Emory College Language Center Newsletter 2011-12

IN THIS ISSUE

Overview of 2011-2012 programs

Faculty and Student Awards

The Benefits of Foreign Language Study

SILS: A program for Studying Less Commonly Taught Languages

Consortium on Useful Assessment in Languages and Humanities Education

Language Assessment Workshop

“Languages Make a Difference” Video Portrait Series

iPads in Higher Education

The ECLC and iTunes U

Please send all inquiries to:

Emory College Language CenterEmory University 540 Asbury Circle

421A Woodruff Library Atlanta GA 30322 Phone: 404.727.8319

languagecenter.emory.edu

ECLC NEWSLETTER No. 1

Winter 2011-2012

Emory College Language Center

As the Faculty Director of the Emory College Language Center (ECLC), I welcome you to the inaugural ECLC newsle=er and encourage you to familiarize yourself with all that is happening in and with the ECLC. Started ten years ago, the ECLC has played a significant role in supporDng and promoDng the teaching and learning of foreign languages at Emory. I am now in my second year as Director and have benefited greatly from the excellent foundaDon established by my two predecessors, Mahmoud Al-‐Batal and Carol Herron. I also am fortunate to have an acDve and interested ExecuDve Commi=ee consisDng of representaDves of all 19 languages taught at Emory who advise me on language-‐related concerns at Emory and beyond. Together we have established an agenda that addresses important issues for language educators at Emory. Specifically, we have idenDfied three main areas to focus on these past two years: advocacy for and acknowledgement of the benefits of foreign language study; exploraDon and understanding of advanced language abiliDes; development of useful and meaningful assessment pracDces. Wherever possible, instrucDonal technology is examined for its

possible contribuDon to these issues. In that regard, the ECLC is very fortunate to have as its Technology Coordinator Chase Lovelle=e whose outstanding technical experDse has benefited many language faculty on campus. Another important contributor to the success of the ECLC is its Program Coordinator Sarah Shor=, who plays an integral role in coordinaDng and organizing all the ECLC acDviDes, including the compilaDon of this newsle=er. In addiDon to this annual update on the state of the ECLC, I also invite you to visit our recently reconfigured website for the latest informaDon on foreign language study at Emory (languagecenter.emory.edu).

W E L C O M E F RO M T H E D I R E C TO R

Hiram MaximDirector, ECLC

German Studies and Linguis9cs

http://languagecenter.emory.edu




languagecenter.emory.edu 2

The 2011-‐2012 academic year has already been a produc7ve one for the ECLC. The fall semester saw several events that have aimed to assist and support foreign language educa7on on campus. A lunch lecture series en7tled “Collegiate Foreign Language Educa7on in the 21st Century” was inaugurated in order to provide a forum for Emory College foreign language faculty to share their scholarly and pedagogical work on foreign language instruc7on. In September 2011 Senior Lecturer Wan-‐Li Ho from the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures (REALC) presented on her extensive work with podcasts and digital stories in her Chinese classes. The following month Senior Lecturer Lisa Dillman presented on her integra7on of sustainability issues into her Spanish course. Both presenta7ons served as the point of departure for further discussion about these issues in foreign language classes at Emory. Planned for 2012 are presenta7ons on the course management system Blackboard in the foreign language classroom, text-‐based foreign language curriculum construc7on, and the development of wri7ng and speaking abili7es through digital stories.

Also in October 2011 the ECLC hosted Dr. Cecilia Colombi, Chair and Professor of Spanish at UC-‐Davis, for a lecture on her research about heritage learners of Spanish. The number of heritage learners in foreign language classes at Emory has increased over the last decade, and Dr. Colombi shared with the audience her research findings that reveal the type of longitudinal development heritage learners undergo to achieve advanced abili7es in the language. Dr. Colombi’s talk

along with all public lectures sponsored by the ECLC will be available on the ECLC website.

