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Monday, March 28, 2016

PACE Workshop: Incorporating Online Corpora and Concordances in the Foreign Language Classroom for Contextualized Vocabulary Acquisition

Friday, April 22, 2016
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Bruininks Hall 131A

Online information (registration not required)

How do we effectively incorporate online corpora and concordances into intermediate and advanced language classes? How do we create concordance-based activities and assignments to enhance learners’ accurate and contextualized use of newly acquired vocabulary items? How do we provide feedback and facilitate in-class discussions to help students reach a better understanding of the accurate use of the new vocabulary? How can we introduce the concepts of collocation, colligation, semantic prosody, and register to our students, and how can we design vocabulary activities that are focused on these concepts? And how can we assess students’ ability to use the newly acquired vocabulary accurately?

In this interactive workshop, Dr. Nader Morkus, will guide us through an exploration of these questions. He will present a number of online concordances in different languages, discuss their various features, and will provide examples on how they can be effectively incorporated in intermediate and advanced language classes. He will share concordance-based activities and assignments he has developed for his classes and will provide a framework for creating concordance-based assignments and activities to enhance students’ acquisition of new vocabulary items. Participants will explore online concordances and will create sample activities based on these collections in order to begin the process of incorporating them in their language classes to enhance students’ accurate and contextualized use of newly acquired vocabulary.

This event is open to the university community and registration is not required. Please bring your own laptop to explore the concordances demonstrated and to create sample activities. Refreshments will be provided.

Presenter: Dr. Nader Morkus is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Director of the Arabic Language Program.

The PACE Project is funded by a grant from The Language Flagship.

BOSSA Experiments in Learning Innovation Project Featured at Provost’s Showcase

Thursday, April 21, 2016
1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Northrop
Register Online (required for Plenary)

This two-part event begins with a showcase and poster session featuring projects from two grant-funded initiatives: Experiments in Learning Innovation and Enhancement of Academic Programs Using Digital Technology. Following the showcase, join us for a lively and inspirational plenary conversation among three faculty innovators: Jodi Sandfort (UMTC - Humphrey School of Public Affairs), Catherine Squires, (UMTC - College of Liberal Arts), and Josh Hamilton (UMD, Swenson College of Science and Engineering).

Registration required for the plenary as seating is limited.

One of the featured projects is: Maximizing the Benefits of the Language Learner Self-Assessment Toolkit: Creating Options for Sustainable Use

 Presenters: Gabriela Sweet, Diane Rackowski, Anna Olivero-Agney, Sara Mack, & Joanne Peltonen

Monday, March 21, 2016

CARLA Technology Workshops Spring, 2016

The CARLA Technology Project is offering two workshops this spring: first, a workshop looking at the presentational mode through apps and storytelling and second, a workshop focused on using technology for the interpretive mode. The workshops are paired, but you do not have to take one in order to take the other.

Workshop 1: Personal, Engaging, Portable: Multimedia and Digital Stories in the World Language Classroom

Saturday, April 2, 2016
9:00 - 12:00 p.m.
Jones 35, or remotely (online)

Sharon and Stacey will be "beaming in" to guide participants in the use of applications for multimedia production to foster learner engagement and personalized, creative language use. The workshop begins with a discussion of participants' goals for and concerns about multimedia projects in the curriculum. The presenters will then introduce several categories of production apps, including audio recording, video editing, and interactive whiteboards, and elicit ideas for using these in the classroom. Participants who have access to mobile devices, Chromebooks, laptops, or desktops at their location will have the opportunity to experiment a bit with these apps and ask questions.

Because projects involving digital storytelling can be particularly effective at engaging student interest, part of the workshop will focus on this form of multimedia production. The presenters will briefly review the principles of digital storytelling and discuss modifications to meet instructional goals. They will also introduce resources for finding the rights-free images and music often needed for these and other multimedia projects. Participants will then have the opportunity to create digital storytelling projects for their own courses. Sharing their work, the participants will discuss support needs and evaluation rubrics. A 'virtual handout' with instructions for using the recommended apps, sample activities, and links to digital storytelling sites will be available.

NOTE: The presenters will be virtual for this workshop, but if you are attending at the University of MN, you will have face-to-face discussions and hands-on help.

Presenters:
Sharon Scinicariello (Ph.D., UNC-Chapel Hill) is the Director of the Global Studio and a faculty member in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Richmond. Her interests include video in instruction, mobile-assisted language learning, task-based learning, and self-directed language learning.
Stacey L. Powell (M.A., Auburn University) is the Director of the Foreign Language Multimedia Center and a member of the Instructional Technology Team for the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. She taught Spanish for just over 20 years in the face-to-face classroom and has six years' experience developing and teaching online courses. Her interests include instructional technologies, mobile-assisted language learning, distance learning, and faculty training and development.

On-Site facilitators: Marlene Johnshoy, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA); Adolfo Carrillo Cabello, CLA Language Center
Workshop 2: Engaging Students with Language Learning through Technology: Focus on the Interpretive Mode

Saturday, April 30, 2016
9:00 - 12:00 p.m.
Jones 35, or via your computer

Today, authentic materials of all kinds (text, audio, video, infographics, images) that can complement our textbooks are readily available online, but most of them are not constructed with language learners in mind. How do we help our students work with and understand these materials? What kinds of tasks can we create that engage our students and pave the way for them to comprehend and learn from these materials? How can technology help us do this?

