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Content Type: 5
Title: Empowering Learners of Spanish: General Education Renaissance Project
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The General Education Renaissance Project from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon (https://cas.uoregon.edu/renaissance/) is currently funding an applied linguist, Dr. Robert L. Davis, CASLS advisory board member and Professor of Spanish, a sociolinguist, Dr. Claudia Holguín Mendoza, Assistant Professor of Spanish, and an historian, Dr. Julie Weise, Assistant Professor of History, to create new General Education (GE) courses for Spanish heritage speakers and mid-level second language (L2) learners that challenge students to utilize their language skills while acquiring social science content. These classes encourage students to comprehend spoken Spanish from different countries while learning about geography, history, and language variation. In the courses, they analyze Spanish-language primary source documents on the Latino experience in the United States and communicate orally in Spanish while learning about the phenomenon of Spanglish. The goal is that students gain confidence in their language abilities, develop their critical thinking skills, discover the importance of context and inference in language learning and speaking, and gain an appreciation for Spanish-speaking cultures in the U.S. and Hispanophone world. Current course titles are: Spanish Around the World, Spanglish as a U.S. Speech Community, and Latinos in the Americas.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 5
Title: Welcome Stephanie Knight, Language Technology Specialist
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CASLS is excited to welcome Stephanie Knight as our new Language Technology Specialist. Stephanie comes to CASLS from Nashville, TN, where she has spent the last six years teaching Spanish at the high school and college level and the past four years leading the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at Hillsboro High School. Stephanie will be working with many curriculum-related projects including The Bridging Project, Linguafolio Online, and Games2Teach. She will be working closely with secondary schools to facilitate professional development opportunities and to strengthen connections with language studies at the university level. Stephanie says the thing she is most excited about in joining CASLS is "being part of CASLS's innovative approach to the meaningful and permanent learning of world languages". Welcome Stephanie! We are glad to have you on board.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 3
Title: Bridging the Home-School Gap for Heritage Speakers
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Ruth Daza is a recent graduate of the Language Teaching Specialization Master's Program at University of Oregon. She has over ten years of language teaching experience in both the United States and Colombia. Her work with heritage speakers in a small rural high school in eastern Washington inspired both her MA project and this article.
Today heritage language learners can be found in almost any language class. Unfortunately, HLs often feel apprehensive about being in a ‘typical’ language class. This feeling can sometimes be traced to their perceptions of their own linguistic abilities as well as their fears about the value that others may place on the way they speak their heritage language (accent, dialect, register, etc.). HLs may perceive a lack of cohesion between their home life –which often has strong ties to the heritage language, and their school life –in which their heritage language and culture are typically overlooked. The following guidelines are meant to help teachers bridge this gap by affirming the linguistic and cultural knowledge that HLs already possess. Although these examples focus on Spanish HLs, they can easily be adapted for other heritage language populations.
- Get to know your HL students. Discover what varieties of Spanish they have been exposed to, what cultural/ethnic group(s) they identify with, what Spanish means to them, when and where they use Spanish, etc. This can be accomplished by creating simple surveys, establishing an interactive journal, or conducting informal interviews with your students. This information can guide your planning and goal setting. Additionally this type of self-reflection promotes HL’s identity building, which can impact their motivation and ability to learn.
- Help students bridge their home life and their academic life by incorporating authentic language samples provided by SHLs into your instruction. Here are some examples of what that might look like:
- Adivinanzas (riddles) activity: see this week's Activity of the Week.
- Ask SHL students to share any trabalenguas (tongue twisters) they are familiar with. Make an inventory and choose several throughout the year for focused pronunciation or fluency practice. Have students compete with each other to see who can say them faster.
- Highlight the contributions of other Heritage Speakers in the local and national community. If possible, invite US Latino/as as guest speakers to your classes. During the course of your class select at least one or two texts written by US Spanish speakers that include characteristics of US Spanish such as code switching and lexical borrowings.
- Become involved in or at least more aware of the local Spanish speaking community. Attend quinceañeras or other events when invited. Occasionally shop at local mercados or tianguis. Your presence in these places can make students feel pride in their heritage and culture as well as contribute significantly to building relationships with students and their families.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Adivinanzas – Riddles
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By Ruth Daza, adapted by Renée Marshall and Patricia Roldán Marcos
This activity asks that HL learners bring samples of riddles on a certain theme. Then students play bingo and try to figure out the answers to the riddles. Later, they explore a written riddle looking at their form. Then, they try out their skills at writing their own riddles. Our sample activity is geared towards an intermediate Spanish class with a few heritage language speakers. The theme we have chosen is food. This activity can be easily adapted to any language and adjusted for level, although it would be a very challenging activity for L2 beginners. The theme can be easily changed to anything the teacher or students choose.
Objectives:
- Students will be able to comprehend riddles and identify the corresponding food item from the vocabulary list.
- Students will be able to analyze some of the riddles to come up with characteristics and pattern of riddles.
- Using the characteristics identified, students will be able to create their own riddle.
- HL students will be able to find and bring to class appropriate riddles for the theme.
Resources: Spanish and English Example for the teacher and Write Your Own Riddle handout for students.
Procedure:
- Ask HL students to bring three riddles about food to class the next day. (The amount of riddles you ask students to bring will vary based on your class size and how many HL students you have)
- After class, look over the riddles brought in by the students, edit if necessary, and add some riddles if necessary. For the example activity here you will need 9 riddles total. Make a vocabulary list of the 9 words that are answers the riddles, and also add 6 more vocabulary words that are not answers to the riddles, for a total of 15 words.
