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Title: Bastille Day in Portland
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From http://www.afportland.org/2015/06/bastille-day-in-portland-july-11-2015/
Portland, Oregon’s Bastille Day celebration will take place on Saturday, July 11, 2015, from noon to 6PM. This year the festival will move to the Portland Art Museum’s grounds, in conjunction with the museum’s exhibit of Gods and Heroes, masterpieces from Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts.
The Saturday festival will be free and open to the public. Look for fun activities for the whole family, including music, art projects, street performers, le marché (market), and French cuisine. Even better, July 11 is the museum’s Miller Family Free Day, when families enjoy free admission to the museum.
Check back here for more details in the coming weeks: http://www.afportland.org/2015/06/bastille-day-in-portland-july-11-2015/
Source: Alliance Française
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Title: Spanish Writing and Speaking Prompts
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La clase de Lengua is a blog intended for native Spanish-speaking students; however, its collection of writing and discussion prompts would also be good for intermediate and advanced Spanish learners.
The blog is available at http://alazpita.blogspot.com.es/
Source: La clase de Lengua
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Title: Game for English Learners: Call My Bluff
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From http://freeenglishlessonplans.com
Here is a well-supported version of the game “Call My Bluff” (similar to “Balderdash”), in which students must choose among real and made-up definitions for uncommon English words: http://freeenglishlessonplans.com/2015/06/19/game-call-my-bluff/
Source: Tim’s Free English Lesson Plans
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Title: 6 Activities To Teach English Learners About U.S. Independence Day
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Independence Day is coming up, and here’s a timely blog post by ESL teacher and trainer Judie Haynes with some suggestions for activities you can do with your students: http://blog.tesol.org/6-activities-to-teach-els-about-u-s-independence-day/
Source: TESOL
Inputdate: 2015-06-19 18:28:06
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Title: Article: Common Core Is Extra Work for Teachers of English Learners
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From http://hechingerreport.org/for-teachers-of-english-learners-common-core-means-double-the-work/
For teachers of English learners, Common Core means double the work
by Margaret Ramirez
June 16, 2015
On a recent chilly spring morning at John F. Kennedy Magnet School, fourth-grade bilingual teacher Kristin Pascuzzi distributed a series of “mystery” photos to her excited students and asked them to discover what they had in common. They gabbed and scratched their heads, studying the images that included a doorknob, a tiger’s razor-sharp incisor, a seesaw and a flagpole.
…In revamping her lessons to teach the new Common Core standards, Pascuzzi has spent much of the academic year embedding more science and informational texts into her English language arts (ELA) and literacy instruction. As a bilingual teacher, she juggles the simultaneous tasks of helping her English language learners speak, read and write a new language.
Read the full article at http://hechingerreport.org/for-teachers-of-english-learners-common-core-means-double-the-work/
Source: Hechinger Report
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Title: New Black Box Episode: Grammar Is Not a Skill
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From http://indwellinglanguage.com/grammar-is-not-a-skill-or-what-does-it-really-mean-to-know-a-language/
A few weeks ago we wrote about episode one of Black Box, a new collection of video podcasts and other media resources designed to connect practicing language teachers with research on language acquisition.
Now the second episode is out. Justin Slocum Bailey has posted a video called “Grammar Is Not a Skill, or, What Does It Really Mean to Know a Language?” on his blog Indwelling Language. Learn about an article by Bill VanPatten called “The Two Faces of SLA: Mental Representation and Skill” and what it means for your students’ learning here: http://indwellinglanguage.com/grammar-is-not-a-skill-or-what-does-it-really-mean-to-know-a-language/
Source: Indwelling Language
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Title: Article: Strategies for Summer Learning
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From http://asiasociety.org/education/afterschool/around-world-throughout-year
It’s high time to take advantage of summer time--especially to provide youth with educational experiences that will complement the school year and enhance their global learning. Summer is an ideal time for immersive experiences with world languages and travel, but any summer program can offer extended investigations of places, people, and global issues. In the summer, you are bounded only by the interests of young people, not by time or testing constraints.
For SUCCESS--whether you are running your own summer program or looking for a strong program for your school or child--consider these seven strategies from the National Summer Learning Association:
- Set goals
- Understand what youth and families want
- Create intentional learning experiences
- Communicate expectations to staff
- Engage kids with creative approaches
- Structure time efficiently
- Seek partnerships
Read the full article to learn more: http://asiasociety.org/education/afterschool/around-world-throughout-year
Source: Asia Society
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Title: Micro-listening Tasks for Phonological Decoding and Parsing
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From https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com
Blogger and teacher Gianfranco Conti writes, “Whilst [top-down processing skills] are very useful, one important set of listening skills seems to receive very little emphasis in many MFL classrooms, despite being pivotal in the process of reconstruction of the meaning of any spoken text: phonological decoding or parsing skills, the ability, that is, to interpret the L2 sound system, which enables learners to make sense of what they hear – where each word starts and ends, for instance, which is crucial, as one of the reasons why a foreign language sounds ‘faster’ to a beginner L2-learner is that they cannot draw the boundaries between each word they hear and consequently speech sounds like a continuous unintelligible flow.”
