April 29, 2019
Room TBA
The Graduate Center
10:00am – 1:00pm
Registration required: http://tiny.cc/1eiu3y

Presenter: Heidi Byrnes, Georgetown University

Workshop description:

In this workshop, we will consider how to enhance L2 instructed learners’ ability to attain advanced levels of ability through educational action. We will follow a three-step approach: First, we will lay out broad characteristics of ‘advancedness’ that differentiate that performance level from  intermediate levels of ability; second, using a functional, meaning-oriented approach, we will further specify advancedness in terms of register and genre in order to arrive at broad principles for curriculum construction and pedagogical action; finally, we will locate advancedness within the long-term development process of instructed learners and how programs might conceptualize and facilitate that extended movement. While the workshop will focus on writing, discussion will include all modalities of language use.

Heidi Byrnes is George M. Roth Distinguished Professor of German Emerita at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on adult L2 literacy acquisition, particularly at the advanced level. She has edited and co-edited books and special journal issues on the development of advanced literacy and the link between languaging and thinking, particularly in writing. She is a past president of AAAL, past editor of The Modern Language Journal, and is the recipient of numerous professional association awards, including the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award of AAAL.