Contents

From https://www.latinitium.com/podcast/59-herculaneum

Take a Latin-language tour of Herculaneum in this 17-minute video clip: https://youtu.be/AwRJrlS85xk. The main post also includes an audio only track as well as a transcript of the audio and video.

https://www.latinitium.com/podcast/59-herculaneum

From: http://www.thefrenchcorner.net/2019/09/my-experience-norming-with-students.html

The author describes her experience about norming her class with her students.

Read the entire blog at: http://www.thefrenchcorner.net/2019/09/my-experience-norming-with-students.html

From: http://caas-cw.org/wp/2019/09/17/classical-association-of-new-england-summer-institute-july-13-18-2020/

The 37th Classical Association of New England Summer Institute will take place July 13-18, 2020 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The theme will be “The Empire and the Individual.”

Read the entire announcement at: http://caas-cw.org/wp/2019/09/17/classical-association-of-new-england-summer-institute-july-13-18-2020/

Isabelle Sackville-West

This activity utilizes vlogging to facilitate experiential learning. It is designed with intermediate learners in mind, and the examples provided are in Mandarin Chinese and English. However, this activity can be adapted for any language classroom and can be scaled to accommodate different proficiency levels by changing the types of information and language that students are required to use.

Objectives:

Learners will be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding of vlog genre, structure, and language use
• Create their own vlog in the target language
• Identify the pragmatic components of vlogs in the target culture through the IPIC Framework

Modes: Interpretive, Presentational

Materials: Example vlogs, Vlog Note Sheet, Vlog Planner, IPIC Framework Note Sheet, Quicktime or another free video editor 

Procedure:

1. Begin by telling students that they will be vloggers for the week. As a class, brainstorm what being a vlogger entails. Ask students questions like: What do vloggers talk about? What kinds of things do they film? How do they address the camera (Do they talk to it like a friend? Pretend like it’s not there?)? How much information do they include? How is the vlog structured? How long is a vlog? 
2. Observe: Have students watch example vlogs (at least two) (for ideas, see these examples in Chinese and English) and take notes using the Vlog Note Sheet. 
3. As a class, debrief. As students debrief, they should also answer the questions in the “Knowledge” square of the IPIC Framework Note Sheet. Students should consider both the structure and format of a vlog, as well as the language and content used within it.
4. Knowledge: Based on what they observe, have students generate a list of rhetorical structures, vocabulary words, and grammatical structures that they think they will need to know to be successful while creating their vlogs. Go over these items with the students.
5. Analyze: Based on their notes, have students respond to the questions in the “Analysis” square of the IPIC Framework Note Sheet. In answering these questions, students will consider vlog language as compared to other media, shifts in register, appropriateness of topic, and appropriate language use.
6. Extend: Then, explain to learners that they will create their own vlogs about a day in their lives. They should vlog multiple clips over the course of a day and then use a basic, free video editor like Quicktime player to combine their video clips. In total, the vlog should be about 10 minutes log.
7. Next, have students fill out the Vlog Planner as a guide. Then, they should record their blogs.
8. The next day in class, provide time for learners to work on their vlogs. At the end of the day, ask them to write notes regarding the "Subjectivity" section of the IPIC Note Sheet. Here, they will consider and defend their language choices.
9. Subjectivity and Awareness: Once students have finished their vlogs, they will share them with the class. Have students ask questions and “post comments” about each other’s vlogs on an online platform (like Canvas) or by using sticky notes. Then, have students respond to the "Awareness" section of the IPIC Note Sheet.
10. Finally, debrief as a class. Some good questions to consider are: Why did you choose to include the information you did? How did you decide what to cut? What was your favorite part of the vlog? What are you most proud of? If you could change one thing what would you improve? How did you feel doing this activity overall?

Notes:

Other than combining clips, learners should not do any other type of editing unless editing explicitly aligns with additional learning outcomes.

This activity is for language learners of all levels and was developed to help them explore what language proficiency entails.

Objectives:

Learners will be able to:

• Reflect on their intercultural competence
• Draw connections between intercultural competence and proficiency
• Reflect on their proficiency in the L1 and L2

​Mode(s): Interpersonal

Materials: IPIC Framework Note Sheet (2 copies)

Procedure:

1. Either before or during class, ask learners to record 3-5 minutes of a conversation in which they engage in a targeted language function with potentially high social consequences (e.g., apologizing for losing or breaking something that belongs to a friend, showing up late to a meeting, or having to turn down an invitation to a party) in the L1.