Read Dr. Conti’s suggestions for small listening tasks that can help L2 learners with their phonological decoding and parsing in this blog post: https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/seven-micro-listening-enhancers-you-may-not-be-using-often-enough-in-your-lessons/
Source: Language Gym
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Title: Babel's Young Writers' Competition
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From http://www.babelzine.com/babel-news/64-babel-news/259-competition-time.html
Babel: The Language Magazine is celebrating young linguists' insights into language with a Babel Young Writers' Competition. Babel will be publishing two special articles by 16–18-year-old and undergraduate writers in Issue 13, due out on November 2015. If you are a keen Babel reader or language lover, get writing to be in with a chance to get yourself published – as well as a free subscription to Babel 2016.
16–18 Competition: Are you aged between 16 and 18 and would like to share your love of language with the world? Send an article on any topic to do with language and linguistics to win the chance to begin your publishing career.
Undergraduate Competition: Are you studying for a linguistics-related degree and fancy a break from your usual assignments? Write a special essay for Babel readers and get the fruits of your hard studying published.
The deadline for entries is Friday 31st August 2015.
For full details go to http://www.babelzine.com/babel-news/64-babel-news/259-competition-time.html
Explore Babel online at http://www.babelzine.com/
Source: Babel: The Language Magazine
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Content Type: 3
Title: Heritage Language Learners, Intercultural Competence, and Pragmatic Development
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by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
As we consider many unique characteristics of heritage language learners, we cannot ignore the critical skills related to intercultural competence and pragmatic development. With a strong tie to the community, it is often expected learners will be able to maneuver in, out, and through a variety of interactional contexts with ease. However, is it false to assume heritage learners have the necessary skills to do so on their own. Missteps can present challenges that are often difficult to pinpoint, but made salient in uncomfortable and challenging ways. Take for example, a heritage learner who is comfortable interacting with immediate family members and peers using the associated interactional patterns and social norms. However, when placed in other contexts the same expectations do not always apply and the behavioral patterns may be less clear, potentially resulting in pragmatic missteps or unintended results.
Explicit instruction and careful attention to heritage learners’ intercultural competence in the language classroom can help solve this challenge. As noted by Kagan (2012),
“The ability to relate to heritage learners’ daily experiences in an intercultural light is a crucial aspect of heritage language instruction. While these students may be English-dominant with the home language as their weaker language, they nevertheless are rooted in a local ethnic community and are exposed to the heritage culture in the home” (Kagan, 2012, p. 80).
Drawing from a national survey of heritage learners in the United States, Carreira and Kagan (2011) suggest a community-based approach. In this approach, instructors are encouraged to utilize what heritage learners already bring to the table while also expanding access to varying interactional contexts. This approach entails knowing the community, knowing the learner, and connecting the learner to the community (Carriera and Kagan, 2011, p. 59-60). Activities include background research and knowledge of the heritage community itself, surveys and interviews with students to identify unique characteristics and backgrounds, and activities to connect learners with that community, especially people they may not know or interact with regularly. For pragmatic development, these activities could center on observing pragmatic behaviors, analyzing those behaviors, and then offering an opportunity to participate. For example, learners might be asked to talk to three members of the community about how they ask for a favor. Interviewees would be drawn from the contexts in which the learners will need to utilize appropriate pragmatic behavior. Interview data could then be compared with examples the instructor brings to the classroom. Samples should be chosen to include the pragmatic features most salient and critical to success. Finally, learners would be given the opportunity to apply what they know using the required pragmatic behaviors in a variety of contexts. This could include community participation as well as classroom activities. Regardless of the approach, attention to intercultural competence and pragmatic behaviors is essential in the heritage language classroom.
References
Carriera, M. & Kagan, O. (2011). The Results of the National Heritage Language Survey: Implications for Teaching, Curriculum Design, and Professional Development. Foreign Language Annals, 44 (1), p. 40-64. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2010.01118.x/epdf
Kagan, O. (2012). Intercultural Competence of Heritage Language Learners. CERCLL Proceedings of Intercultural Competence, 2, p. 72-84. http://cercll.arizona.edu/_media/development/conferences/2012_icc/kagan_ic_heritage_ic2012.pdf
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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