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Content Type: 5
Title: LTS Graduates Working at CASLS
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Li-Hsien Yang, East Asian Programs Director, and Ben Pearson, Digital Technologies Associate, are both Language Teaching Specialization (LTS) MA graduates that have come to work full-time at CASLS.
During her time at LTS, Li-Hsien focused on Chinese language, online learning, and materials and curriculum design. Now at CASLS, she uses her knowledge of language activities and theories to help her students, who aim to be language teachers. She also appreciates the worldwide connections that she built in LTS, and feels fortunate to be able to apply what she learned in LTS into her domestic and international work with language teachers.
Ben, while in the LTS program, developed a master’s project on teaching negotiation skills through board and card games, with the goal of giving language teachers ideas for how to use games to teach semantics and pragmatics. Ben credits his comprehensive education in LTS, learning pedagogy combined with actual application, for his professional success at CASLS. He remembers starting at CASLS as an intern and realizing the intersection of his gaming interests and strengths as an educator, and recognizing what a great fit CASLS is for him.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Title: Writing as an Exploration of Genre: Preparing Students for a Life of Communication
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By Stephanie Knight, CASLS Language Technology Specialist
Write a description of the city that you live in (200-300 words). Make sure to use prepositions!
The writing prompt above features a task that would be familiar to many language learners. It allows them to use relevant, target vocabulary and grammar and gently pushes them to engage in Presentational Writing. Certainly, it has the potential to help learners to internalize language content and to show off their comprehension of said content. There are certain pedagogical strengths inherent in the prompt that cannot be denied.
While there are valid characteristics in the prompt, it is lacking a critical connection - a connection to genre. This connection is crucial to engaging learners in meaningful communication, communication that is purposeful and prepares them for interaction in a variety of contexts. In this sense, the aforementioned prompt provides learners with ample opportunity to communicate that they have learned language content but less opportunity to communicate that they have learned how to use language. As Hyland (2007) explains, writing as an exploration of genre helps students to “write in occupational, academic, or social contexts…to participate effectively in the world outside the…classroom” (p.149).
So how might the aforementioned prompt be improved? Hyland (ibid) advocates the understanding of six principles (p.152-153) that guide the teaching of genre based writing. These principles are used below to evaluate an improved writing prompt that is connected to genre.
You are trying to decide whether or not to attend a university in your city or a university in Buenos Aires. Write an email to a friend in which you ask for advice in order to make your decision. Be sure to compare and contrast the features of the two cities in the letter.
Writing as a social activity: This new prompt provides a “purpose, a context, and an intended audience” (Ibid, p. 152), all of which are necessary to providing learners with a meaningful writing activity. Essentially, they are given a reason that they should communicate instead of simply being asked to communicate.
Learning to write is needs-oriented: This prompt anticipates a future need of language learners, that of soliciting advice for choosing a university to attend. Ideally, this prompt accurately reflects the communicative needs that the students in the classroom have indicated that they have as well.
Learning to write requires explicit outcomes and expectations: In order for learners to adequately engage in the knowledge and skill building that the teacher desires with this task, the teacher must be explicit in communicating the desired knowledge and skill set. This communication can be achieved via the dissection of a rubric, a classroom discussion, or connection to various learning targets.
Learning to write is a social activity: When learning to write with prompts such as the one in question, learners and educators should work together not only in breaking apart the prompt and understanding what a learner must do in order to successfully engage in the prompt, but also in discussing previous knowledge, knowledge that is still needed in order to complete the task, and engaging in peer review.
Learning to write involves learning to use language: As Hyland (ibid) eloquently describes, “Genre teaching involves being explicit about how texts are grammatically patterned, but grammar is integrated into the exploration of texts and contexts…This helps learners…see how grammar and vocabulary choices create meaning… to understand how language itself works…” (p.153). In order to successfully complete the aforementioned task, learners would need to have interacted not only with examples of informal emails, but also with examples of requests for advice and using cohesive devices for comparisons in the target language. This interaction would involve both observation and analysis of requests and comparisons before engaging in practice.
In short, though Presentational Writing is generally unidirectional, it is vital to social interaction. In order to prepare learners to engage in said social interaction in a variety of formal and informal contexts, we must expose them a variety of genres so that they are prepared to write for a multitude of audiences for a variety of purposes. In doing so, we prepare them to write meaningfully not only within our classrooms, but also anywhere in the world.
References
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing. 16. p. 148-164.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Title: Developing Foreign Language Literacy through Interpersonal Speaking
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Kate Paesani is Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.
