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Content Type: 1
Title: Using Venn Diagrams
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From http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com
French teacher Laura Flynn McClintock shares a wide variety of uses for Venn diagrams in language classes, both to practice targeted vocabulary and structures, and also to explore cultural products, practices, and perspectives. Read her ideas at http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com/venn-diagrams-one-of-the-most-versatile-language-teaching-tools/
Source: Teaching in the Target Language
Inputdate: 2019-04-12 17:38:49
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Title: Podcast: Teaching Languages to Students with Learning Disabilities
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From https://kidworldcitizen.org
In this episode of the Language Latte podcast, Becky Morales talks with Irene Konyndyk about teaching languages to students with learning disabilities. Morales clears up some misconceptions about learning disabilities and briefly discusses some possible accommodations and adaptations. Konyndyk about her knowledge and experienced, which can be found in her book Foreign Languages for Everyone: How I learned to Teach Second Languages to Students with Learning Disabilities.
Listen to the full 30-minute podcast at https://kidworldcitizen.org/teaching-languages-to-students-with-learning-disabilities/
Source: Kid World Citizen
Inputdate: 2019-04-12 17:40:19
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Content Type: 1
Title: Linguistics and Language Podcasts
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From https://www.superlinguo.com
Here is a freshly-revised, annotated list of podcasts having to do with linguistics and language learning. Although few are dedicated specifically to language teaching and learning, several are bound to be of interest to language enthusiasts. Examples include the Vocal Fries, which is about linguistic discrimination; Conlangery, dedicated to constructed languages; Very Bad Words, about swearing; and Troublesome Terps, "the podcast about the things that keep interpreters up at night."
Access the list at https://www.superlinguo.com/post/184019894256/linguistics-and-language-podcasts
Source: Superlinguo
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Content Type: 3
Title: Learning the Skill of Language
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
The seemingly infinite number of possibilities (e.g., language varieties, registers, contexts for interaction, and personalities) add to the complexity of learning language. As learners extend their own language abilities, it becomes increasingly important for them to develop the fundamental skills needed to engage in multilingual interactions on their own, extending their abilities from the “content” they find in the curricular materials they study. Learning how to learn increases their capacity to interact in unknown contexts and domains by enabling them to find what they need on their own. Take, for example, a learner who is adept at using a dictionary to find a word they need versus a learner who only feels comfortable using with words they have learned in a language classroom or a learner who is able to use models to frame their own writing without explicit instruction in a genre they have never encountered. In order to develop these critical skills, it is fundamental that learners have the opportunity to engage with these skills in a meaningful way.
One approach is embedding skill development as part of a language curriculum, always considering the skill of language in addition to the words and structures that appear in the learning objectives of the lesson. This month in InterCom, we focus on How to Learn a Language with this week’s focus addressing the perspective that the skills associated with human communication are fundamental to their development in the target language. As can be seen in the Activity of the Week, one critical skill learners can add to their repertoire is learning to ask for clarification when they do not understand something. Learning this strategy helps learners transition from seeing a missing word as only a gap in their repertoire and, instead, creating the ability to negotiate the meaning and gain the knowledge they need when they don’t understand. From the skills perspective, this not only builds the critical target language lexicon, but also encourages learners to keep learning and adapting as they expand their own repertoire and the contexts in which they interact. Other ideas will continue throughout the month of April.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
Inputdate: 2019-04-14 20:26:40
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Content Type: 2
Title: Announcing CASLS’ Nationwide Faculty Learning Community for the Development of Reflective Practices
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The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) is committed to supporting learners and educators in their sustained development and growth. An outgrowth of this commitment is our development of a nation-wide faculty learning community focused both on supporting practitioners’ engagement in reflective professional practices and on providing resources for practitioners to engage their students in reflective learning. We encourage you to nominate yourself and/or someone you know for participation in this community by filling out this form by June 1. Participants will engage in a series of five one-hour webinars from July 8-July 12 designed to promote introspection and to share information and resources related to national initiatives (like LinguaFolio) designed with reflection in mind. We hope to see you there!
Source: CASLS
Inputdate: 2019-04-15 13:28:57
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Content Type: 2
Title: Announcing CASLS’ Nationwide Faculty Learning Community for the Development of Reflective Practices
Body:
The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) is committed to supporting learners and educators in their sustained development and growth. An outgrowth of this commitment is our development of a nation-wide faculty learning community focused both on supporting practitioners’ engagement in reflective professional practices and on providing resources for practitioners to engage their students in reflective learning. We encourage you to nominate yourself and/or someone you know for participation in this community by filling out this form by June 1. Participants will engage in a series of five one-hour webinars from July 8-July 12 designed to promote introspection and to share information and resources related to national initiatives (like LinguaFolio) designed with reflection in mind. We hope to see you there!