In November 2011 the ECLC hosted two events that reflect the larger role that the ECLC plays on campus. The first was a panel discussion on the promo7on process for lecture-‐track faculty. ECLC Director Hiram Maxim moderated a panel consis7ng of Michael EllioY, Associate Dean of Emory College, Karen Stolley, Associate Professor of Spanish, and Vialla Har\ield-‐Mendez, Professor of Pedagogy of Spanish, who discussed the history, the guidelines, and the process for promo7on for lecture-‐track faculty, with par7cular aYen7on paid to the recently established “third 7er” that rewards outstanding Senior Lecturers with the 7tle of Professor of Pedagogy, Prac7ce, or Performance. The second event was a workshop conducted by Yukiko Watanabe from the University of Hawai’i on speaking assessment as part of Emory’s involvement in the Consor7um on Useful Assessment.

Spring 2012 will see the con7nua7on of several ongoing ini7a7ves: the lunch lecture series; work by member programs of the Consor7um on Useful Assessment on developing meaningful assessment prac7ces; and a second summer instruc7onal technology workshop. Two other ini7a7ves begun last spring – student-‐created digital stories to document summer study abroad experiences and video portraits of students’ language learning experiences at Emory – will be featured on the ECLC website. In addi7on, the ECLC is very excited about the guest lecture by noted cogni7ve psychologist Ellen Bialystok from the University of York, Canada on April 10, 2012. She will speak on the costs, benefits, and consequences of lifelong bilingualism. Other ac7vi7es include the development of independent study materials for select languages on the ECLC website. One final area of involvement for the ECLC will be its par7cipa7on in two College-‐wide discussions: the changing policy regarding credit hours and the assessment of the language requirement as part of the College’s overall assessment of the General Educa7on Requirements. As in previous years, the academic year would not be complete without the annual ECLC awards ceremony where outstanding student and faculty performances are recognized.

ECLC NEWSLETTER No. 1 Winter 2011-2012

Wan-‐Li HoREALC

Cecilia ColombiChair and Professor of Spanish

UC-‐Davis

Karen StolleySpanish and Portuguese

Overview of 2011-2012 ECLC Programs




Because of the extensive curriculum reform in my home department of German Studies, I had planned to develop websites on the course management system Blackboard for German 101 and German 102. These sites would offer all related materials in one central place, thereby helping instructors of the introductory courses. These

courses are oXen taught by temporary faculty unfamiliar with our new curricular approach or without extensive material.

When a new version of Blackboard was introduced in May 2011, I revised my plans and chose to create one central shared Blackboard site for all German Studies faculty where materials for all courses, not just the first year, could be stored. I updated all relevant instrucDonal materials, added addiDonal materials, including new colorful graphs, songs, links, and YouTube clips, and then placed everything on the one shared site.

Each course site follows the same structure, starDng with course goals, schedules of assignments, texts, worksheets, informaDon (on word-‐banks, grammar, and culture), wriDng and speaking tasks, feedback forms, space for recording tasks, teacher comments, and a folder for addiDonal informaDon where faculty can place addiDonal songs, video clips, and


Faculty and Student AwardsOne of the primary goals set forth in the Mission Statement of the Emory College Language Center is to recognize outstanding achievement of both language faculty and language students. Each Spring semester the ECLC presents the following awards: the Curriculum Development Fellowship, the Excellence in Language Teaching Award, and the Excellence in Language Studies Award.

Marianne LancasterECLC Curriculum Development Fellowship Recipient for 2011

Marianne LancasterGerman Studies

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is delighted to have been chosen as recipient of the ECLC Curricular Development award for its proposal to redesign Spanish 300: Text and Context. Spanish 300 is the first course taken by all Spanish majors and minors. A cultural history course that a=empts to provide students with the required framework to carry on in their studies successfully, it is also designed to hone their criDcal analyDcal skills. AXer successfully compleDng this class, therefore, majors and minors may then take any 300-‐ or 400-‐level seminar. To this end, the course is transatlanDc and covers several centuries – from the earliest inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula to 21st century LaDn America. First developed over a decade ago, the class has conDnued to evolve over Dme and exposes students to a wide variety of texts (visual, wri=en, etc) as reference points. We would now like to broaden and deepen exposure to these texts, basing the course around a selecDon of primary texts that may serve as foci around which to perform close readings and to organize a criDcal framework. Enter the ECLC grant! The Curricular Development Fellowship will enable us to streamline entry to the major, while making subsequent upper-‐division classes more accessible and relevant and maintaining a transatlanDc and transhistoric scope. This is quite a daunDng task, and we’re very grateful that Professor Dierdra Reber has agreed to act as our primary course developer during Spring 2012.