If you define literacy as the ability to read and write, then you may find this article’s title perplexing. How does interpersonal speaking help foreign language students become better readers and writers? The answer involves thinking differently about the concept of literacy itself. Defining literacy broadly as the ability to interpret and create texts of various genres and modalities to communicate across a range of sociocultural contexts, facilitates connections to interpersonal speaking. Certainly, reading, writing, listening, and speaking do not take place in a vacuum; they are overlapping and complimentary. This multimodal view of language reflects authentic communication and is essential to building students’ language competencies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). Moreover, communication takes place through more than written means; it entails interacting with written, audio, audiovisual, and visual information to convey messages through language. Spoken language is thus closely linked to one’s ability to communicate about textual content and to being literate in a language (Kern, 2015). Finally, interpersonal speaking reflects the literacy-based concepts of interpretation (i.e., understanding the cultural products, practices, and perspectives represented in texts) and creation (i.e., applying new understandings to produce language in creative ways). As such, interpersonal speaking involves creating oral texts and also interpreting texts of all types through interactive exchanges with others.
Rethinking interpersonal speaking in relation to literacy also means rethinking classroom practices. Contrary to traditional views, where interpersonal speaking includes engaging in controlled, teacher-led Q&A, using language in predictable patterns, expressing personal opinions, rehearsing scripted dialogues, and developing oral survival skills, a literacy perspective involves interpreting and creating authentic texts, using language to construct and negotiate meaning, working collaboratively to solve problems, and situating one’s viewpoint in relation to the world. To engage students in interpersonal speaking tasks centered around authentic texts, four instructional stages are essential: (1) pre-speaking to access background knowledge and provide linguistic support for speaking; (2) textual interpretation to gather information and explore form-meaning connections; (3) knowledge application to demonstrate textual understanding through speaking; and (4) summary and reflection to discuss knowledge gained and share learning experiences. Possible activity types for these stages include teaching gambits (i.e., formulaic expressions), jigsaw activities, debates, or think-pair-share (Paesani, Allen, & Dupuy, 2015, pp. 125-9). Regardless of the activities implemented, the goal is to engage students in interpersonal speaking tasks that encourage textual interpretation and creation, communication in a range of contexts, and, ultimately, foreign language literacy development.
References:
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). ‘Multiliteracies’: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies, 4(3), 164-194.
Kern, R. (2015). Language, literacy, and technology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Paesani, K., Allen, H. W., & Dupuy, B. (2016). A multiliteracies framework for collegiate foreign language teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Title: New Articles in FLTMag
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From http://fltmag.com/
The free, online FLTMag is full of new articles that many will find of interest, including the following:
Building Meaningful Connections for Advanced Secondary Language Learners: A Hybrid Approach to Identity and Culture, by CASLS’ own Stephanie Knight and Ben Pearson. http://fltmag.com/building-meaningful-connections-advanced-secondary-language-learners-hybrid-approach-identity-culture/
Fashionable Language Learning With French à La Mode, by Clarisse Barbier. http://fltmag.com/fashionable-language-learning-french-la-mode/
A Whirlwind of Possibilities: Using ThingLink to Build Presentational Speaking Skills, by Leah M. Sapp. http://fltmag.com/whirlwind-possibilities-using-thinglink-build-presentational-speaking-skills/
Flashcards by NKO, by Peggy Veal. http://fltmag.com/flashcards-by-nko/
Connect your Students with Native Speakers Today, by Todd Bryant. http://fltmag.com/connect-students-native-speakers-today/
Foreign Language Performance: Leveraging Technology for Student Self-Efficacy, by Shonu Nangia. http://fltmag.com/foreign-language-performance-leveraging-technology-student-self-efficacy/
Read these and other article at http://fltmag.com/
Source: FLTMag
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Title: Book: Literacy Acquisition in School in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
From https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/hsld.5/main
Literacy Acquisition in School in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism: A binational survey
By Inken Sürig, Yazgül Şimşek, Christoph Schroeder and Anja Boness
Published by the John Benjamins Publishing Company
This book presents the outcomes of a multi-methodical investigation of the processes of literacy acquisition. The focus is on mono- and bilingual first- and seventh-graders in schools in socially underprivileged areas of two major cities in Turkey and Germany. By means of extensive analyses of lesson videos, linguistic tests, interviews and ethnographic research, social, cultural, linguistic, pedagogic and didactic differences on the international, national, local and individual level are aligned with the momentary problem of exercising a school lesson and acquiring literacy on a daily basis. The results contradict to some degree that cultural and linguistic differences actually make a huge difference in the organization and process of literacy acquisition. With the interdisciplinary background of the book, it addresses academics concerned with migration sociology, migration linguistics, classroom research, and bilingual education. In a broader perspective, the book contributes to the pedagogically and politically significant question how social and cultural characteristics of specific groups are stereotyped and partly unjustly combined in order to reach symbolic solutions for actual problems.
