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Title: Summer Institute: “Mesoamerican Cultures and their Histories: Spotlight on Oaxaca!”
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From http://blogs.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute
“Mesoamerican Cultures and their Histories: Spotlight on Oaxaca!”
The National Endowment for the Humanities will be funding this Summer Institute for School Teachers (K-12), which will take place in Oaxaca, Mexico, from July 6 to August 1, 2014. This is a great fellowship opportunity for teachers across the U.S. who wish to increase Mesoamerican content in their courses, delve into indigenous cultures and their histories from readings, lectures, and experiential learning through excursions in southern Mexico. Spanish-language ability is not a requirement for applying to this Institute.
Application deadline: March 4, 2014.
Learn more at http://blogs.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute
Source: University of Oregon
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Title: Connect With English Web Site
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We’ve reported in the past on the Connect with English video series from Annenberg Learner (http://caslsintercom.uoregon.edu/content/11046).
Connect with English is a soap opera that tells the story of Rebecca Casey, a young woman who lives in Boston. She works in a factory and takes care of her father and brother.
Now Annenberg Learner has a companion website with grammar, dictation, and comprehension activities and quizzes to go along with the series videos.
The Connect with English website is available at http://www.learner.org/series/cwe
Source: Annenberg Learner
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Content Type: 1
Title: States Weigh How to Revamp Surveys to Identify Potential English-Learners
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From http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2014/01/states_consider_revising_surve.html
States Weigh How to Revamp Surveys to Identify Potential English-Learners
By Lesli A. Maxwell
January 31, 2014
A fledgling effort to bring more consistency to services for English-language learners is moving ahead with the release of a new set of recommendations on how states and school districts might revise and improve the questions they ask to first identify students who might be in need of English-language instruction.
Home-language surveys—often a series of a few questions about the language(s) a student speaks and understands—have been the primary way educators identify potential ELLs in their schools. But the surveys vary widely from state to state, even school district to school district, and can produce quite different results.
Education officials in some states have been brainstorming together with ELL experts on how to improve the surveys so that they yield the best possible information for educators. A summary of the state officials' ideas was published yesterday by the Council of Chief State School Officers, and provides lots of insight into how state education officials are thinking on this issue.
Learn more about this issue and access the summary at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2014/01/states_consider_revising_surve.html
Source: Education Week
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Title: Camp OFLA 2014
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Camp OFLA is an elementary foreign language camp for students in grades 3-8. It was created by the Ohio Foreign Language Association in 2005 in celebration of the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages Year of Languages.
This year’s Camp OFLA will be June 8-14, 2014. Languages will be Arabic, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. Activities for the week will include language learning, ethnic cooking, dancing, singing, sports, arts and crafts, campfires, games and swimming. The week will culminate with a "Parent Day" on Friday night and Saturday morning for parents and special guests.
High school students are being sought as camp counselors; applications are due March 1. For more information go to http://www.campofla.org/counselors.html
Scholarships are available for campers; applications are due March 31. Learn more at http://www.campofla.org/scholarships.html
For full details about Camp OFLA, go to their website at http://www.campofla.org
Source: OFLA
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Title: CARLA’s Virtual Assessment Center Expanded and Updated
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From http://www.carla.umn.edu/about/carlaupdate_2014wtr.html
CARLA’s Virtual Assessment Center (VAC) has recently undergone a major revision. The VAC is a series of web-based learning modules that provides teachers with background information, step-by-step guidance, and many practical resources on developing proficiency-based second language assessments for the classroom.
Now there is reason to visit the VAC again. The text throughout the website has been updated, and new activities to help teachers reflect on the content of each learning module have been added. Also new in the “Creating an Assessment Unit” module are video recordings of teachers discussing each step of the assessment development process. Each video has pre-viewing questions and post-viewing reflection exercises. The videos provide background information from experts in the field, and best of all, they showcase the experience of classroom teachers!
The VAC is available at http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/vac/index.html
Source: CARLA
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Title: Blog Post: How to Evaluate an Authentic Resource
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Spanish teacher Amy Lenord writes,
“With every passing day more and more attention is being paid to the value of using authentic resources in world language instruction. The benefits of authentic resources to both students and teachers of world language are rich, and the time and scrutiny it takes to find a quality resource can be so worth it. But, scrutiny is necessary. While I have been a proponent that authentic resources can be used in teaching any level of language learner, including novices, not every resource is right for every level of a learner, and so some type of criteria is necessary for evaluating the quality and appropriateness of an authentic resource before employing it in instruction.”
Read on for Ms. Lenord’s criteria for evaluating authentic resources: http://www.amylenord.net/1/post/2014/02/how-to-evaluate-an-authentic-resource.html
Source: Amy Lenord's Blog
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Title: Global Citizens Summit for Youth at Harvard University
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From http://globalci.org/gc-summit
GCSY brings a select group of international youth scholars and faculty to the Harvard University Faculty Club. During the week-long program, participants investigate the idea of global citizenship and the themes of freedom and fairness in the world today. The program will serve as a springboard for ideas and collaboration in the year to come.
