. What do you like about your city? - A short essay homework assigned before a week before the entry event. more detail
1. Showing off Singapore! - Entry Event - This task was the real entry event into the project. more detail
1. Get the Lay of the Land - Looking at available materials to understand what tourism materials are available. more detail
2. Field Trip to Pan-Pacific Preparation - Preparing students to take full advantage of a field trip to the Pan-Pacific Singapore Hotel. more detail
3. Interview a Russian speaker - Interviewing Russians to understand what they look for when they travel. more detail
1. Assessment - Self and Teacher - How students will assess their own project, and how I will assess it. more detail