BREAKFAST and REGISTRATION

INTRODUCTION

Chris Jones, Carnegie Mellon University
Ed Dixon, NEALLT President, University of Pennsylvania

OPENING REMARKS

Chris Hallstein, Associate-Chair, Modern Languages Department of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

Shijuan "Laurel" Liu
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Examination of the Use of Online Games in Chinese Language Teaching and Learning

This session examines the use of online games in Chinese language teaching and learning. Studies find that digital games can increase learners' motivation and attention, and better engage them in language learning. Interactive games, such as Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Games (MMORPG), have also been found helpful for enhancing interactions among learners and for fostering immersive and authentic learning environments. In addition to the introduction of some free online games, this session will discuss issues related to integration of online games into the formal language instruction. This session provides implications for language instructors, researchers as well as designer sand developers of online games for Chinese learning and teaching.

Mariana Achugar, Felipe Gómez, Kenya Dworkin
Carnegie Mellon University

Community Collaborations through Heritage Language, Culture and Technology: Carnegie Mellon University's CIRCULO OUTREACH PROGRAM for Hispanic chidren in Pittsburgh

The CIRCULO OUTREACH PROGRAM at CMU promotes heritage language/culture maintenance & development in local Hispanic children ages 5-12 in an environment that allows them to engage with other native and/or heritage speakers, and advanced L2 learners. Our mission is actually two-fold. One goal is to address our nation's and community's critical need for truly proficient speakers of languages other than English (1), but the other is to try to close the gap for U.S. Latino children with regards to education, future employment, and technology use (2). This presentation will focus on examples of how we integrate technology into our workshops, sample results, and a discussion of challenges.

John Kuiphoff
The College of New Jersey

Social Syllabus

Social Syllabus is a lightweight course delivery platform that supports the development of dynamic course websites, collaborative learning environments and professional networks. Social Syllabus promotes the open content movement, positioning teaching and learning as a social practice. As such, all courses are publicly accessible. Unlike traditional learning management systems that focus primarily on course administration, Social Syllabus provides students and instructors with tools designed to foster collaborative academic communities.

Svetlana Korshunova
University of Pennsylvania

Great Expectations: Computer-Enhanced Foreign Language Instruction from Students' Perspective

My presentation will be focused on the issue of benefits and limitations of computer-enhanced foreign language instruction in a Russian heritage learners' classroom, considered from the students' perspective. I will examine students' written responses to the questions regarding the effectiveness, character, diversity, and "ideal dose" of the computer activities employed in a language classroom.

Felipe Gomez
Carnegie Mellon University

(Beyond) Radio: the language classroom and technologies for cultural/linguistic expansion and community connection

Radio has been used for a hundred years for different purposes which may have at times been educational, political, bellicose, community-oriented, commercial, or revolutionary among others, or a combination of several of the former. This presentation considers ways in which the language classroom can take advantage of this "old" technology in the age of instant electronic communication as an ideal medium for the purpose of giving students the opportunity to improve and expand their linguistic and cultural skills while also contributing to the "real world" of a local community. Additionally, it explores ways in which radio can be paired up with new technologies to further these objectives while also making use of students' interest in and adeptness at social forms of electronic communication.

Adriana Merino + Celeste Mann
Villanova University

Tell-A-Tale: The Art of Storytelling

Storytelling is at the heart of communication. In this presentation, we showcase Spanish and Portuguese storytelling projects that boost fluency. Technology enhances the creation of L2 learners' stories, documentaries and other narratives. Continuous assessment, peer feedback, and low stake assignments bolster students' technological tendencies to guide them to proficiency.

In today's classrooms, the teacher steps aside, and encourages learners to be protagonists. Digital content furthers the collaborative outcome. Students become storytellers, producers, actors, creators, critics, and overall SPEAKERS. Students demonstrate motivation, creativity, self-confidence, metalinguistic awareness, and proficiency.

Eduardo Lage-Otero
Trinity College

Charting new courses: Teachers as cartographers

At a time when online mapping and data visualization tools of all kinds are rapidly multiplying, this presentation proposes that instructors adopt the role of cartographers to help students chart their own course on the way to becoming independent learners. Maps are complex metaphors that have become the online platform of choice for data visualization. They represent way-finding tools, a means to connect diverse ideas, a representation of visible and invisible landmarks, and ultimately an arbitrary depiction of reality. Using as an example a first-year seminar on Hispanic travel literature, this presentation will discuss how to conceptualize course design and instruction using online mapping tools with the goal of fostering the acquisition of complex learning skills, namely, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the course materials.

Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo
Kutztown University

Facebook without the "Friendship" Trap

A 2010 Educause Paper, "7 Things You Should Know About Facebook", notes that "Facebook has struck a chord with millions of college students, drawing them in to an online world where they spend countless hours . . . . Any technology that is able to captivate so many students for so much time … offers an opportunity for educators to understand the elements of social networking that students find so compelling and to incorporate those elements into teaching and learning" (2). However, the risks of Facebook are numerous, including the risks of "friending" students. Newspaper reports from across the U.S. recount stories of teachers reprimanded or fired for Facebook posts or pictures. How, then, can one harness the social networking power of Facebook and minimize the risks?

This presentation will look at several options for how teachers can use Facebook "Pages" in inventive ways to increase student engagement while avoiding the need to "friend" students, teachers or classmates. Several scenarios will be offered and suggestions will be offered for mitigating remaining issues (e.g., FERPA).

Sue-mei Wu
Carnegie Mellon University

Leveraging Technology to Empower Students' Chinese Character Learning

This presentation introduces a Chinese character learning website designed to provide resources and interactive character learning activities to help learners overcome some of the difficulties inherent in becoming literate in Chinese. The website introduces 1,200 commonly used characters which are typically covered in elementary and intermediate Chinese courses in U.S. colleges and high schools. Information on each character is provided, including audio of the character's pronunciation, and an animation demonstrating the stroke order for writing the character. The character information is searchable by several different search keys, and is accompanied by interactive exercises and quizzes, which provide rapid feedback to learners.

Mika Tsekoura
University of Pennsylvania, PLC

Language teaching and food demonstration

Simulating a «food network» show, which will be taped, creates an incentive for the students to learn their material and to  do well in their presentation. Students have the opportunity to reasearch recipes, learn about food, writing up the script and rehearse so they are fluent. The end results would be shared with the community, uploaded to Blackboard for future use and be a modal of inspiration for future students. It will  demonstrate the students' skills and advertise the course.

LUNCH

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP for Language Lab Directors

Ihnhee Kim
University of Pennsylvania

Incorporating popular music and empowering students' autonomy in grammar learning

Using contemporary popular music can be a useful resource for students to notice, practice, and retain a target grammar pattern. By utilizing culturally authentic music video clips, this media-enhanced instruction incorporates interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication. The benefits of this innovative method include strengthened connections between the teacher's instruction and the students' orientation with personalized application of grammar patterns, and between the students' listening and speaking development. By adapting the 'noticing hypothesis' and 'comprehensible input', this presentation introduces effective activities from the bottom-up approach to the top-down approach through which teachers draw students' attention and meet their learning styles as a guide and a friend. This method empowers students' autonomy in learning by challenging them to use grammar in real-life situations.

Luba Iskold
Muhlenberg College

Engaging Students beyond the Classroom: Instructor as Mediator & Guide on Facebook

Complementing face-to-face instruction with virtual collaboration on popular SNSs (social networking sites) is becoming increasingly common among educators. Findings from recent research suggest that SNSs may be useful in pedagogy. However, many questions remain unanswered and numerous instructional challenges need further examination. This presentation will examine instructor role as facilitator, mediator, and guide on Facebook; provide examples of student work with imagined L2 identities in an Intermediate Russian course, and present findings from Student Survey regarding instructor role on FB.

Enza Antenos-Conforti
Montclair State University

iLearn iTalian: Student Perceptions on Using the iPad

The ubiquity of mobile devices in the lives of students creates opportunities for innovation in the FL classroom. How do students perceive the iPad as a tool for advancing their knowledge of Italian? Does it personalize learning? Do they believe they interact with content differently? These and other findings will be presented.

The iPad combines a portable media player, personal digital assistant, and Wi-Fi mobile platform. It has the potential to enhance learning as follows: 1) its multi-touch graphical user interface requires greater interaction by the user, therefore, learners may have a greater interaction with content accessible by applications; 2) it merges personalization with accessibility. Students can download various applications that meet their learning needs/preferences and continue their learning in any environment where a wireless network is available; and 3) it facilitates student engagement in both social and participatory learning via social networking sites, and via text, audio and video capabilities. Participants will see examples of applications used and tasks from a Commercial Italian course.

Heba Farag
Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Be Friendly But Not Friends With Your Students

This proposal examines if the relationship between teachers and students who live together turns to be like that between friends and how this affects instructional practice inside class. I experienced this in 2009\2010 when I worked as an English demonstrator at Ain Shams University, Egypt and also lived with four of my students in the same dorm and in 2010\2011 when I worked as a Fulbright Arabic Teaching Assistant at the University of Pennsylvania where also I used to live with one of my students in the same suite. The results of these experiences showed that students dealt with me as a friend outside class, found it 'weird' to find their 'friend' their teacher and did not attend all classes. For me, it was awkward to be formal with them inside class. The implications of my findings proved that teachers and students cannot be friends but should be friendly.