2. Ask learners to listen to the recording. As they do, have them dissect what was said by taking notes in the IPIC Framework Note Sheet. This step should take roughly 10 minutes.

3. As a class, discuss your notes. Ask learners to distill what they actually had to know to participate in the conversation (knowledge), how they chose language and interpreted meaning (analysis), why they made their choices (subjectivity), and how their choices impacted their fellow interlocutors (awareness).

4. Then, ask them if they are proficient in the L1 and how they know. During this discussion, ask them to identify domains in which they feel the most proficient and why. Connect these domains back to the IPIC Framework Note Sheet. For example, they may feel very proficient in familiar domains but have a lower level of comfort in those which are more formal (e.g. workplace).

5. Next, ask learners to engage in and record the same scenario from Step 1, but this time in the L2. Then, repeat steps 2-4 on the second copy of the IPIC Framework Note Sheet.

6. To close, have learners set a goal for themselves related to improving their language proficiency as it relates to spontaneous communication. As part of this goal, ask them to turn in a plan for achieving that goal. Be sure to provide feedback and suggestions!

CASLS is excited to welcome Johanna Lyon, a new graduate teaching fellow in our office. Johanna is currently earning her Master's at the University of Oregon in Language Teaching Studies. At CASLS, she will help us to support educators through the development of LinguaFolio Online supports and the creation and curation of content in InterCom.

When asked about the upcoming year, Johanna said, "I'm thrilled to be a GE working at CASLS as it provides me with the opportunity in an innovative and compelling environment to put into application what I'm concurently leanring in my Language Teaching Stuides Master's." 

Welcome, Johanna!

Linda Forrest, CASLS Research Director

In almost any discussion of language learning, the term “proficiency” is soon encountered, followed a short time later by remarks on “how much” proficiency individuals might have. Yet, there is no consensus among language experts about what, exactly, language proficiency is or how, exactly, it can best be measured. Despite this lack of clarity, educators are pressured by administrators, parents, employers, and students themselves to find and administer tests that will answer the question, “how much?”

In broad terms, proficiency is a learner’s ability to use language in spontaneous, real world interactions. Unfortunately, this definition is too vague to be useful to test developers who seek to measure it. They want to know what the component parts of proficiency are. For example, is grammatical accuracy a factor? What about pronunciation and vocabulary? Older theoretical models of proficiency have posited dozens of factors which comprise proficiency, leading to tests constructed to measure single discrete points, such a vocabulary or grammar.

Nowadays, most developers of large-scale language tests have recognized that language proficiency is more than the sum of the parts and have developed tests that provide more wholistic measures. The tests are based on models of language proficiency which identify domains of skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). While these frameworks acknowledge some overlap between domains, the frameworks are considered distinct and tested separately. As theoretical studies have increasingly recognized the importance of interculturality, these frameworks have added a fifth skill area, often described as “cultural knowledge.”

Although the four-skills framework is widely used, a continual challenge is to measure language as it is actually carried out in spontaneous, real world interactions. Real interactions involve, among other things, extended sequences of conversational turns in an immersive situational context during which interlocuters negotiate meaning by interpreting each others’ intentions irrespective of the actual words used. To succeed in real world interactions, interlocutors need more than “reading, listening, speaking, and listening” skills. Rather, they require interactional and pragmatic skills tuned to a particular cultural context. They do not need to know ‘correct’ grammar so much as they need to know the most appropriate way to encode a specific speech function in a specific situation.

An additional framework would permit assessment of speakers’ ability to understand their interlocutors’ intentions and succeed in achieving their own intended outcomes in culturally appropriate ways without sacrificing the ability to express their own unique personality. One such approach, the Intercultural, Pragmatic, and Interactional Competence (IPIC) framework entails four components – knowledge of language structures and their use, analysis of speaker and hearer intended meaning, subjectivity, or the ability to discern personality behaviors, and awareness of others’ reactions to their remarks. Recent studies conducted at CASLS suggest that assessments developed within this framework capture the realities of spontaneous communication and relate those concepts of proficiency.

From: https://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=138113

At a time when many of the world's languages are at risk of extinction, the imperative to document, analyse and teach them before time runs out is very great. At this critical time new technologies, such as visual and aural archiving, digitisation of textual resources, electronic mapping and social media, have the potential to play an integral role in language maintenance and revitalisation.

Read more about this book on the publisher's website at: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/endangered-languages-and-new-technologies?format=PB​