CCLF 2018 Pre-Conference Workshop Facilitator Bios

CCLF 2018 Home Program Presentations Workshops Invited Speakers Location Accommodations Video

Teaching with the Heritage Arabic eBook

Alexander Elinson, Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature and Director of the Hunter College Summer Arabic Program, received his M.A. (1998) from the University of Washington in Seattle, and Ph.D. (2004) in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. His book entitled Looking Back at al-Andalus: the poetics of loss and nostalgia in medieval Arabic and Hebrew Literature is published by Brill. Professor Elinson has published articles, reviews and translations on the Arabic and Hebrew strophic poem (zajal and muwashshah), rhymed prose narrative (maqama), and modern Arabic poetry and narrative in numerous peer-reviewed journals. In addition to his scholarly work, he is also a literary translator. His translation of Youssef Fadel’s novel A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me is published by Hoopoe, an imprint of the American University in Cairo Press. His translation of the short story “Derb Sidi Bouloukat: a noisy disappearance in an ill-reputed alley” by Allal Bourqia will appear in a collection entitled Marrakech Noir, edited by Yassin Adnan, forthcoming from Akashic Books. He is currently working on two more translations: Farah by Youssef Fadel and Hot Maroc by Yassin Adnan. Since 2015 he has been working on developing teaching materials for Arab heritage learners as part of the Center for Integrated Language Communities at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Working with the Data: the Students and Instructors of Languages at Community Colleges Surveys

Eric Ketcham is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the Assistant Director of the Center for Integrated Language Communities (CILC) and the Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context (ILETC). He previously held a Demography Fellowship from the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research and has taught at Lehman College. He holds an M.A. in Sociology from Queens College and a B.A. in Linguistics and Psychology from Northeastern University.

Dr. Tomonori Nagano is an Associate Professor of Japanese and Linguistics. He received his Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center and his MA in TESOL from New York University. His research interests are second language acquisition and Japanese as a heritage language. Dr. Nagano is currently working on the acquisition of causativity in English and Japanese and the acquisition of English collocations by non-native English speakers. He also published several articles in demographics of heritage language speakers through his recent involvement in the Henry-Luce Heritage Pathways Project at LaGuardia Community College. Dr. Nagano taught Japanese at various institutions, including Queens College of CUNY and he is a certified ACTFL OPI Tester in Japanese. See his personal web page at LaGuardia for a list of his publications and grants.

Integrating Task Based Language Teaching into Language Courses

Tom Means is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, where he is also Director of the Italian Language Program. He holds a PhD in Italian and Second Language Acquisition from Rutgers University. His research interests center on the effectiveness of teaching and learning methodologies of languages, especially variations of task-based language teaching.

Luisanna Sardu is Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at Manhattan College. She pursued a M.A in Comparative Studies, Languages, and Linguistics at Florida Atlantic University, and completed her PhD in Comparative Literature/Italian Specialization at The Graduate Center CUNY. Luisanna’s research focuses on Women’s Studies, Italian Literature, and Second Language Acquisition Theory.

Integrating Telecollaborative Activities into Language Courses

Valeria Belmonti is the Director of the Modern Languages Media Center at the College of Staten Island/CUNY and the Coordinator of Heritage Telecollaboration at the Center for Integrated Language Communities. She designs and coordinates with faculty the integration of intercultural telecollaborative projects into foreign language courses as well as International Studies.

Marjolaine Auclair-Davreux is a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Montreal, Canada. Her research focuses on language teacher education in Canada and abroad, specifically at the K-12 levels. For the last few years, she has been collaborating with the Center for Integrated Language Communities, particularly in the Heritage Telecollaboration Project. She holds an M.A. in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and a B.A. in Primary Education with a specialization in teaching French as a foreign language, both from the University of Granada, Spain.

Olga Aksakalova, PhD, is Associate Professor of English and COIL Project Coordinator at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY. She teaches composition and literature courses that frequently incorporate global perspectives and interactions. Her research interests include transnational implementations of writing pedagogy, autobiography studies, and 20th century American literature. Dr. Aksakalova teaches COIL courses and supports faculty in their attempts to develop and run COIL.

Aránzazu Borrachero is Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Queensborough Community College (CUNY), where she designed and assessed the Spanish Heritage track. Sponsored by the Center for Integrated Language Communities (CILC) and a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education, she has successfully developed and taught a Telecollaboration curriculum for heritage speakers. Besides Spanish for Heritage Speakers, her areas of interest and specialization include Critical Pedagogy, and Spanish Cultural and Gender Studies.

Kyoko M. Toyama, PhD is Associate Professor of Counseling/College Discovery Program and and Adjunct Lecturer in the department of Education, Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College of City University of New York. Her research interests include cross-cultural counseling and communications, women’s psychological development and college student retention. She received a MA and M.Ed. from Teachers College of Columbia University and PhD from New York University. Dr. Toyama has been involved with an online international learning with Matsusho Junior College/Matumoto University in Japan since 2015.

Developing the Writing Proficiency of Spanish Heritage Learners

Alberta Gatti is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the director of the Center for Integrated Language Communities (CILC, a National Language Resource Center), and the Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context (ILETC) where she conducts and oversees research and material development projects related to language education. Dr. Gatti specializes in Spanish literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as on language education. Currently, she is investigating the writing proficiency of heritage learners.

Dr. Teresa O’Neill is Co-Coordinator of the Writing Proficiency of Heritage Learners study, and former Assistant Director of the Institute of Language Education in Transcultural Context and the Center for Integrated Language Communities at The CUNY Graduate Center. Her research, which spans theoretical and applied subfields of linguistics, examines language variation from formal, experimental, and pedagogical perspectives. She taught linguistics, TESOL, and modern languages at CUNY from 2007–2016.

Developing the Writing Proficiency of Chinese Heritage Learners

Ming-Ying Li holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Language, Culture and Society from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to her current position at Hunter College, she worked at Pennsylvania State University and University of Colorado Boulder. At Penn State and CU Boulder, she has taught Chinese language courses of various levels for Chinese Language Program and Summer Language Institute.

Bing-Ying Hu has been a language instructor for the Hunter Chinese Flagship Program since 2011. The Hunter Chinese Flagship Program emphasizes on proficiency based instruction and aims to help its students to reach professional level Chinese language proficiency within 4-5 years. Bing-Ying has taught Chinese language courses of various levels, and is also interested in developing tutorial materials to strengthen the core proficiency-based curriculum. Bing-Ying earned her M.A. degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from Hunter College.