-‐Lisa DillmanSpanish and Portuguese

Department of Spanish and Portuguese:ECLC Curriculum Development Fellowship Recipients for 2012

other relevant materials. I encourage all of our faculty and students to enhance the collecDon. At the end of each unit the faculty can then access the test review sheet and a sample unit test.

The adopDon of the new ediDon of our first-‐year textbook along with the new on-‐line workbook for Fall 2011 also required me to update all course materials to correspond to the new ediDon.

I hope that our students and faculty now have easier access to all learning materials and thank the ECLC for your generous support.

Curriculum Development Fellowship

The Curriculum Development Fellowship aims to provide support to foreign language faculty who plan to develop teaching materials, assessment tools, and/or research designs that will benefit foreign language programs at Emory.

-‐Marianne LancasterGerman Studies




Lisa Dillman, Senior Lecturer in Spanish, received the 2011 ECLC Award for Excellence in Language Teaching. Lisa acquired and has maintained a reputaDon as a stellar teacher of Spanish language and Hispanic cultures since she came to Emory in 2001. Her students regularly praise her clarity of explanaDon, her energy, her creaDvity, and her willingness to help them outside the classroom. Numerous students have selected her as a Phi Beta Kappa “most influenDal faculty member”. Similarly, her colleagues and graduate student trainees recognize in Lisa a professional who is dedicated to the teaching of language and culture at all levels. As coordinator of second-‐year Spanish, she has led efforts to insDtute use of Wimba-‐based audio “voiceboards” so that students can improve their pronunciaDon. As part of her parDcipaDon in the Piedmont Project, she created a special secDon of the advanced intermediate Spanish 212


ECLC Awardscontinued from page 3.

Alexis Kellert (Arabic)

Benjamin Lacce5 (Chinese)Jennifer Faye Dilley (French)Callie Jordan (German)

Kristen Fulton (Greek, Ancient)Inbar Raber (Hebrew)Parth Amin (Hindi)

Diane Valahu (Italian)Erin Denio (Japanese)Hannah Chung (Korean) Andra Langoussis (LaLn)

Lauren Elizabeth Becker (Persian)Rebecca Cozad (Portuguese)Eva Lynn Singer (Russian)

Nirav Pravin Patel (Sanskrit) Maxwell Ruppersburg (Tibetan)

Excellence in Language Studies Awards 2011

The Excellence in Language Teaching Award recognizes one language faculty member who has a minimum of six years on the Emory College faculty, an outstanding teaching record, evidence of innovaDon in teaching and interest in conDnued professional development, evidence of appreciaDon by peers and students as a model teacher, involvement in language teaching at the various levels, extended service to her/his own language program (on-‐campus acDviDes, study abroad) and to the Emory language community at large, and involvement with students both inside and outside the classroom.

Lisa DillmanRecipient of the 2011 Excellence in Language Teaching Award

Excellence in Language Teaching Award2011

which focuses on issues of sustainability in the Hispanic world. Lisa is also an accomplished literary translator, and her experience as a translator clearly helps her to guide her students to more nuanced understandings of the complexiDes and challenges of communicaDng across linguisDc-‐cultural boundaries. Her translaDon experience has also allowed her to develop a theoreDcally sophisDcated and pracDcally challenging course on the Theory and PracDce of Literary TranslaDon. Lisa’s success in this advanced seminar is noteworthy, for it has become one of the most sought-‐aXer Spanish courses and, aXer taking it, several students have asked Lisa to direct Honors theses on the topic of translaDon theory and pracDce.

¡¡Enhorabuena, Lisa!!-‐Don Tuten

Spanish and Portuguese, and Linguis;cs

The Excellence in Language Studies awards are presented to one student in each language offered at Emory College. Each student is chosen by his or her respecDve department and recognized at the ECLC awards ceremony held in their honor each Spring. In the Spring of 2011, the following students were recognized.




