The annual ACTFL Convention will take place in Nashville, TN, from November 17-19, and Yale will be well-represented! Below are the presenters, titles and abstracts copied from the online convention program. If you’re not traveling to Nashville for the conference this year, you can follow tweets using the #ACTFL17 hashtag. (list created by Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl)
Angela Lee-Smith (EALL), Sarab Al-Ani (NELC), Shiri Goren (NELC), and Quang Van (SE Asian Council): “The lost and found “C”: Community-based language teaching and learning” (Friday, 11/17, 11:00am-12:00pm)
- This session presents a collaborative project in which college-level Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Arabic and Korean courses incorporated community-based, student-driven projects into their language curriculum, and discusses the outcomes of the projects and their pedagogical implications.
Hsiu-Hsien Chan (EALL) (with Yufen Lee Mehta, Cornell University, and Min-Min Liang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology): “Teaching Chinese heritage learners: Strategies for oral and literacy skills” (Friday, 11/17, 1:15pm-2:15pm)
- This panel proposes strategies to elevate Chinese heritage learners’ oral and literacy proficiency with more sophisticated lexicon and syntax, and formal register. A study of discourse analyses of 100 essays and pedagogical applications of oral presentations to enhance literacy skills, will be presented.
Maria Kaliambou (Modern Greek) (with Maria Katradis, George Mason University and Ismini Michail, Hellenic Education Center): “Teaching Modern Greek as a heritage language in PK-16 classrooms” (Friday, 11/17, 3:45pm-4:45pm)
- This interactive session will focus on the teaching of Modern Greek as an HL in Pre-K – 16 classrooms. Examples will be provided from different contexts, proficiency levels, and mixed classroom environments. Participants will share their own experiences and work collaboratively to differentiate innovative lesson plans with HL students in mind.
Mary Jo DiBiase-Lubrano (CLS): “What educators want to know about assessment: Is it what they need to know?” (Saturday, 11/18, 10:40am-11:00am)
- This paper will discuss the findings of a survey sent to 53 language educators to investigate the effectiveness of assessment literacy workshops they attended and to identify educators’ perceptions of what specific knowledge and skills are needed to develop classroom-based assessments.
Fan Liu (EALL) (with Lulei Su, College of the Holy Cross, and Jianfei Chen, Princeton University): “Division or combination: Accommodating “Hua” & “Yang” in the Chinese classroom” (Saturday, 11/18, 2:00pm-3:00pm)
- Previous belief holds that Chinese heritage and non-heritage learners should be organized in two independent tracks. Through empirical research and field teaching, this session revisits this notion and presents organizational principles, language awareness, and learning activities that accommodate both groups, “Hua” and “Yang,” in the same classroom.
Irina Dolgova (Slavic) (with Cynthia Martin, University of Maryland, and Martina Lindseth, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire): “Personalizing instruction for Intermediate High-Advanced Low learners” (Saturday, 11/18, 5:15pm-6:15pm)
- Presenters will share strategies for curricular design and classroom activities to individualize learning in the IH-AL range. Additionally, presenters will highlight ways to use new technologies (such as popular learning management systems) to document student progress, create portfolios including audio/video, and reduce the daily grading burden.
Ame Cividanes (Spanish and Portuguese): “Engaging the student-host family connection in study abroad programs” (Sunday, 11/19, 8:00am-9:00am)
- With the increase in attention given to the study abroad experience, linguistic and cultural connections are a top priority. The relationship between student and host family is an integral part of this experience. This presentation will focus on conversation prompts for students to actively engage in meaningful communication with their host families.
Theresa Schenker (German) (with Angelika Kraemer, Michigan State University, and Carl Niekerk, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): “Getting published in the AATG journals” (Sunday, 11/19, 10:00am-11:00am)
- Session attendees will meet the editors of the AATG Journals Die Unterrichtspraxis and German Quarterly and learn about the submission process and the types of articles that are accepted. In breakout groups, the editors will discuss the specific components required for a manuscript and how to turn an idea into a published article.
Congratulations to all!