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Content Type: 1
Title: We Teach Languages Episode 39: GLCA's Shared Languages Program
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In episode 39 of the We Teach Languages podcast series, German professor Gabriele Dillmann talks about the Great Lakes Colleges Association's Shared Languages Program, a project that aims to address issues facing upper-level under-enrolled language courses as well as broadening the course offerings for lesser-taught languages. Dr. Dillmann also talks about the technology that facilitates language sharing.
Listen to this episode at https://weteachlang.com/2018/02/09/ep-39-with-gabriele-dillmann/
Source: We Teach Languages
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Title: Retrieval Practice: Brain Dumps
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From https://ditchthattextbook.com
Matt Miller writes, "As teachers, we've been taught to encourage students to study by putting information into the brain. Re-read the chapter. Go back over your notes.
"Instead, what our brain really craves is this to pull information from the brain. It's a thing called retrieval, and it leads to better long-term memory.
"Retrieval asks students to study by pulling information from the brain - kind of like a dress rehearsal for a quiz or a test. Students write down everything they remember or answer a question like, 'Can I restate what I just learned in my own words?'"
Read his full blog post to learn more about brain dumps and research supporting them; and how to implement them with Flipgrid, Socrative, or tech free: https://ditchthattextbook.com/2018/02/07/sticky-learning-digital-brain-dumps-with-flipgrid-and-socrative/
Source: Ditch that Textbook
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Title: Orientation to the 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements
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From http://musicuentos.com/2018/02/new-can-dos/
We at CASLS are excited to have updated all versions of LinguaFolio Online to reflect the new 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements (http://caslsintercom.uoregon.edu/content/24483). Last week Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell wrote an excellent blog post summarizing the differences between the 2015 Can-Do's and the new 2017 version. The post is easy-to-read and summarizes the key areas of difference in each mode along with the new intercultural competence benchmarks and discusses implications for classroom teaching. It's a great introduction for practicing teachers.
Read the blog post at http://musicuentos.com/2018/02/new-can-dos/
Access the 2017 Can-Do's at https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/ncssfl-actfl-can-do-statements
Source: Musicuentos
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Content Type: 5
Title: Oregon Experience Program
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The Oregon Experience Program (OEP), offered by CASLS and the Office of International Affairs, is designed to help international students explore American university life, learn about topics related to sustainability and health, and connect with the culture and people of Oregon.
During the program, students:
- Develop intercultural connections
- Explore global issues
- Receive hands-on experience
OEP can be either two, three, or four weeks. Traditionally, the program is offered during the summer. This February, however, the program hosted its first three-week program during Japan’s spring break.
Twenty-five students from Nagoya University and Meiji Gakuin arrived in Eugene to learn about the University of Oregon and to study eco-friendly approaches to business, architecture, policy, economics, and daily life. Students’ learning culminates in a service learning project with a Eugene nonprofit.
“The students brought such positive energy!” East Asia Programs Director Li-Hsien Yang recounts. “We made some adjustments to the curriculum to enhance students’ experiences and brought in eighteen UO students to volunteer. The interaction between our program students and the UO students really made this year’s OEP special.”
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 3
Title: Place-based Experiences and Language Learning
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By Julie Syles, CASLS Director
You are in a new city trying to figure out where a close place to eat might be. You ask a few people at the hotel and after a couple if responses opt for something close and local. Grabbing your phone, you open up your favorite restaurant app and navigate to the closet spot with five stars. It’s delicious! After eating, you open up the map and walk towards the local museum, tracking local art pieces along the way. Place and your experience are directly connected, your digital device mediating that experience and enhancing your ability to explore the new space in which you find yourself. When used with intentionality, this experience can also have significant value in the language learning classroom. As we utilize digital tools to get learners outside, we can enhance their experiences within the places they spend time every day, as well as the places they explore for the first time. This week we explore ways in which place-based experiences can be incorporated in language classrooms. A few ideas are below:
- Use Your Favorite Apps: Have learners use their favorite apps in the target language. They can change the language in their settings to localize the way they use their everyday digital resources. For example, a learner could spend a week using their Maps app in Spanish or German instead of English.
- Community Documentation: Ask learners to document the influence of the target language as they explore their community. This can be in the form of pictures, a digital journal, or a scavenger hunt app on their phones (check out Aurasma and ARIS for two app ideas). This can work in places with large communities of the target language or smaller places where the influence is less obvious. Even exploration of a grocery store can yield evidence of influence from a variety of languages and cultures.
- Create Your Own Experience: As can be seen in this week’s Activity of the Week, learners can also use ARIS to create their own storyboards and experiences. These can guide learners through their community or focus on specific language functions that make sense in their learning context.
