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The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) is committed to ongoing pedagogical innovation, research, and practitioner support. As an outgrowth of this multi-faceted commitment, CASLS is excited to participate in the CALICO 2019 Conference this week in Montréal. CASLS events include:

• Tuesday, May 21 from 9:00-12:00: Making Sense, a workshop about accessing and exploring free tools for digital content analysis and creation.
• Thursday, May 23 from 9:15-9:45: Mobile Apps for Supplemental Language Learning, a session devoted to exploring pedagogical approaches to extending the use of mobile apps for classroom and autonomous learning.
• Friday, May 24 from 10:30-11:45: Mavericks of Mind, a panel that invites participation in a Community of Practice for high-quality language learning, labor-market coordination, and strengthened intersections between instructed SLA, user-experience design, and product development.
• Friday, May 24 at 5:45: CALICO Social Quest, a mixed reality hunt and race against the clock to save the citizens of Montréal from the agitated ghost of infamous fur baron, Simon McTavish.

If you are going to CALICO, we cannot wait to play and learn together. If you can’t make it this year, be sure to check in next week for a retrospective piece about the conference.

By Isabelle Sackville-West, CASLS Fellow

This activity is designed to help students identify the pragmatic norms of emoji usage in the target language. This includes not only which emojis are most common, but also what they potentially signify, when to use them, and how they can be used in relation to textual language. The scavenger hunt activity was designed with novice learners in mind, but could be used for any level as long as the task is appropriately scaled.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to…

1. Identify commonly used emojis in the target language
2. Analyze social media platforms and identify the norms of emoji use
3. Engage in synchronous chat that makes use of emojis

Modes: Interpretive, Interpersonal

Materials Needed: Emoji Scavenger Hunt Worksheet, a mobile device or computer with access to the desired social media platforms/messaging apps

Procedure:

1. Observe: Have students examine at least two popular social media platforms in the target culture (i.e. Twitter, Instagram, Weibo, etc.). If they text with members of the target language community, they can also optionally look back at old conversations. Using the Emoji Scavenger Hunt Worksheet, have students take note of the types of emojis used, what they might signify, and how they are used (after an utterance, by itself, before or after punctuation, etc.).
2. Analyze: Conduct a class discussion in which you create a giant class version of the Emoji Scavenger Hunt Worksheet. To do this, invite students to share their findings as you write them down. Alternatively, you could have students come up to the class and fill in their information on a drawn-out version of the worksheet on a white board/chalk board. Finally, facilitate the discussion of several reflective questions such as:
   1. What surprised you about emoji use in the target language?
   2. What similarities are there between how emojis are used in the target language versus your native language? What differences are there?
   3. Do you have any questions about how emojis are used in the target language that weren’t answered or that came up while collecting information?
3. Extend: In pairs, have students communicate via a messaging app (ideally, pick one that is commonly used in the target culture, but feel free to use other free plaforms such as Slack). Have students select conversation topics that are relevant and interesting to them personally to elicit emotional response that might warrant emoji use. Topics can range from talking about weekend plans to a current event, or recent course-related topics. The conversation should involve at least 5 turns each to give both students enough context/content in which to appropriately use emojis.
4. Reflect: After finishing their conversations have students briefly reflect on their experience in a journal or brief write-up. Some guiding questions include:
   1. How well do you feel you are able to use emojis in the target language?
   2. Do you have any questions or confusions about how, when, and what emojis are used?
   3. In your conversation, did your classmate react to your emoji use in the way you expected? If not, how did they react? In what way do you think they interpreted/misinterpreted your intention?

• Making Sense, a workshop about accessing and exploring free tools for digital content analysis and creation.
• Mobile Apps for Supplemental Language Learning, a session devoted to exploring pedagogical approaches to extending the use of mobile apps for classroom and autonomous learning.
• Mavericks of Mind, a panel that invites participation in a Community of Practice for high-quality language learning, labor-market coordination, and strengthened intersections between instructed SLA, user-experience design, and product development.
• CALICO Social Quest, a mixed reality hunt and race against the clock to save the citizens of Montréal from the agitated ghost of infamous fur baron, Simon McTavish. The event was extremely well attended with approximately 100 participants.

