Past Talks and Workshops

Workshop by Manuela Wagner (University of Connecticut)

Recording (available to USC accounts only)

In this workshop, we think about how we can plan, teach and assess intercultural competence in language education. We bridge theory and practice by analyzing unit and lesson plans that intentionally and systematically integrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to engage in intercultural dialogue and solve real world problems in the target language. Curricular sample projects will show how the theoretical framework of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 2021, 1997), intercultural citizenship (2008), and interdisciplinary intercultural citizenship (Wagner, Cardetti, and Byram, 2019) as well as Virtual Reality, the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and concepts such as Intellectual Humility (Whitcomb et al., 2017) and Conviction (Lynch, 2019) have been applied in education. Finally, we will discuss lessons learned with regard to curricular planning, collaborative projects, and language program development.

Manuela Wagner is Professor of Language Education at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA. She is particularly interested in the interplay of theory and practice of intercultural citizenship. She enjoys collaborating with colleagues from a variety of contexts. She co-edited Teaching Intercultural Competence Across the Age Range: From Theory to Practice (2018) and Education for Intercultural Citizenship: Principles in Practice (2017) and co-authored Teaching Intercultural Citizenship Across the Curriculum: The Role of Language Education (2019). Other research interests include intellectual humility and conviction in education, compassion in education, humor in education, first language acquisition, and human rights education.

Talk by Gabriela C. Zapata (University of Nottingham) 

The objective of this presentation is to offer theoretical and practical guidance for the incorporation of intercultural citizenship (as defined by Wagner et al. [2019]) into second language (L2) classes grounded in the tenets of the multiliteracies pedagogy Learning by Design (LbyD) (Kalantzis et al., 2005, 2016; Zapata, 2022). The first part of the presentation will briefly discuss the tenets and goals of intercultural citizenship as characterized by Wagner and her colleagues and in connection with the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can Do Statements for Intercultural Communication (ACTFL, 2017). The second section will provide an overview of LbyD, including its principles and epistemic moves, as well as concrete examples of how the framework can guide the development of L2 students’ intercultural citizenship through both specific classroom tasks and the employment of authentic, multimodal materials.

Dr. Zapata’s research foci are Learning by Design and second (L2) and heritage language (HL) pedagogy, multimodal social semiotics, computer supported collaborative learning, and teacher education. She is also involved in the development and implementation of inclusive open educational resources. She has published articles on bilingualism, L2 and HL pedagogy, Learning by Design, multimodal social semiotics, and teacher cognition and practice in journals such as Computer Assisted Language Learning; Foreign Language Annals; The International Journal of Bilingualism; The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning; Language, Culture, and Curriculum; Language Learning; and Language Awareness, among others, and in a variety of edited volumes. Dr. Zapata is the main author of the first Canadian edition of Puntos de partida, and of the OER L2 Spanish textbooks Trayectos (published digitally by COERLL) and Introducción a la escritura (Pressbooks). She is also the co-editor (with Dr. Manel Lacorte) of the volume Multiliteracies Pedagogy and Language Learning: Teaching Spanish to Heritage Speakers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). Her co-authored (with Dr. Mary Kalantzis and Dr. Bill Cope) book Las alfabetizaciones múltiples: Teoría y práctica was published in December 2019 by Editorial Octaedro. Her single-authored book, Learning by Design and L2 Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice(Routledge), appeared in April 2022. Dr. Zapata received her certification as ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester in Spanish in 2014. She has also served as an ACTFL mentor and the Vice-Chair, Chair, and Past-Chair of ACTFL’s Spanish for Heritage Learners Special Interest Group. In 2019, she was awarded the SGA Open Education Champion Award by the Student Government Association at Texas A&M University. Dr. Zapata is also a CIMER Entering Mentoring Trained Facilitator.