Regardless of the choices one makes, a focus on place and the surrounding community has a number of benefits for language learning. Learners can get out of the classroom and see the ways in which language live and breathe in the world. Happy exploring!
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 5
Title: Games2Teach: Inspiring Student Learning
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Incorporating digital language learning games into the classroom is one powerful way to challenge students and to make the learning environment more exciting. This excitement can help motivate students to learn and use languages outside of the classroom. Games2Teach helps teachers take the leap and build language learning games into their curriculum.
The Games2Teach website provides free downloadable classroom activities in more than a dozen languages. The activities include a summary of student learning outcomes, student and teacher instructions, activities, and handouts. The site also includes additional curricular resources and professional development materials designed specifically for incorporating language learning games into the classroom. In addition, the site includes information on how to adapt teaching styles and on how students can learn languages more effectively.
The first of its kind, Games2Teach applies game-informed learning to a world language context. The site began as a collaborative project between CASLS and the Center for Educational Resoruces in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL).
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 4
Title: Grouping Words to Remember Them
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By Scott Gravina, Vice President of Mobile Learning at LingroLearning
This activity utilizes one of the many freely available videos on LingroToGo, a new mobile app for language learners. The goal of this activity is to expose students to a new language learning strategy (semantic mapping) and show them how it may be applied to supplement the strategies they are currently using for vocabulary acquisition. This activity may be used at any level and ultimately is designed to help students become better independent learners. Feel free to check out another activity we published on InterCom on this topic.
Objectives: Learners will be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of how semantic maps aid in the retention of new vocabulary
- Organize and group concepts according to pre-selected categories
- Create an original semantic map based on self-conceived categories
- Present their semantic maps to the class
Modes: Interpretive, Presentational
Materials needed:
- Semantic mapping video from LingroToGo (available for free on iOS and Android devices). Open the app and go to Health & Safety > Nutrition > Making a Grocery List, List of vocabulary for your current unit.
- Handout with a color-coded semantic map template.
Procedure:
1. Introduction to the topic: Have students download LingroToGo and navigate to the video called Grouping Words to Remember Them (Health & Safety > Nutrition > Making a Grocery List). After students watch the video (1:55 min.), check their understanding by asking volunteers to explain key concepts. You may wish to use the following questions:
- What is a semantic map?
- How does a semantic map help you to remember words?
- Why do you think it is important to create more than one semantic map?
- Have you ever used a semantic map before? When?
2. Think: An easy way to make word associations is to group things according to their color. Using the color-coded semantic map provided, have students work in groups to list as many classroom items as possible that match the color-coded categories. You should also feel free to change the topic (classroom items) and categories (colors) to adapt this activity and tie in more closely with the topics you are studying in class. Get creative and show students how semantic mapping can help them with any new set of words!
3. Create A.: Have students work in groups to create a second, original semantic map by coming up with their own categories. Students should use the same set of words they created in Step 2 to try to make as many connections as possible.
4. Create B.: Task students with creating three semantic maps for the targeted vocabulary individually (for homework or in class).
5. Evaluate: Provide learners with a vocabulary assessment (an image identification or something of the like). Ask them to write a brief reflection on whether or not their retention has improved after working with the semantic maps. If it has improved, they should explain why. If it hasn’t improved, they should explain how they might use semantic maps differently in the future. For example, they could identify what more meaningful or salient categories might be.
Notes/Modifications:
- If students do not have their own device, have them share with a friend. If you have tablets for the class, you may want to download the app before doing this activity in class.
- While the examples given in the video are in Spanish, this strategy is applicable to any language.
- You may want to make Step 2 a competition to see which group can come up with the most items for each color.
- You can easily create your own semantic map using other colors (or create your own categories) by inserting shapes in Word, Google Docs, or any similar program.
- If students have a difficult time coming up with their own categories, you may want to give them a few ideas to get started.
- An alternative approach to semantic mapping in small groups is to brainstorm categories as a class and post the categories on butcher paper around the room. Then, allow students to move from paper to paper and add what words they think best fit. Debrief by leading a class discussion in which learners discuss why they chose some words over others for specific categories, particularly in cases in which words appear in multiple locations.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 5
Title: Chinese and Russian Immersion Curriculum and Resources
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CASLS and the Russian Flagship Program at Portland State University collaborated to lead the Pacific Northwest Pathways Collective. The Collective sought to enhance language articulation in Chinese and Russian among K-12 schools, community colleges, and university Flagship Programs.
As part of the Collective, CASLS compiled proficiency testing data from Chinese and Russian programs throughout the Pacific Northwest to create a document outlining various pathways of study to the Chinese Flagship Program at the University of Oregon and the Russian Flagship Program at Portland State University. Both documents are available on the Collective website.