Investigating the paranormal at CALICO 2019. #paranormalpragmatics

From https://www.routledge.com/Key-Issues-in-the-Teaching-of-Spanish-Pronunciation-From-Description-to/Rao/p/book/9781138954618

Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy
Edited by Rajiv Rao
Published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy is a resource that encourages Spanish teachers and curriculum designers to increase their incorporation of pronunciation into the classroom. Combining theory and practical guidance, it will help language practitioners integrate the teaching of Spanish pronunciation with confidence and effectiveness. The international group of scholars across its 15 chapters is made up of individuals with well-established research records and training in best pedagogical practices.

Written in a clear and accessible manner, Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation is an essential resource for teachers of Spanish at all levels. It is also an excellent reference book for researchers and both undergraduate and graduate university students interested in Spanish phonetics and language acquisition.

Visit the publisher's website at https://www.routledge.com/Key-Issues-in-the-Teaching-of-Spanish-Pronunciation-From-Description-to/Rao/p/book/9781138954618

From https://www.routledge.com/Language-Aptitude-Advancing-Theory-Testing-Research-and-Practice-1st/Wen-Skehan-Biedron-Li-Sparks/p/book/9781138563872

Language Aptitude: Advancing Theory, Testing, Research and Practice
Edited by Zhisheng (Edward) Wen, Peter Skehan, Adriana Biedroń, Shaofeng Li, and Richard L. Sparks
Published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

Language Aptitude: Advancing Theory, Testing, Research and Practice brings together cutting-edge global perspectives on foreign language aptitude. Drawing from educational psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience, the editors have assembled interdisciplinary authors writing for an applied linguistics and education audience. The book is broken into five major themes: revisiting and updating current language aptitude theories and models; emerging insights from contemporary research into language aptitude and the age factor or the critical period hypothesis; redefining constructs and broadening territories of foreign language aptitude; exploring language aptitude from a neurocognitive perspective; and exploring future directions of foreign language aptitude research. Focused on critical issues in foreign language aptitude and second language learning and teaching, this book will be an important research resource and supplemental reading in both applied linguistics and cognitive psychology.

Visit the publisher's website at https://www.routledge.com/Language-Aptitude-Advancing-Theory-Testing-Research-and-Practice-1st/Wen-Skehan-Biedron-Li-Sparks/p/book/9781138563872

From https://www.routledge.com/The-Arabic-Classroom-Context-Text-and-Learners-1st-Edition/Lo/p/book/9781138350793

The Arabic Classroom: Context, Text and Learners
Edited by Mbaye Lo
Published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

The Arabic Classroom is a multicontributor work for trainee and in-service teachers of Arabic as a foreign language. Collected here is recent scholarly work, and also critical writing from Arabic instructors, Arabists and language experts, to examine the status of the teaching and learning of Arabic in the modern classroom. The book stresses the inseparability of the parameters of contexts, texts and learners in the effective Arabic classroom and investigates their role in enhancing the experience of teaching and learning Arabic.

The book also provides a regional perspective through global case studies and encourages Arabic experts to search for better models of instruction and best practices beyond the American experience.

Visit the publisher's website at https://www.routledge.com/The-Arabic-Classroom-Context-Text-and-Learners-1st-Edition/Lo/p/book/9781138350793

From http://languagediversity.rice.edu/

5th Annual CLIC Conference
Diversity across settings of language use & learning: Identity, culture, and gender
April 17 – 19, 2020
Houston, Texas

The 5th Annual CLIC Conference focuses on the description, analysis and development of a multidimensional definition of language and language acquisition shaped by the diversity of social settings in which language is used. The conference further focuses on the various aspects of diversity prompted by bilingual, multilingual and translingual interactions happening in a variety of environments such as: classroom and study abroad educational settings, workplace and office communication, personal interactions and internet-based communication through social media and related technologies.