Sean Patrick Palmer
LaGuardia Community College

Voice and Diction as a Hybrid Course

Students from over 110 countries attend LaGuardia Comunity College. As a result, every class is an ESL class. Voice and Diction, in particular, attracts many ESL students who want to work on their pronunciation.

Starting in early March, I am making Voice and Diction a hybrid course: half of the course time will be face-to-face, the other half will be asynchronous. The college, and CUNY, for that matter, are encouraging faculty to develop more online classes.

This presentation will discuss what LaGuardia is doing to aid in the development of hybrid classes, the alterations I've made to my Voice and Diction and a discussion of how the class is progressing.

Abeer Aloush
University of Pennsylvania

Enhancing verbal/linguistic intelligence through technology in teaching Arabic

Educational technology has a significant positive impact on achievement across all levels of learning a second language. It has positive effects on student attitudes and makes instruction more student-centered, encourages cooperative learning, and stimulated increased teacher/student interaction. The author of frames of Mind, Howard Gardner found that seven or more "multiple intelligences" that of equal importance in human beings and develop at different times and in different ways in different individual; and that multi-media can go along way to addressing these intelligences, much more than traditional teaching methods. Verbal/Linguistic intelligence is one of these intelligences. Thus, integrating technology in teaching a second language enhance the ability to think, communicate, and create through words both in speech and in writing. Audio and video recording can give students instant feedback on their storytelling skills and can help them develop them further. Although Arabic is known, for many reasons, as number one difficult language to learn in the States (Statistics 2008- NYU), I argue in my paper that this concept could apply on teaching it. For instance, students at a beginner level become able in the first month to produce a narrative/communicative language at a high novice/low intermediate level according to ACTFL.

Robert R. Daniel
Saint Joseph's University

Teachers as... Framers of Case Studies

This presentation will illustrate a practice that typically finds its place in the business or business-language classroom. I will focus on specific strategies for creating and framing case studies that can be drawn from television news reports, newspaper or newsmagazine articles and films. I will suggest ways in which the case study may be pushed beyond a restrictive business focus, widening into the realms of cultural knowledge, intercultural understanding and of target-language proficiency. When framed well and presented effectively through appropriate technology (platforms and tools), case studies can provide intermediate-to-advanced-level students with meaningful language practice and lead them to insights and competencies corresponding to the "Five Cs," culture, comparison, communication, community and connections. [This proposal is informed by the work of Margaret Gonglewski and Anna Helm, of George Washington University]

Michael Jones
Swarthmore College

Redesigning Learning Spaces

Swarthmore just finished the process of redesigning the Language Resource Center with a goal of creating a dynamic, engaging, flexible learning space that would appeal to Students and Faculty. With limited funding we targeted changes that would make the space more functional and would increase the visibility and visual appeal of the facility. This session will talk about budget, process and options we considered in addition to showing pictures of the final product.

Li Yan
Center for Language Study, Yale University

Foreign Language Teachers as Learning Guide and Manager: Implications from a Longitudinal Study on Learner Autonomy

This presentation aims at highlighting the roles of foreign language teachers as learning guide and manager in the context of technology-intensive language teaching and learning. The discussion is based on an empirical study which examines the longitudinal effects of a learner development program on Chinese non-English major graduates' autonomy in two English learning situations: within-classes and after-classes. This study compares the autonomy of experimental and control groups at the stages of planning and monitoring/assessment. The results have significant implications for foreign language teachers' roles in developing learner autonomy and improving language learning efficiency.

Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia
University of Pennsylvania

The Making of Italian Online: (Re)Inventing the (E)Teacher

My forthcoming online course, "Italian Survival Kit: The Language and Culture of getting around in Italy," promises to provide the flexibility of distance-learning as well as content taught efficiently in order to be used practically. But, what will my role as (E)Teacher be in this virtual space? How will I guide, manage, and effectively assess my students' communication and development across this computer-mediated distance? In my presentation, I will confront these questions, as well as others, as they arise during the making of Online Italian in order to contribute my own (re)invention as an online teacher. I will consider the significance of language teaching without the possibility for synchronous intervention that I have used in face-to-face instruction, as well as my new role as avatar or "friend," for example, in sites whose main purpose is not educational, but rather social.

Dongdong Chen
Seton Hall University

Digital Storytelling: a Project for College Beginners of Chinese

Digital storytelling is a modern practice of telling stories by using multimedia objects such as voice narration, text, images, animation, and/or music. Short and personal with a "mini-movies" looking, digital stories can enable foreign language learners to express themselves in the target language engagingly and creatively. With respect to learning Chinese as a foreign language, producing a digital story requires learners to write a script, record the narrative, and synchronize spoken narratives with photographs or video clips. All these not only hone their critical analysis, and multimedia skills, but also lead to the development of Chinese proficiency. This presentation will demonstrate the process of having college beginners of Chinese tell their own personal stories in the language being learned as a term-long project. Teacher's roles in planning the project and preparing students so as to maximize learning will be discussed. Applications available for making digital stories will be evaluated.