Those of us who teach foreign languages at Emory have prepared for many challenges over the years. We have learned a new tongue; earned many degrees; and now share our interest with our students. One experience for which we did not prepare, however, is sijng in front of a camera and chajng about the benefits of studying foreign languages. Yet that is precisely what Don Tuten of Spanish and LinguisDcs, Yu Li of REALC, Hiram Maxim of German, Cheryl Crowley of REALC and I, Jon Master, of Classics did back in May in an ECLC organized roundtable.

Perhaps because we followed the ancient maxim that casual and unaffected performance is usually the result of preparaDon, the

discussion proved surprisingly natural and hopefully informaDve. We each took turns addressing a variety of quesDons, such as: What are some pracDcal benefits of studying a foreign language? Why is it necessary to learn another language when everyone else seems to be learning English? Why is Emory a good place to pursue foreign language study?

In discussing these issues we hoped to speak to a variety of audiences including parents anxious that their children’s educaDon lead to something aXer college. Most of all we wanted to connect with students who may wonder why it is beneficial to study foreign language at all.

Though we have not yet mastered the art of being talking heads, over the hour-‐long discussion I do think we provided many reasons for studying foreign language.

Should you wish to view the discussion, which is conveniently separated into segments, the video is available by clicking here.

-‐Jon MasterClassics

The Benefits of Foreign Language Study

Yu LiREALC


Jon MasterClassics

Don TutenSpanish and Portuguese, Linguis9cs



http://ecit.emory.edu/ECLC/faculty_roundtable/eclc_playlist.html

http://ecit.emory.edu/ECLC/faculty_roundtable/eclc_playlist.html


Structured Independent Language Study (SILS) is a non-‐credit language program designed for students who need or want to study languages not offered as part of the regular curriculum. In the SILS program, a college-‐level instructor of the target language develops a self-‐study curriculum for students to follow. Students are required to meet twice a week with a local na7ve speaker for conversa7on prac7ce, and the instructor administers an oral proficiency exam (in person or via Skype) at the end of the semester.

In 2004-‐2005 from requests by Dean Robert Paul of Emory College, Philip Wainwright, the Director of CIPA, Professor Bruce Knauh, the Director of ICIS, and Debra Spitulnik, the former Director of the Linguis7cs Program, the ECLC under Director Carol Herron’s leadership studied the feasibility and desirability of crea7ng a less-‐commonly taught languages (LCTL) Center at Emory. In 2007-‐08, the Emory College Language Center (ECLC) and the Linguis7cs Program received 4 years of funding from the Race and Difference Ini7a7ve to create a LCTL Program, to be housed in the ECLC. The grant covered a part-‐7me director, a part-‐7me program coordinator, and programming costs (tutors, examiners, textbooks).

A commiYee chaired by Donald Tuten and comprised of Carol Herron, JulieYe Apkarian, and Susan Tamasi was formed in 2007 to search for a Lecturer in Linguis7cs who would also direct the new LCTL program. Following interviews conducted by Donald Tuten, Susan Tamasi, and Carol Herron at the annual conven7ons of the Modern Language Associa7on and the Linguis7cs Society of America, Dr. Marjorie Pak (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) was hired to serve as Lecturer in Linguis7cs and Director of the SILS program beginning in September, 2008. Under the con7nued directorship of Dr. Marjorie Pak, SILS has offered less-‐commonly taught language instruc7on to students from Emory College, the Laney Graduate School, the Rollins School of Public Health, and the Candler School of Theology. Since its crea7on in Fall 2008, SILS has provided instruc7on in 17 different less commonly taught languages (Albanian, American Sign Language, Amharic, Bengali, Georgian, Modern Greek, Hai7an Creole, Indonesian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Serbo-‐Croa7an , Swahili, Thai, Turkish, Twi, and Urdu) to over 90 Emory undergraduate and graduate students to support research and work cri7cal to their current and future academic goals. For example, in the brief amount of 7me since its incep7on SILS has helped students who were

-‐ comple7ng disserta7ons in the Laney Graduate School;-‐ pursuing master’s degrees in the Rollins School of Public Health or the Candler

School of Theology;-‐ preparing for interna7onal careers;-‐ conduc7ng community-‐engaged work overseas;-‐ applying for post-‐graduate fellowships or graduate school; -‐ wri7ng senior honor’s theses for Emory College.