Source: CASLS
Inputdate: 2019-04-15 13:30:18
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Content Type: 3
Title: Digital Discourse and the Language Learning Classroom
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
Digital discourse(s), defined by Sykes (in press) as “language patterns occurring in digitally-mediated interactions, or as a result of digitally-mediated interaction, even if that occurs by analog means” are fundamental for full participation in the world today. Their appropriate, or inappropriate, use are high stakes, economically impactful, and critical to social understanding. Take, as just two examples of many, Kylie Jenner’s single Tweet about SnapChat which is thought to be significantly responsible for the company’s stock taking a hit and the user-base dramatically dropping or the use of hashtags like #metoo or #lapazsinagua where a single hashtag catalyzed or unified discourse around a political movement or fundraising effort. However, the large variety or users and online language patterns and preferences, the rapidly changing platforms and communicative expectations, and prolific appearance of sensitive topics and polemic viewpoints make the teaching and learning digital discourse(s) in the world language classroom challenging.
Nevertheless, learning how to use, interpret, and create digital discourse(s) is fundamental. It enables learners to –
- engage with extended communities beyond traditional academic domains,
- explore subtle, yet critical cultural and political practices in their first, and subsequent languages, and
- examine cultural and interpersonal phenomena in ways that may, or may not, be salient via other mechanisms (from Sykes, in press).
In this month’s InterCom, we explore ways this can be done in the world language classroom through the exploration of a variety of digital discourse patterns (e.g., hashtags, emojis, and games) and provide activities educators can use to facilitate the learning of world languages.
Reference
Sykes, J. (in press, 2019). Emergent Digital Discourse(s): What can we learn from hashtags and digital games to expand learners’ second language repertoire? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 39.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Language Is Inherently Fun!
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Editor Note: This week, we are delighted to feature a Topic of the Week by Thorny Games in which they explore examples of how tabletop games can be used for exploring language and ways language is fundamental to gameplay. Our Activity of the Week focuses on an adaptation from one piece of their game Dialect to be used in the language classrooms. For more on the role of games in the world language classroom see these past Topic of the Week articles: Using Analog Games, Digital Games and Language Learning, and Digital Games and L2 Pragmatics.
Let’s start by taking a look at Magicians: A Language Learning RPG by Samjoko Publishing. As a tabletop Role Playing Game (RPG), players embody characters who improve their skills from session to session as they overcome difficult challenges. But in Magicians, there’s a twist. In order to successfully cast spells, players must construct more and more complex Korean grammatical structures (which serve as incantations in the fiction). Progression systems are fundamental to many RPGs and Magicians incorporates language in the core of its progression. This makes the system more natural than traditional progression systems which simply mark experience points on a sheet, and serves to fundamentally enhance the underlying system.
As another example, take the sci-fi puzzle game Sethian by Duang! Games. Throughout Sethian, players progress as they’re able to compose grammatically correct sentences that the alien technology they’re interacting with can parse in its native language. The puzzles in this puzzle game become grammatical construction and the player’s natural acuity to language make those puzzles fun and engaging. As the players solve puzzles, they naturally develop fluency in this language.
In fact, language can be used as an emotionally engaging mechanic for play far beyond pedagogy. Whether it be the story of an isolated community as told through the lens of their language (as in Dialect, A Game about Language and How it Dies) or a story of hope born from the hands of children in 1970s Nicaragua (as in Sign, A Game about Being Understood), Thorny Games has been exploring the myriad ways our brain’s predisposition to language can be used for emotionally resonant gameplay. Language is one of the fundamental things that make us human, and a special tool for deeply engaging interactive experiences. We hope these examples help you in your experimentation, and we look forward to playing your creations!
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
Inputdate: 2019-04-17 10:39:48
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Content Type: 5
Title: CALICO Gaming SIG
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The Center for Applied Second Language Studies is committed to researching and exploring the impact of experiential and digitally-enhanced learning experiences on language learning and acquisition. An outgrowth of this commitment is CASLS’s participation in the CALICO (Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) Gaming Special Interest Group. One of the group’s most recent endeavors is an asynchronous book club related to the book Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Justice, edited by Kishonna L. Gray and David J. Leonard. We invite you to order the book and join the discussion by signing up here. The instructions channel gives guidance on what and how to post, and a new channel will be created for each chapter of the book as we progress. Game on!
Source: CASLS Spotlight
Inputdate: 2019-04-17 11:00:42
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Content Type: 5
Title: STARTALK 2019: Professional Growth, Proficiency Development, and a Stellar Summer
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Thoughtful, ongoing professional growth for teachers and proficiency growth for students underscored the work at the STARTALK Spring Conference last weekend. At the conference, participants engaged in in-depth collaboration related to their intensive summer programs. STARTALK, a component of the National Security Language Initiative designed to expand the teaching and learning of strategic world languages, punctuated its commitment to the growth of national instruction of these languages with its thoughtful, in-depth exploration of contemporary approaches to language learning and professional planning.
The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon supports STARTALK programs through the delivery of an online language learning portfolio, Pulsar, and an online teacher training portfolio based on the TELL framework. This year, CASLS representatives were on hand to provide training related to the documentation of student performance and growth with Pulsar. Additionally, CASLS representatives solicited feedback regarding the development of the new language learning portfolio that will be used in STARTALK teacher training programs. CASLS is excited to continue growing and adapting with STARTALK, and wishes all of the STARTALK programs a stellar summer!
PEARLL and CASLS launch catalyst at the 2019 Spring STARTALK Conference
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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