- The next day in class pass out BINGO sheets to all students and put up your 15 word vocabulary list. Have students fill out their BINGO sheets. Each of their 9 boxes will have ONE vocabulary word that they’ve chosen from the list of 15 words. (Be sure all students understand the vocabulary words.)
- Read the riddles out loud one at a time. Students will need to try to figure out the answer to the riddle, and if students have the answer word on their board they mark it with an X. If they don’t, they do nothing. Continue reading riddles until someone has BINGO, which is X’s all in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row. In this example, 3 in a row would be BINGO.
- The next day, pick two or three riddles to examine as an entire class. Handout a copy of your chosen riddles to all students, along with the Write Your Own Riddle handout. Examine the structure of the riddle together. What makes a good riddle? How is it written? Discuss what parts of speech and/or what tenses are present. Have students make a checklist of what makes a good riddle using their Write Your Own Riddle handout. Perhaps create a riddle together as a class.
- Next have students, either in class or as homework, write their own riddles that correspond with the vocabulary words for the next unit. Have students read their riddle aloud to the class (or with a partner) while the other students look at the vocabulary for the next unit and guess the answers to the riddles.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Title: Book: Implementing and Researching Technological Innovation in Language Teaching
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From http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?K=9781137470331
Implementing and Researching Technological Innovation in Language Teaching: The Case of Interactive Whiteboards for EFL in French Schools
By Shona Whyte
Published by Palgrave Macmillan
Implementing and Researching Technological Innovation in Language Teaching takes a case study approach to investigate the integration of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) into the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in French schools. The study highlights the advantages of collaborative action research for stimulating and supporting language teachers in innovative experimentation, and seeks to enhance our understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in this process. Utilizing a framework which can inform further research into innovative practices with other interactive technologies, this book offers a research design and instruments suitable for assessing classroom adoption of the IWB. In this way, the study provides insights into general processes of technological innovation in language teaching and learning which is of relevance to further research and teacher development in today's new learning environments.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?K=9781137470331
Source: Palgrave Macmillan
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Title: Book: The Practice of Foreign Language Teaching
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From http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-practice-of-foreign-language-teaching
The Practice of Foreign Language Teaching: Theories and Applications
Edited by Azamat Akbarov
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
The Practice of Foreign Language Teaching: Theories and Applications is a collection of essays which will appeal to teachers of modern languages no matter the level of instruction. The volume analyzes the concepts of foreign language education and multicultural competence, including the notion of the intercultural speaker. It also discusses the ways in which language education policy develops, by comparing the theories and purposes of foreign language education. The essays collected here highlight the various different methods and approaches in language teaching, and introduce more experienced teachers to new approaches and teaching ideas. The book will also provide language instructors with the theoretical background and practical solutions they need to decide which approaches, materials, and resources can and should be used in their L2 classrooms.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-practice-of-foreign-language-teaching
Source: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
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Title: Book: Multilingualism and Very Young Learners
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From http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/448231?format=G
Multilingualism and Very Young Learners: An Analysis of Pragmatic Awareness and Language Attitudes
By Laura Portolés Falomir
Published by de Gruyter
This book deals with early multilingual acquisition from a holistic, dynamic, and multilingual perspective. It focuses on the analysis of pragmatic awareness and language attitudes of consecutive multilingual children in relation to other variables, such as the linguistic model or the age factor. This volume makes an important contribution to the field, providing evidence for the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism proposed by Herdina and Jessner.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/448231?format=G
Source: de Gruyter
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Title: Book: Developing Online Language Teaching
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From http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?K=9781137412256
Developing Online Language Teaching: Research-Based Pedagogies and Reflective Practices
Edited by Regine Hampel and Ursula Stickler
Published by Palgrave Macmillan
When moving towards teaching online, teachers are confronted every day with issues such as online moderation, establishing social presence online, transitioning learners to online environments, giving feedback online. This book supports language teaching professionals and researchers who are keen to engage in online teaching and learning. It integrates theory and practice from a research-informed teaching perspective and helps teachers in formal and informal settings to become confident users of online tools. The authors of the 11 chapters draw on a wide range of experience that will aid readers for independent self-training, pre-service teacher training courses, and for in-service staff development. The book also offers inspiration and guidance to researchers starting in the field who will benefit from the succinct overviews of research done in the area of online language teacher training.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?K=9781137412256
Source: Palgrave Macmillan
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Title: Call for Papers: Meeting Challenges, Exploring Solutions in the Adult ESOL Classroom
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Meeting challenges, exploring solutions in the adult ESOL classroom
A conference for ESOL educators and program administrators
Co-sponsored by the New School and the Literacy Assistance Center
Location: The New School, 66 West 12th Street, New York City
Date: October 24, 2015
Proposals are due by July 28, 2015. For more details and to submit a proposal go to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/165PwoQCLMp_o_9hDdQe2m4P-HBABzBAVAlIvrNlBU_M/viewform
Source: New School / Literacy Assistance Center
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Title: Call for Papers: Central Slavic Conference
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From http://www.slu.edu/international-studies-program/central-slavic-conference
The Central Slavic Conference, the oldest regional affiliate of ASEEES, is pleased to invite scholars of all disciplines working in Slavic, Eurasian, and East European studies to submit proposals for panels, individual papers, and roundtables, at its annual 2015 meeting, to be held October 22-25 at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Proposals are due no later than September 1, 2015.
View the full call for papers at http://www.slu.edu/international-studies-program/central-slavic-conference
Source: Saint Louis University
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