Talk by Tony Liddicoat (University of Warwick)

youtu.be/7xL3PyHG3d4

Learning and using an additional language is fundamentally an engagement in linguistic and cultural diversity and so language learners need to develop the ability to participate in this diversity. Such learning requires an intercultural perspective in language teaching and learning that supports the development of multilingual and intercultural capabilities. An intercultural perspective thus entails a critical and reflective focus in the process of language learning that supports learners in coming to understand themselves as participants in diversity and develops their agency as language users. This presentation will focus on the nature of criticality in the intercultural language teaching and learning and consider how such learning can be supported by teachers.

Tony Liddicoat is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick and Adjunct Professor in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. He is currently co-convenor of the AILA Research Network Intercultural mediation in language and culture teaching and learning/La médiation interculturelle en didactique des langues et des cultures, and Executive Editor of the journal Current Issues in Language Planning.

Talk by Julie Van Dam (Associate Professor of French)

Slides

During the workshop, Dr. Van Dam led participants through a series of universal design-based pedagogical practices aimed at ensuring access for all students in language courses at different levels, while also discussing and teaching a series of “crip technologies” aimed at destigmatizing disabilities, ranging from low to advanced technology.

Talk by Richard Robin, Professor of Russian, George Washington University

This presentation explored the implications of CMTs in pedagogy today, not as a pernicious addition that prevents student learning, but as removable training wheels that allows students to become independent language learners.

Talk by Debbie Jih, Ed.D, LMFT, Senior Director, OSAS

Presentation slides

Debbie Jih gave an overview of OSAS accommodations and present accommodation trends to faculty teaching languages across USC. She discussed student profiles, OSAS services, and faculty responsibilities.

Talk by Mira Angrist (Lecturer of Hebrew at Boston University)

The meeting outlined the differences between game-based learning and gamification and discussed how both contribute to language acquisition in various learning spaces. The participants were equipped with ideas and tools on how to create games and embed gamification to maximize students’ learning.

Talk by Meg Malone, ACTFL Director of Assessment and Research

During her talk, Dr. Malone addressed four interrelated questions. She began by providing a brief refresher on reliability and validity, before outlining an approach to test frameworks and task and item specifications. Dr. Malone then discussed how to use rubrics for reflection of your test framework, highlighting ways to work on distinguishing between achievement and proficiency. The talk concluded with a discussion on how to use rubrics for grading.

Talk by Evgeny Dengub (Slavic)

In this presentation, Professor Evgeny Dengub provided a refresher on key language teaching frameworks, describing important concepts that are part of today’s foreign language acquisition discourse. The audience was taken through discussions on World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, #ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and #Can-Do Statements, modes of communication, and other relevant topics. The talk served as an orientation for assistant lecturers teaching language, particularly those in search of a job and working on their application dossier, novice instructors, and anyone interested in refreshing their knowledge of current trends in the language teaching field.

Talk by Professor Atiyeh Showrai (French and Italian)

This talk helped participants identify communicative tasks and activities, and get equipped with basic strategies to create and develop such tasks.

Talk given by Professor Goretti Prieto Botana (LAIC)

The importance of relying on authentic materials has been amply underscored as part of the Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT). However, over time, not much attention was paid to other elements, such as accompanying comprehension questions or similar practice items. This session focused on items intended to guide our students into processing larger strings of language within the sources of input we brought to the classroom.

Presentation by Jackie Cohen-Steinberg (LAIC)

Jacke discussed her approach to using activities with music to promote discussion and collaboration among students. She created various IPA-type activities with songs by different artists that focused on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and conversation. At the end of each activity, students presented their findings and original song lyrics to the rest of the class.

Presentation by Rania Ben Amor (French and Italian)

Literature supplies many linguistic opportunities that allows the teacher to design activities that are based on material capable of stimulating greater interest and involvement. This presentation aims at giving ideas to illustrate communicative language teaching approaches taking Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, as an example.

Presentation by Xiang Jian (EALC)

Storytelling, an interactive teaching method that uses vocabulary and grammar to connect creativity and language acquisition, can help students use the target language in a playful and creative manner. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the Dos and Don’ts of storytelling in beginning Chinese classes and demonstrate the steps of storytelling techniques.