Spring 2025 Professional Development Series
Round Table: Enrollment Challenges
Closed event for language directors and coordinators
Date: Monday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM
Location: THH 271 conference room
1st guest speaker: Dr. Cedric Oliva, Ph.D.
Intercomprehension: Rationalizing the Pedagogical Integration of an Ancestral and Functional Communicative Technique to Forster the Development of Multilingualism
Date: February 13th, at noon
Location: THH 309k
This presentation will explain and contextualize intercomprehension through its historical evolution, demonstrating that functional inter-comprehension, as a communicative technique, was recognized as a common practice as early as medieval times. Its practical nature eventually led to its recommendation for inclusion in the French educational system at the beginning of the 20th century. However, these efforts were undermined by the socio-political events of that century, resulting in both the general public and educational circles neglecting and forgetting inter-comprehension until the turn of the new century.
Bio: Cedric Joseph Oliva is an Associate Professor of Language Studies in French and Italian at Bryant University, where he also serves as the Language Program Coordinator in the Department of Communication and Language Studies. Previously, Dr. Oliva held the role of lead pedagogical director for several programs over seven years, gaining extensive experience in teaching graduate courses on Teaching Methodology and Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Romance Language History and Linguistics, and Inter-comprehension.
Dr. Oliva is currently leading the development of Juntos: French for Speakers of English and Spanish with collaborators Clorinda Donato, Alan Gomez, Daniela Zappador-Guerra, and Manuel Romero.
2nd guest speaker: Dr. Maryse Mijalski, Ed.D.
Making Connections: Pedagogical Applications of Translanguaging in the Context of French for Spanish Speakers and the Linguistically Diverse French Language Classroom
Date: Friday, March 7 at 11:00 am
Zoom meeting ID: 97404052970
How to integrate translanguaging into your French course? How to encourage students to make connections between the target language and their native language(s)? Translanguaging encourages students to value their native language and culture; it leverages the language skills they already have while promoting comparative thinking and cultural exchanges in the classroom. In this presentation, the speaker will introduce her French for Spanish Speakers course. She will share strategies and resources that facilitate making comparisons between French, Spanish, English and other languages. She will offer specific examples such as collaborative translation, skill sets for reading comprehension using the translanguaging approach, as well as activities that encourage students to access their full linguistic repertoires. At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to integrate some form of translanguaging into their French course.
Bio: Maryse Mijalski is Senior Lecturer and French Language Program Director in the Department of European Languages and Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration at the University of Southern California. At UCI, she oversees the French Language Program and teaches beginning and intermediate-level French language courses, French for Spanish Speakers, French for Reading, and Business French. She has previously presented papers at ACTFL and AATF National Conventions on telecollaboration and the development of intercultural competence, reading proficiency and interpretive skills, French for Spanish Speakers, and how to approach the history of French colonization at the intermediate French level. Her presentation focuses on the pedagogical applications of the translanguaging approach in the context of French for Spanish Speakers and in the linguistically diverse “traditional” French classroom.
3rd guest speaker: Dr. Peyman Nojoumian
Innovative Technology in the Language Classroom: Utilizing Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence in Task-Based Language Teaching
Date: Friday, 4/11 at noon
Zoom meeting ID: 945 2998 7710
Description: Dr. Nojoumian will demonstrate usage of VR in his Persian classrooms and show initial results. He will also discuss Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), VR in Education, VR Games, AI in Virtual World, Virtual Reality in a Persian Classroom among other things.
CLC Professional Development Certificate
The Center for Languages and Cultures (CLC) offers Professional Development Certificates to Dornsife RTPC language faculty and assistant lecturers who attend or watch four of the professional development events organized by the center in the academic year 2024-2025. To receive CLC’s professional development certificate please fill out this form by April 27, 2025.