We will talk about some of the pedagogy behind engagement with texts (Interpretive Mode), and then we'll show you some of our favorite tech tools. We would also like to know what you are doing to guide students through online materials. You will have opportunities for sharing your materials as well as for creating interpretive activities in the workshop. Bring an example of an interpretive activity that you have created and some ideas for text engagement that you'd like to create.

Presenters:
Marlene Johnshoy is the Online Education Program director and web manager for the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. She has given numerous workshops on many aspects of web-based language teaching and learning.

Dan Soneson is the director of the Language Center in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. He is currently the managing editor of the IALLT Journal for Language Learning Technologies, and has been a leader in language learning and technology for over 20 years.
Register Now!
These workshops are appropriate for foreign language and ESL teachers at all levels. The workshops are offered separately-participants can take one or both workshops.
  • Cost: $30 per workshop (or $50 for two workshops).
  • *Location: There are two options offered for this workshop:
  • Face-to-face: Workshop will be held in room 35 in Jones Hall located at 27 Pleasant Street SE. Hourly parking ($3/hour) is available nearby in the Church St. Garage.
  • Virtual/synchronous: Limited spaces are available for teachers to participate using their computer at the same time as the face-to-face option. See details for virtual participation.
  • Registration is online only and requires a credit card. The registration fee is nonrefundable.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Upcoming CARLA Presentations with Language Center Connection

Development of Academic Writing Skills in the Spanish Major
Monday, March 7, 2016
12:20-1:10 p.m.
University International Center 101

In this presentation, we will explore the writing development of undergraduates in the Spanish major. The presentation will begin with a comparison of student writing with self-reported faculty expectations, highlighting incongruities between the two and the potential impact of under-defined criteria in assignment descriptions and rubrics. From there, we will explore the linguistic forms and expressions students use to fulfill one of these criteria—adoption of a critical and analytical stance—via a function-form analysis.

Presenters: Ana Maria Anderson is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. She has done work in a variety of areas of linguistics, including studies of Metaphor and of Second/Third Language Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese, and her main focus is on Language Contact between Galician and Castellano in Galicia.

Mandy Menke is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics and Director of Language Programs in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. She regularly researches topics related to both second language acquisition and foreign language pedagogy, at both the university and K-12 levels.


Cosponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the PACE Project.


Implementing Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in University Foreign Language Teaching
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
12:20-1:10 p.m.
Nolte 140

In this presentation, instructors from the Departments of German, Scandinavian and Dutch and Spanish & Portuguese will share their experiences implementing Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in first-year and second-year foreign language courses, including the challenges and successes. The presentations will be followed by 15-20-minute Q&A session.

Presenters: Angela Carlson Lombardi, Beth Kautz, Elizabeth Lake & Helena Ruf
Cosponsored by the CLA Language Center PACE project. Beth Kautz is an Education Specialist in the CLA Language Center.


Developing Communicative Resilience in Language Learners
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
12:20-1:10 p.m.
University International Center 101

Language learners need communicative resilience: the ability to persist in unrehearsed interactions even in the face of communication breakdowns. The present study analyzes the effect of continuous and explicit instruction of communication strategies on the communicative resilience of intermediate level adult learners of German.

The treatment in this study included weekly input in the form of core vocabulary and training activities. A comparison of pre- and post-tests show a substantial rise in the learners’ ability to manage communicative breakdowns and interact successfully despite them. This study has implications for teaching interpersonal communication skills to language learners and in improving their self-confidence while engaging in unrehearsed interactions in a second language.

Presenters: Anuradha Gopalakrishnan and Beth Kautz

Cosponsored by the Second Language Education Program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Beth Kautz is an Education Specialist in the CLA Language Center.

PACE Swap Shop: BOSSA in the Language Classroom

Tuesday, April 5, 2016
12:00-1:10 p.m.
Nolte Hall 140
Register Online (required, free)

BOSSA, the Basic Outcomes Student Self-Assessment, is a language learner-centered protocol that has been used by eight CLA language programs for the past two years, reaching nearly 6,000 students. You may be an experienced BOSSA instructor or you may have heard about BOSSA from other colleagues. If you are a current user of BOSSA, what has your experience been thus far? How have your students reacted to the BOSSA protocol? Has BOSSA had an impact on your teaching practices? Have you tried any follow-up activities in class that you would like to share with others? If BOSSA is not part of your syllabus (yet!), come and join us for a conversation about the learning opportunities BOSSA offers to your students.

In this swap shop, four experienced language instructors will share with us how they are supporting students in taking charge of their learning and making plans to achieve their goals. Furthermore, the panelists will discuss their take and implementation of BOSSA in current and future courses. Join this swap shop to help us gather ideas and suggestions for improving the students’ self-assessment practices.

Facilitators: Gabriela Sweet and Anna Olivero-Agney, CLA Language Center

Panelists: Frances Matos-Schultz (Spanish), Kathleen Rider (Italian), Ginny Steinhagen (German), Rasha El Helw (Arabic)


This event is open to CLA language instructors. Come early and meet other BOSSA users. Session starts at 12:20. Pizza will be served at 12:00 p.m. If you are having issues with registration, please email elsie@umn.edu for assistance.

Swap shops: Input needed
Do you have interesting experiences or projects you would like to share? Do you have engaging questions you would like us to explore? Please contact Adolfo Carrillo Cabello at carri093@umn.edu