Social Annotation and World Languages

Annotation is a common practice when students learn another language. Recent experimental studies have demonstrated statistically significant gains for undergraduate students who use social annotation when learning English. Annotation activities have been shown to improve students’ academic performance compared to peers who do not annotate course texts. Social annotation enables students to identify new vocabulary, develop grammar skills, and translate texts using their first language, as well as to read and write in a second language. Annotation activities can be used to encourage cultural engagement with and immersion in a new language of study. Hypothesis social annotation has been used by instructors to support students learning to read, speak and communicate in multiple languages, including: Arabic, English, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Slavic, Spanish, and German.

The above is excerpted from our white paper, “The Value of Social Annotation for Teaching and Learning: Promoting Comprehension, Collaboration and Critical Thinking With Hypothesis.“

Watch these short clips from Liquid Margins 10, “Global Margins: Annotating World Languages,” to hear from Georgia Seminet, Associate Professor of Spanish at St. Edward’s University, and Cory Duclos, Director of the Keck Center for Language Study & Sr. Lecturer in Linguistics at Colgate University.

More resources

• Globe-trot through the entire Liquid Margins 10 episode. 
• Watch our panel on social annotation and world languages from iAnnotate 2021.