The program is for 12-24 rising junior and senior high school students ages 16-18 who are prepared to grapple with pressing global issues. The students will be:
- A globally diverse student body in terms of geography (with domestic & global reach), socio-economic background, religion, gender, and personal talents
- Multilingual, with English as one of the languages
- Eager to engage and have fun with the broader group during the program, and to share the experience with the wider community
- Immersed in a rigorous academic program for intellectually curious and engaged young minds
- Chaperoned by U.S. college and graduate student proctors who will guide and coach the students (one proctor for every four young scholars)
This year’s GCSY will take place August 2-9. Applications are due by March 1. For more details go to http://globalci.org/gc-summit
Source: Harvard University
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Content Type: 5
Title: Pragmatics in Action: UO Global Expo by Mandy Lindgren, CASLS Associate Director
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The University of Oregon will host the 2014 IAFF World Junior Championship this summer. More than 2,500 of the world's best track and field athletes under the age of 20 will compete to earn a place in future Olympics. This will be the first time that championships have ever been held in the U.S. or on a university campus. The UO Office of International Affairs is helping lead the effort to showcase the university's international research and expertise.
Caption: UO ambassadors will use their language and culture skills to welcome athletes to the historic Hayward Field.
UO ambassadors will use their language and cultural competencies to help welcome athletes and delegations. "Ambassadors will provide a warm welcome in the athletes' native languages, answer questions, and guide them throughout the university," explains Sheila Bong, Global Oregon Program Director. "Whether helping the young athletes deal with cross-cultural challenges or just answering questions about being a student at the University of Oregon, the ambassadors will offer their support and hospitality."
The ambassadors will orient teams to the community, provide hospitality and recommendations on places to shop or eat, and help as cultural translators. Each ambassador will be matched with Junior World Championship country delegations based on their knowledge of another language and culture. Pragmatics in action!
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 3
Title: Approaching Explicit Pragmatic Instruction in the L2 Classroom by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
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Tackling interlanguage pragmatics in the second language (L2) classroom can be both rewarding and challenging. Here, we examine four elements of pragmatic instruction that can be used at all proficiency levels.
Observation: Typically serving as an introduction to the pragmatic behaviors surrounding a language function, observation is used to make students aware of structures and contextual behaviors in both their own language and the target language. For example, leaners might be shown two or three video clips of compliments and their responses and be asked to note what they see. In this scenario, guiding observation questions could include: What do you notice about responses people give when getting a compliment? What are the topics of the response? Does the person thank the other for the compliment? Do they accept the compliment? Does this response vary based on who gave the compliment? In what ways? How does the response change based on who is talking? In what ways is this compliment response behavior similar to another language you speak? In what ways is it different?
Interpretation: In this stage, learners move beyond observation and begin to interpret what they see and hear in interactions. Interpretation activities ask learners to evaluate the intended meaning of the language function being considered. For example, continuing with the case of compliments, an instructor could compile 5-7 compliment scenarios that contain sarcasm and ask the learner to decide whether or not the interaction counted as a compliment sequence. Additionally, leaners could be asked to decide whether or not compliment responses were sincere and appropriate. At the interpretation phase, the instructor can help learners begin to process various factors which might influence their interpretation (e.g., What is the function of sarcasm in Portuguese? Can a compliment response contain reference to money in Japanese?).
Production: At the production stage, learners are encouraged to create their own utterances and begin to interact in pragmatically appropriate ways. Activities can include role plays where learners compliment one another, completing cartoons by giving appropriate (or, at the advanced level, inappropriate) compliment responses, and sample chat interactions in which the learners engages in computer mediated communication to share compliments. Key to production tasks is a focus on the communication of meaning and appropriate pragmatic behavior.
A Strategic Approach: The variance of pragmatic behaviors and absence of a standard model, requires learners also learn the skills to deal with pragmatic elements of language as part of their learning experiences. Cohen (2005) identifies three types of key learner strategies - (1) strategies for initial learning, (2) strategies for using what has already been learned, and (3) learners’ metapragmatic considerations regarding the deployment of these strategies.
References
Cohen, A. D. (2005). Strategies for learning and performing L2 speech acts. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2, 275-301.
Here are sample materials in Spanish (http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/sp_pragmatics/home.html) and Japanese (http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/japanese/introtospeechacts/index.htm).
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 4
Title: Greetings
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This activity is designed to facilitate the learning of pragmatic behaviors associated with greetings.
Outcome: Learners will be able to interpret and produce greetings appropriately in varied contexts.
Resources:
- Greetings video clips in the target language
- Sample greeting scenarios
- Greetings Resource Sheet
Procedure:
- Begin by having learners think of all of the ways they greet people in their own language. The list should be made in a place all learners can see it. Once the list is made, have learners sort the greetings based on different social dimensions and contextual features. For example, formal/informal, friend/stranger, night/day, power/no power.
- Observation: Have learners observe 2-3 video clips in the target language and complete Activity 1 on the resource sheet.
- Interpretation: Create 5 greetings which demonstrate both proper greetings and examples where miscommunication might occur. Have learners complete Activity 2 on the resource sheet in order to interpret the meaning of each.
- Production: Give learners a variety of greeting scenarios and have them greet one another in appropriate ways.
Source: Julie Sykes
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