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Monday, February 20, 2017

Multimedia Lab Film Schedule

Over Spring 2017, the Language Center’s Multimedia Lab will be showing foreign-language films from the Language Center's collection on a weekly basis. Each film is packed with cultural significance and variety of genres are included. All together, the films show eventful times in their represented cultures, differing artistic styles, documentation on historical events, portrayals of times of strife and triumph, and also comedic relief!

Each week, a different film will be featured. Films are played throughout the day on repeat, and can be reset for any patron desiring to watch from start to finish. Here is a list of the films and the dates they will be played:

2/20 - 2/24 Amélie (French)
2/27 - 3/3 Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Hindi)
3/6 - 3/10 Good Bye Lenin! (German)
3/20 - 3/24 Bab'Aziz (Arabic)
3/27 - 3/31 Kitchen Stories (Swedish)
4/3 - 4/7 Entre les Murs (French)
4/10 - 4/14 The Elephant on the Bike (Korean)
4/17 - 4/21 The Green Butchers (Danish)
4/24 - 4/28 Frauenschicksale (German)
5/1 - 5/5 Life of Oharu (Japanese)
5/8 - 5/12 The Elephant on the Bike (Korean)

Other films can be added to the schedule by request. Email Jonathan Prestrud at prest211@umn.edu to request a film.

Monday, February 13, 2017

PACE Conversation: Navigating the road to language testing and proficiency

Wednesday, March 29, 2017
12:20 - 1:15 p.m. (lunch provided)
Jones 15
Register Online (required)

For the past two years, the PACE Project has made available the four-day ACTFL Tester Training Workshop, which assists instructors to better understand the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and Scale. Providing the workshop in the PACE project is meant to help instructors place a greater focus on proficiency and to provide greater opportunities for student success in developing their proficiency.
Past participants of the OPI Tester Training workshop will share their experience with the workshop and afterward, discuss how this experience has shaped their teaching and student learning. Presenters will present challenges and successes of the training and will share ideas for addressing the ACTFL Guidelines and Scale in their teaching. Participants will have a chance to ask questions and provide insights on their own experiences and interests with the ACTFL Guidelines and Scale. A light lunch will be provided.

Presenters: Angela Carlson Lombardi, Anne Hoffman-Gonzalez and Tripp Strawbridge, from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Jacqueline Listemaa and Jennifer Peterson from the Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch; and Bryce Johnson and Hai Liu from the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures

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

Courseshare: Planning for Fall 2017

Instructors: are you interested in potentially sharing your course beyond the University of Minnesota?
Students: are you looking for a language course that you can’t find on MyU?

Courseshare may be the answer, and now is the best time to start preparing for Fall 2017!

The university is an active participant in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Courseshare program, which uses technology to send and receive less commonly taught language and culture courses with partner institutions. Sending courses expands the profile of our language and culture programs, and increases and diversifies their audience. Receiving courses provides students with access to courses they need for their academic and career goals, and connects them with students and scholars across the country.

Courseshare is administered by the Language Center, through collaboration with academic departments. Our staff provides support both for instructors teaching in the program and for students enrolling in a shared language course. Instructors can contact Pablo Viedma at viedma@umn.edu to see if their course might be a good fit to share with another institution. Students can register for courses received from other institutions through the LANG course subject and request a new course by contacting Pablo or emailing elsie@umn.edu.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Summary of Language Center February 2017 Events

TandemPlus Face-to-Face Spring 2017 Kickoff and Orientation

Thursday, February 9, 2017
6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Bruininks 412

It’s time for TandemPlus’ first event of a new calendar year! Join TandemPlus for the spring semester Kickoff and Orientation for an opportunity to meet other language learners interested in the face-to-face program, as well as long-time participants. There will be an information session on the program and time to ask questions, sign-up, look for a partner, and play games for a chance to win a Starbucks giftcard! We entice with food at our events, and we mean to deliver: feed yourself on cookies, creative pizzas from MESA, and freaky-fast sandwiches from Jimmy John’s!

The TandemPlus Student Association will continue to host monthly events this semester. Participants will be informed of upcoming events through email notifications and weekly updates. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information! A complete list of spring activities for TandemPlus participants will be available soon.

Registration is now open and takes no more than 5 minutes at tandem.umn.edu.

For more information about TandemPlus, visit the Language Center’s Website, or send us an email at tandem@umn.edu.

TandemPlus Class-to-Class Exchanges Spring 2017

This semester, we once again have many U of M students conversing online with students in Mexico, Spain, France, and Germany as part of their coursework.

The TandemPlus program is especially happy to welcome two new French 1003 instructors to class-to-class exchanges: Agnes Schaffauser and Ben Obernolte. They join Marina Calas, a French 3014 instructor who participated last semester, in an exchange with the Université Lyon in France.

In Spanish, we have four instructors teaching ten sections of Spanish 1003. Edward Eiffler and Angela Carlson-Lombardi, who were new to the program last semester, are currently partnered with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. Long-time enthusiast, Andy Wiesinger, is working with teachers and students at Universidad Tecnológica El Retoño in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and Pablo Viedma keeps our long-standing partnership with Universidad de Sevilla in Spain alive.

Our partnership with the Leuphana Universität in Lüneburg, Germany in 2011. Over the years, students in German 1003, 3011, and 3501 have discussed travel, educational systems, politics, sustainability and more with their counterparts in Germany. Classes participating this semester include Beth Kautz’s German 1003 class and Charlotte Melin’s advanced-level course on contemporary Germany.

Are you curious about how these exchanges work? If so, reach out to one of the participating instructors or contact Beth Kautz at kautz001@umn.edu or TandemPlus at tandem@umn.edu.

It’s never too early to begin planning a class-to-class exchange for Fall 2017!