ILETC invites you to participate in a day-long, virtual ACTFL workshop (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) on text typology, led by Professor Cynthia Martin. 

This workshop will explain how to use the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines to develop learners’ general proficiency in interpretive modes (Listening and Reading) in the target language. Participants will review the Guidelines, which will be followed by an introduction to text typology for these interpretive modes. The majority of the workshop will be spent engaging in hands-on activities to guide participants in how to 1) evaluate the effectiveness of their existing teaching materials in terms of overall goals and target audience, and 2) select authentic reading and aural texts and use them to design appropriate proficiency-based activities at various levels. At the end of the workshop, participants will also have the opportunity to discuss implications for assessment of these interpretive modes. 

 Only 20 spots are available! 

Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2022 

Time: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM 

Fee: $40 per person

To attend, register here.

Come join us on Friday, November 11, 2022, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, for an interactive presentation online.   

What are the differences between traditional writing assignments (prompts-draft-feedback-final copy) and assignments created following a genre-based approach? What do students and instructors gain by using a genre-based approach? More specifically, what are the distinct benefits for heritage language learners, who typically express an understanding that writing is their weaker skill in the heritage language?  

The presenters, Aránzazu Borrachero (Queensborough Community College and the Graduate Center) and Alberta Gatti (The Graduate Center), invite you to an interactive presentation/discussion that will explore the answers to these questions. They will describe the pilot of a genre-based curriculum that was taught to Spanish heritage learners at two CUNY schools (one community college and one senior college), as well as research-based information about the effects of this curriculum on the writing proficiency development of heritage language learners.   

This pedagogical approach is applicable not just to Spanish, but to other heritage languages, and to English writing classes as well, so we welcome all to come learn about it and to share your related experiences in a discussion with the group. 

To attend, get the Zoom link by registering here.

When working with multilingual students in your heritage language, English comp, or ESL classes, have you ever wondered about these learners’ ability to do things in “the other” language? For instance, should we assume that bilingual CUNY students who received most of their education in the U.S. write better in English than in their heritage language? What about how large the gap is between writing abilities in the two languages? Can our students accurately evaluate whether they are better at one of the two languages? And, is there anything in their biographical profile that seems to help predict language dominance in writing? 

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Dear CUNY Heritage Language Instructors,

We invite you to learn about We Authors (https://weauthors.commons.gc.cuny.edu/), a website for multilingual students enrolled in heritage language courses across CUNY.

We Authors provides students with a public-facing component to their assignments (under instructor supervision), which allows them to write with a purpose, something known to be instrumental in increasing learner engagement and advancing writing proficiency.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, ILETC successfully piloted the site with Spanish-English bilinguals enrolled in heritage courses at three CUNY colleges. Now, we are preparing the site to welcome courses in heritage Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

The professors who participated in the pilot and the ILETC team will be conducting a brief Zoom presentation in August (two dates are available). During the presentation, we will share information on how to integrate We Authors into your course.

If interested, register for one of the two dates:

Thursday, August 11, 2022, 4:00-5:00 PM | Register here.

Friday, August 12, 2022, 11:00-12:00 PM | Register here.

We look forward to sharing more with you in August.

Best,

The ILETC Team

October 15^th, 2020, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Registration is now open. Limited spots available.

The Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context (ILETC) is pleased to offer a webinar on facilitating student-to-student interaction in the virtual language classroom. This two-hour webinar is intended for language instructors who began teaching in the online format in Spring 2020, and who now wish to further solidify and systematize their skills.

The webinar will first review some basic principles of online pedagogy, such as reconceptualizing the language classroom; affordances and constraints; presence; course design; and assessment. It will then focus in on how students interact with each other in online language classes, and how you as a teacher can design tasks and structure lessons so as to facilitate these interactions. There will also be ample opportunity for questions and answers, as well as for sharing best practices across languages and departments.

This webinar will be led by Christopher Kaiser. Dr. Kaiser is the program manager of the Shared Course Initiative, which connects less-commonly taught language classrooms at Columbia, Cornell, and Yale, using high-definition videoconferencing. His areas of interest include second language pedagogy, distance learning, presence in the distance environment, inter-institutional collaboration, and language-learning advocacy. In Spring and Summer 2020, he conducted workshops and seminars for the Columbia University language teaching community, in order to prepare for the rapid transition to teaching language classes via Zoom.

There are limited spots for this event. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation and a link to join on the day of the event. You must register in order to participate in the webinar. Registration will open soon.

Date and Time: October 15^th, 2020, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Non-Refundable Fee: $25 + Eventbrite fees

Registration is available here.

Methodological Developments in Teaching of Spanish as a Second and Foreign Language

A Workshop for Teachers, XIV. Language Programs and Methodology

April 25^th, 2020
Room TBA
Barnard College

10:00am – 1:00pm
Guadalupe Valdés
Stanford University

Teaching and Learning Spanish in an Age of Shifting Theories, Ideologies, and Policies

3pm – 6pm
Marta Antón
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis

Organized by the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University, and the Department of Spanish and Latin American Cultures, Barnard College.

Co-Sponsored by the Institute of Latin American Studies, Columbia. Co-sponsored by ILETC.

Registration is free.

RSVP to Guadalupe Ruiz Fajardo gr2250@columbia.edu

The Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context (ILETC) along with the Office of Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation (AISI) invites language instructors to participate in two workshops.

Workshop 1: Modified OPI Assessment Workshop (MOPI)

This two-day workshop is focused on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and introduces the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) rating scale, the structure of the OPI and techniques for administering and rating the OPI including its applications in the language classroom. Participants will observe and conduct live practice interviews at Novice and Intermediate proficiency levels. Participation in a MOPI Assessment Workshop is the first step toward becoming an ACTFL Certified OPI Tester with Limited Certification.

Workshop 2: Developing and Assessing Academic Reading Proficiency

This one-day workshop will address current research in foreign language reading proficiency with respect to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Reading. Questions that will be considered include:

1. What is the role of reading in world language curricula?
2. How does reading proficiency influence—and how is it influenced by—listening, speaking, and writing proficiency?
3. How are academic reading requirements different from everyday reading requirements?

The workshop is comprised of three interrelated issues: text typology; defining comprehension tasks; and building a reading proficiency program that includes the development of formative and summative assessments for departments of languages and literatures in higher education. The ACTFL Reading Proficiency Test (RPT) will be introduced as an example of a valid and reliable summative assessment.

Both workshops will be conducted in English for a mixed-language group, and will be led by Dr. Cynthia Martin from the University of Maryland. Further details on both workshops including cost, dates, times, and how to register can be found on the drop-down menu below.

This program is offered by the CUNY Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context, in partnership with the CUNY Graduate Center’s Office of Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation.

ACTFL Workshop: Modified OPI Assessment Workshop (MOPI)

ACTFL Workshop: Developing and Assessing Academic Reading Proficiency