The ECLC is proud and excited to con7nue its support of this mission-‐cri7cal program in the future. More informa7on on the SILS program can be found by visi7ng h>p://languagecenter.emory.edu/sils_program/index.html.


SILS: A Program for Studying Less Commonly Taught Languages

Marjorie PakDirector, SILS



http://languagecenter.emory.edu/sils_program/index.html





Beginning in the Fall semester 2010, the Emory College Language Center began serving as the organizing body for different foreign language departments and programs on campus interested in exploring useful assessment prac7ces for collegiate foreign language study. Two main impetuses served to bring about this focused aYen7on on language assessment. First, the upcoming reaccredita7on of Emory University by the Southern Associa7on of Colleges and Schools (SACS) has mo7vated all departments on campus to develop assessment plans as well as methods for measuring the aYainment of learning outcomes. Second, the Language Center and interested foreign language programs were invited to join the recently formed Consor7um on Useful Assessment in Language and Humani7es Educa7on. This inter-‐ins7tu7onal network between Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rice, and Emory aims to foster a culture of responsible and useful assessment of student learning outcomes in the humani7es. As a collabora7ve effort, it enhances assessment prac7ces developed by individual departments, helps to disseminate exemplary prac7ces within the Consor7um and beyond, and supports research into student learning. More informa7on can be found on the Consor7um’s website.

To date, Emory has par7cipated in two mee7ngs of the Consor7um. In October 2010 representa7ves from five Emory foreign language programs traveled to Georgetown University for two days of mee7ngs with colleagues from the other Consor7um member ins7tu7ons. At that mee7ng it became clear that more founda7onal reading and discussion about useful assessment prac7ces needed to take place at Emory in order to assist programs conceptualize assessment plans and measures that are meaningful and useful to the various stakeholders in the language learning process. To that end, three language assessment workshops (LAW) were held over the next several months to walk par7cipants through the components of useful assessment as outlined by the work done on foreign language program evalua7on at the Na7onal Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawai’i under the directorship of Dr. John Norris. For the third workshop, Yukiko Watanabe from the University of Hawai’i, who has worked extensively on foreign language program evalua7on, led par7cipants through the process of defining, mapping, and assessing student learning outcomes. That workshop was then followed by the second mee7ng of the Consor7um, hosted by the ECLC in April 2011. Different programs of the member ins7tu7ons gave presenta7ons and held theme-‐based and language-‐specific mee7ngs on useful assessment prac7ces in collegiate foreign language educa7on.

Following that mee7ng in late April, the par7cipa7ng foreign language programs at Emory met to plan their next steps regarding useful assessment and decided to focus during the 2011-‐2012 academic year on useful speaking assessment. Yukiko Watanabe returned to campus in early November 2011 to work with each program further on their efforts. The Consor7um itself will meet next in fall 2012 at Rice University.

Consortium on Useful Assessment in Languages and Humanities Education


The Language Assessment Workshops (LAW) aim at developing an inter-‐departmental network for discussing and collabora7ng on useful assessment prac7ces. The first of the series took place on November 12, 2010. Par7cipa7ng faculty from twelve language programs gained an overview of "useful assessment," and brainstormed on a comprehensive mission statement for foreign language study at Emory. Par7cipants in the second workshop, held on April 1, 2011, reviewed the mission statement

and con7nued to work on defining, formula7ng, and cri7quing student learning outcomes within a useful assessment framework. The first two LAW mee7ngs paved the way for the third LAW on April 13, a workshop conducted by Yukiko Watanabe from the Second Language Studies Department at the University of Hawaii on developing and mapping student learning outcomes, iden7fying appropriate assessment methods, and u7lizing assessment informa7on to improve learning and teaching. Par7cipants came away from this series of workshops armed with new knowledge and understanding about assessment in foreign language study and enthused to begin establishing useful assessment prac7ces in their respec7ve programs.