Yoshihiro Yasuhara
Carnegie Mellon University

Cultural Analysis and Interpretation in Japanese Studies

This presentation will exemplify an implementation of the Content-Based Instruction at my two advanced-level cultural courses—"The Intra-national Others: Rethinking Culture from the Marginal Voices of Japan" and "The Transnational Within: Muticulturalism in Japan and Beyond," investigating the problems with students' attempt at interpretation of cultural texts and hoping to share how to improve the problems with the participants in NEALLT 2012. As students' interpretations are a focal point for assessing their performance on higher cognitive functions such as analysis and synthesis, questions to tackle are as follows: How can we possibly design the syllabus of such courses, which are taught entirely in Japanese, while maintaining the quality of materials to read and view? In what ways can we improve students' performance in class discussion and writings, often in need of teaching methodologies in a technology-intensive context? And what kind of rubric for students' writing is considered to be appropriate?

Cindy Evans
Skidmore College

Blurring the boundaries between teachers and learners: Disruptive pedagogy for a disruptive curriculum

The presenter will describe the ongoing (r)evolution in teacher and learner roles within the Languages Across the Curriculum program at a small liberal arts college. The innovative nature of the LAC program has given rise to a unique model of learning that offers a departure from standard practice in much the same way that disruptive technology displaces the established order.

Ed Dixon + Christina Frei
University of Pennsylvania

A Model for Teaching Online Courses with Social Media and Networks: a 3-year report

In this paper, presenters will focus on student outcomes from Elementary online courses in German, Haitian Creole, Polish and Turkish that have been taught at the University of Pennsylvania since 2010.  Within the context of student outcomes, we will discuss student evaluations, give samples of the students' linguistic competency and look at their progress as they continue their language studies at the intermediate level and transition from the online courses to the F2F classroom. Finally, presenters will outline what lies ahead.

Daniel Walter
Carnegie Mellon University

Discussion boards and their potential to foster a classroom community

In the current era of increasingly digitalized classrooms, a major problem has been creating a classroom environment which fosters inter-student communication and classroom socialization. This problem is quite prevalent in online and blended courses, where physical contact is significantly reduced in comparison to traditional courses, but it is also important to understand how online communication can enhance the traditional classroom environment. Innovating new ways of creating a classroom community and interactional space is especially vital to language teaching, where current pedagogy emphasizes a communicative approach. As one possible solution, this presentation will focus on how discussion-boards can enhance interaction between students in the full range of traditional classrooms to fully online courses. Specifically, I propose that when teachers and students co-create the social norms for the use of discussion boards, and when discussion-boards become fully implemented spaces of student-student and student-teacher communication, discussion-boards are an important tool for promoting interaction.

Michela Baraldi
Cornell University

Facebooking Your Classroom: Social Networking and Secret Identities in the Language Class

The focus of my presentation will be the project I designed for my Intermediate Italian language classes and the results it had on the overall learning environment. So as to encourage students to practice and share the language and culture they were learning, I asked them to choose a secret, famous Italian identity and to open a Facebook page. As part of the project I, the teacher, 'friended" the group, acting as a guide for the students; in other words, I was both a learning-manager as well as co-learner. No one knew the identities of the student personae except for me. In my presentation I'll detail how I organized their various interactions among students, discuss my initial expectations and how they changed over the course of the semester, and conclude by reflecting on what worked and what didn't. I will end with some thoughts about the thorny question of assessing student performance.

Monica Bevia
Cornell University

Video blogging: A collaborative activity to promote cultural competence

Are you looking for ways to enhance your students' cultural knowledge? Video blogging is challenging, interesting, and thought provoking. Students collaborate with native speakers to film and present cultural videos that their classmates will view and respond to with comments and questions. This session will present a project conducted in an intermediate-level Medical Spanish class that could be adapted to any course level or language. Specific production details will be provided along with explanations of housing the videos on Vimeo.

Helen McFie-Simone
University of Pennsylvania

Teacher, text and technology: what can students tell us in our evolving quest for an effective learning environment for L2 acquisition?

Teacher, text and technology: what can students tell us in our evolving quest for an effective learning environment for L2 acquisition?

This paper will discuss the results of an on-line survey done in the Department of Italian at UPenn, in which language students and those who chose to minor or major in Italian were asked to evaluate the role of their teacher, their textbook and the technology used in the classroom in both their primary foreign language learning experience and in their language learning experience at the University. This paper will provide the results of the survey and will analyze what the results mean for teachers in their quest to find an effective learning environment for their L2 students.

Na-Rae Han and LaShanda Lemmon
University of Pittsburgh

Tour of the Henderson Language Media Center
Meet in room A19 to be guided to Pitt

DINNER (requires extra registration)