Visit the publisher’s website at https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/hsld.5/main
Source: John Benjamins Publishing Company
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Title: Book: Advances in Spanish as a Heritage Language
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From https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/sibil.49/main
Advances in Spanish as a Heritage Language
Edited by Diego Pascual y Cabo
Published by the John Benjamins Publishing Company
Bringing together contributions from some of the leading experts in the field of Spanish as a Heritage Language, this volume aims to provide an in-depth understanding of current and emerging trends in research and praxis. To this end, the volume is divided into three thematic units. The first unit surveys the study of Spanish heritage speaker bilingualism from a formal/theoretical linguistic point of view. The second unit focuses on issues shaping the current state of affairs in heritage language education. Finally, the third unit maps out future lines of development within heritage language instruction. The wide topical scope within this single volume will undoubtedly provide a valuable resource for researchers, students, and professionals working in different areas of Spanish as a heritage language.
Visit the publisher’s website at https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/sibil.49/main
Source: John Benjamins Publishing Company
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Title: Call for Papers: International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching
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From http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-3131.html
The mission of the International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching (IJCALLT) (http://www.igi-global.com/ijcallt) is to publish research that addresses the impact of information communication technologies in advancing foreign/second language learning and teaching. This journal expands on the principles, theories, design, and implementation of computer-assisted language learning programs. In addition to original research papers, this journal welcomes CALL-related book reviews and case studies.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
- CALL and language teaching
- Computer games in language learning and teaching
- Corpus
- Courseware design
- Distance language education
- Evaluation of CALL program
- Language testing in CALL environments
- Mobile learning and teaching
- Monitoring and assessment in online collaborative learning
- Multimedia language learning and teaching
- Social networking in language learning and teaching
- Teacher education
- MOOC
View the full call for papers at http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-3131.html
Source: LINGUIST List
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Title: East Coast Organization of Language Testers 2016 Conference
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From https://sites.google.com/site/ecoltaelrc/
The East Coast Organization of Language Testers (ECOLT) is pleased to announce its fifteenth annual conference, which will take place October 28, 2016, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
For more conference details go to https://sites.google.com/site/ecoltaelrc/
Source: ECOLT
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Title: ACTFL Mentoring Program
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From https://www.actfl.org/professional-development/career-resources/mentoring-program
The ACTFL Mentoring Program is designed to help early career language teachers succeed in their current assignments and learn the skills to be successful long-term in their careers. Mentoring will be conducted virtually. Mentors and mentees will be matched by needs, skills, and experiences.
To be considered as a mentee you must be a new teacher within your first 5 years of teaching. To be considered as a mentor you must have completed at least 3 years of teaching. If you do not fall within the stated requirements, please include an explanation of your specific circumstance in your application. Applicants must be a current ACTFL member and remain a member for the duration of the program.
Mentees who successfully complete the program can earn 2 CEUs through George Mason University. Mentors will be entered into a raffle for 1 year of free ACTFL membership.
The Mentoring Program will run from September through May. Applications are being accepted until August 12, 2016.
For more information go to https://www.actfl.org/professional-development/career-resources/mentoring-program
Source: ACTFL
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Title: Amid Syria's Civil War, Kurds Enjoy Newfound Language Freedoms
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From http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-civil-war-kurds-newfound-language-freedoms/3447797.html
Amid Syria's Civil War, Kurds Enjoy Newfound Language Freedoms
by Sirwan Kajjo
August 3, 2016
Syria's civil war and the rise of Islamic State militants have left Syrian Kurds with an opportunity to control their areas in the north and northeastern part of that war-torn country. This has allowed the Kurds to exercise their once-banned ethnic culture freely.
The newfound freedoms in the Kurdish-controlled region are being used to promote Kurdish, a language that was banned for decades during the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad.
With almost no presence of Syrian government forces, local Kurdish groups say they are free to learn their language and teach it to the new generation.
Read the full article at http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-civil-war-kurds-newfound-language-freedoms/3447797.html
Source: Voice of America
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