-‐Yu LiREALC

Language Assessment Workshops

Yukiko WatanabeUniversity of Hawai’i

-Hiram MaximECLC, German Studies



https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/humanitiesassessment/

https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/humanitiesassessment/

http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/evaluation/

http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/evaluation/


The ECLC reconvened its summer workshop series last June. The InstrucLonal Technology Summer InsLtute (ITSI) focused on leveraging iPads in the classroom around 6 basic technology themes: electronic publicaLons, podcasLng and iTunes U, digital storytelling, advanced BlackBoard, social networking, and cloud compuLng. The workshop parLcipants were given iPads and all the hardware peripherals they would need to use the iPad in their classrooms. ECLC Technology Coordinator Chase LovelleWe and a series of guest lecturers from Emory’s Academic Technologies Team tackled one theme per day, imparLng an impressive digital toolkit for all the professors to uLlize in their classrooms. From the exploraLon of electronic publicaLons, workshop parLcipants came away inspired to convert their hard-‐copy course packets into greener and more accessible digital formats. Those formats could then be easily delivered to students using their newly acquired BlackBoard skills or through Emory’s iTunes U implementaLon as part of a richer mulLmedia experience for their students. Of parLcular interest to the group was the session on digital storytelling. Wayne Morse of ECIT and Chase LovelleWe of the ECLC presented the basics of what a digital story is and how it can be assembled using the iPad. Perhaps most striking to the group was the ease with which one can create a high-‐quality digital story on the iPad. Already, two of the group’s members have implemented digital storytelling in their classrooms as class projects, and more are planning on uLlizing the mobility of the iPad to digitally document their experiences while abroad.

The ITSI group will meet again over the winter to discuss how the group’s members are using iPads in their classes and how best to organize the next workshop.

Chase LovelleTeTechnology Coordinator

iPads in Higher Education

The Emory College Language Center conLnues its success with iTunes U. Because of the willing contribuLons of faculty and skillful technical leadership, the Emory College Language Center has accounted for over 10 million downloads since Emory’s iTunes U launch in October 2008. Those 10 million downloads make up 93% of all the iTunes U traffic on Emory’s iTunes U implementaLon. Simply put, the ECLC has been absolutely crucial to the success of iTunes U at Emory Emory professors have uLlized both the private and public implementaLons of Emory’s iTunes U in fantasLc ways. Tsepak Rigzin, adjunct lecturer of Tibetan, has made his foundaLonal language materials freely available on iTunes U. These materials are naturally invaluable to his students because they can download and repeat the materials as oeen as they would like, but Rigzin’s podcasts also offer a rich framework for learners around the world to begin their studies of the Tibetan language and culture. Noriko Takeda and Seiko Horibe recorded videos of the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries so that their students and students around the globe could learn proper stroke order. Aeer three years of availability, Takeda and Horibe’s podcasts are sLll amongst the most popular language materials on iTunes U.

Wan-‐Li Ho tackles cultural and environmental issues in China and her naLve Taiwan in her Chinese Beyond Emory podcast by recording pedagogically-‐structured interviews with naLve speakers in Chinese-‐speaking countries. She then transcribes the interview and provides a study guide for each podcast. Her digital stories are a fantasLc resource for learners of Chinese at varying proficiencies and not only provide sound language skill development but also rich cultural immersion for her students and anyone else lucky enough to download her podcast. The ECLC gives a special thanks Wan-‐Li Ho, Noriko Takeda, Seiko Horibe, Yu Li, Sara McClintock, Tsepak Rigzin, and Jose Rodriguez for their invaluable contribuLons to the ECLC iTunes U effort.

ECLC and iTunes U


Album cover for Chinese Beyond Emory podcast

Because of Emory College’s rich and impressive offering of 19 foreign languages as well as the SILS program, the ECLC has begun a project to videotape tesLmonials by Emory students about their experiences learning and using foreign languages. EnLtled “Languages Make a Difference,” this video portrait series highlights both the range of acLviLes and the profound effects that foreign language learning at Emory makes possible. Two such portraits have already been filmed and should be available on the ECLC website in early 2012 with plans to add to this series each semester for the foreseeable future.

Video Portrait Series “Languages Make a Difference”



http://itunes.emory.edu

http://itunes.emory.edu

Documents

Emory College Language Center Newsletter 2011-12