The Collective also created a curriculum repository for Russian immersion programs to post, share, and adapt curricular resources. The curriculum materials are available free of charge, and they are tagged according to grade level, proficiency level, subject area, and more to make accessing them as easy as possible.
The Collective was sponsored by the Language Flagship Program.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 3
Title: Designing Service-Learning (SL) Projects for Language Students
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Chin-Sook Pak is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Ball State University, Indiana. For 20 years, she has incorporated SL components to all levels of Spanish and interdisciplinary honors colloquium courses. She is the recipient of the Brian Douglas Hiltunen Faculty Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Scholarship of Engagement (Indiana Campus Compact).
As a “high impact educational experiences” (Kuh, 2008), service-learning (SL) is a form of experiential learning that focuses on community building. With its emphasis on community engagement, reflection, and reciprocity, SL can allow students to apply their classroom learning in real-world contexts, offer them authentic immersion opportunities with the target cultures and language, and prepare them for citizenship, work, and life in our multicultural, pluralistic society. Despite numerous benefits of SL on student learning and community relationship building, a major hurdle for implementing SL in the classrooms may be “how to create meaningful and doable projects” (Hertzler, 2012, p. 26).
Among the necessary criteria (Howard, 2001), SL must lead to an enhanced academic learning (i.e., How does it meet specific learning objectives of the course?), provide a meaningful service (i.e., Why does it matter to the community?), and foster purposeful civic learning (i.e., How does it better inform us about societal issues and needs, promote social responsibility, and encourage inclusivity?).
Establishing community partnerships is a necessary step for determining relevant service. If there is no existing mechanism for service placement (e.g., a supporting center on campus that coordinates activities with community agencies), one can contact businesses, churches, schools, social service agencies, or people in the community who have a personal connection to immigrant families. For example, it is possible for a Spanish class to work with only two or three immigrant families during the semester – pairs of students can meet with the same family at different times to offer different types of service (e.g., educational support for children and language tutoring for the adult parents).
SL projects may include direct services (e.g., serving at a non profit, tutoring, offering cultural/language sessions at a local school…etc.), indirect services (e.g., translation of materials, website design, educational videos…etc.), and advocacy/community action research (e.g., organizing a community forum, a report for a non-profit…etc.). For those projects that need financial support, grants for creative teaching, diversity, community engagement and students' assistant wages are available from various sources. Some projects do not require any funding (e.g., tutoring and resources in the digital format).
An archive of many syllabi of foreign language classes with a service-learning component can be found at Campus Compact: https://compact.org/discipline/social-sciences-and-humanities/foreign-language/.
Finally, a well-structured service-learning project provides students with ample opportunities for on-going reflection that connects service experience to learning.
Reflection can not only promote language and intercultural learning but also allow a critical examination of what transpires within us and our multicultural/multilingual society.
References
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48.
Correia, M. G. & Bleicher, R. E. (2008). Making connections to teach reflection. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 14(2), 41-49.
Hertzler, M. (2012). Service learning as a pedagogical tool for language teachers. In T. Sildus (Ed.), Touch the world: 2012 report of the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (pp. 21-46). Eau Claire: RMT.
Howard, J. (2001). Service-learning course design workbook. A companion volume to Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Ann Arbor: OCSL.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Motoike, P. T. (2017). Service learning course construction and learning outcomes. In C. Dolgon, T. Mitchell, & T. Eatman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement (pp. 132-146). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pak, C. (2013). Service-learning for students in intermediate Spanish: Examining multiples roles of foreign language study. In S. Dhonau (Ed.), MultiTasks, MultiSkills, MultiConnections: 2013 Report of the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (pp. 103-12). Eau Claire: RMT.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Title: Book: The Pronunciation of English by Speakers of Other Languages
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From http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-pronunciation-of-english-by-speakers-of-other-languages
The Pronunciation of English by Speakers of Other Languages
Edited by Jan Volín and Radek Skarnitzl
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
This book focuses on an increasingly attractive, yet controversial topic of non-native accentedness in speech. The contributors here are aware of the fact that the mechanisms and effects of pronunciation are far too complex to allow for strong and definite claims of any sort, but present research leading to useful answers to relevant questions. The book contributes to the deeper understanding of many aspects of foreign-accented English with reference to clearly described empirical evidence.
The volume brings together fourteen chapters organized into four subdivisions, covering conceptual and perceptual issues, questions of segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation features, and methodological and didactic recommendations. As such, it provides a cross-sectional view of the current phonetic and didactic empirical research into the pronunciation of non-native English.
Visit the publisher's website at http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-pronunciation-of-english-by-speakers-of-other-languages
Source: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
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