Papers submitted for consideration can focus on any of a variety of topics related to the overarching theme of the conference. 

The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2019.

View the full call for papers at http://languagediversity.rice.edu/call-for-papers/

From https://mamp2019.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/

International Conference on Multilingual Awareness and Multilingual Practices
Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Antwerp
October 28-30, 2019

The conference considers all aspects of the linguistic and sociolinguistic competences and practices of bi-/multilingual speakers who cross existing social and linguistic boundaries, adopting or adapting themselves to new and overlapping linguistic spaces. The organizers invite papers in all areas of research in bi-/multilingualism, whether or not linked directly to the overarching conference theme, including, but not limited to, linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, clinical linguistics, education, bi-/multilingual societies.

Submission is already open and will close on 15 August 2019.

View the full call for papers at https://mamp2019.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/

From https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/actfl-research-priorities

The purpose of the ACTFL Research Priorities Project is to support empirical research on five priority areas that are currently critical to improving World Language education. Proposals can initiate a new research study, support/expand a study under way, or explore an emerging research area that is connected to one or more Research Priority area. The research grants are funded by ACTFL. Below each priority area is a list of sample research topics; research studies need not be limited to these topics.

Research Priority Area #1: Immersion/Dual Language Programs

• Content-based instruction 
• Sustaining student enrollment
• Articulation to secondary and post-secondary
• Literacy

Research Priority Area #2: In-Service and Pre-service Language Teacher Development and Retention

• Model teacher preparation programs
• Mentoring
• Preparing language teachers for diverse settings
• Teacher retention
• Certification opportunities

Research Priority Area #3: Assessing Learning Outcomes in K-16 Settings

• Learning outcomes in specific programmatic and curricular models
• Assessment of learning outcomes in relation to an instructional practice
• Study of learning processes and interactions
• Learner voices and experiences

Research Priority Area #4: Equity and Access in Language Learning

• Heritage language learners
• Language preservation
• Policy in language program development
• Underrepresented/historically underserved populations in language learning
• Multiculturalism and culturally sustaining pedagogies in the world language classroom

Research Priority Area #5: Intercultural Learning

• Learning contexts (service learning/study abroad)
• Assessment instruments and outcomes
• Application of Intercultural Can-do Statements in classroom settings

Application deadline: June 3, 2019

For full details go to https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/actfl-research-priorities

From https://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-1836.html

Intersections of Language and Nature: Conservation, Documentation, and Access 
September 6-7, 2019
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The two-day symposium brings together scholars from indigenous communities, conservation practice, the arts, and academia to address the parallel threats facing linguistic and biological diversity and explore opportunities for collaboration. 

Integration of local linguistic and cultural knowledge systems with biological conservation practice is key to political and community engagement efforts, particularly within a locally managed conservation framework. Equally, working together across disciplines in recognition of the interrelatedness of people, language, and place may lead to better systems of language documentation and a more nuanced understanding of local knowledge in conservation practice, as well as provide a global stage by which local communities can actively engage in dialogue relevant to their cultures and environments. 

Key Themes: 

Conservation 
-How are intersections of language and nature relevant to conservation of species and languages? 
-How does traditional ecological knowledge contribute to the conservation of nature and language? 
-How can we better engage communities as stewards of their local cultures and environments? 

Documentation 
-How can we improve our understanding of both global language and species distribution? 
-How can technology enhance language and species documentation? 
-How can we better recognize and collaborate with local knowledge holders? 

Access 
-How can we make knowledge and resources more widely accessible? 
-How do we communicate back to the global community that there are locally meaningful practices of conservation in action and how do we protect that space?

The submission deadline is July 15, 2019.

View the full call for papers at https://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-1836.html, and visit the conference website at https://www.iln2019.com/