Lecture Series: 2008-2009
"Teaching Language and Culture with Film"
Thursday, May 28 2009 | 3:30-5:00 | Room 53a, Olson
Mark Kaiser, Associate Director of the Berkeley Language Center, University of California, Berkeley
In this presentation Mark Kaiser will examine how film clips can be used to model language and culture and develop students’ translingual/transcultural awareness. We will demonstrate how UC’s Library of Foreign Language Film Clips can be used to find, annotate, and deliver film clips to the classroom.
Mark Kaiser is the Associate Director of the Berkeley Language Center and occasional lecturer in Russian.
"Multicultural Children's Roles in Transforming Japan into a Multilingual Nation"
Tuesday, May 12 2009 | 3:30-5:00 | Room 18a, Olson
Yuriko Miyamoto Caltabiano, 2008-09 SLAI Mini-grant recipient, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Davis
With the sudden increase of foreign residents in Japan, the country has turned into a more culturally and linguistically diverse community than ever. This study explores how children of Cambodian, Peruvian, and Vietnamese descendant negotiate their multicultural identities, and use multiple languages in a country accustomed to viewing itself as homogeneous with one language and one ethnicity. As a number of previous studies have claimed, in multilingual contexts individuals negotiate their identities when positioned in particular ways. As such, identities are viewed as multiple, as a site of struggle, and as changing over time, and their influence on language has been widely explored in western contexts. In order to explore multicultural children's identities and language use in Japan, ethnographic data were collected through participant-observation in the Volunteer Home Tutoring program administered by a junior college. Analysis suggests that multicultural children born in Japan have a strong affiliation with Japan, and their home language ability is limited. However, they express their multiple identities through language use, cultural discourses, and participation in cultural activities. Some of them enthusiastically try to teach their home language to the Japanese tutor, whereas others voluntarily engage the tutor in conversations about their home country. This study has implications for multicultural children, who are seemingly disadvantaged, to play a role in transforming Japan into a multilingual nation by extending their performance of multicultural identities and use of multiple languages beyond their homes, to their communities, and to their schools.
"Constructing a Bilingual Professional Identity in a Graduate Classroom"
Thursday, May 7 2009 | 4:00-5:30 | Room 53a, Olson
Mariana Achugar, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Second Language Acquisition, Carnegie Mellon University
Co-sponsored by the UC Davis Spanish Department, the Second Language Acquisition Institute, and the Davis Humanities Institute Research Cluster: Language and Social Contexts
This paper explores the construction of a bilingual professional identity in a bilingual creative writing graduate program in Southwest Texas by analyzing a classroom event and the participants' interpretation of it. In bilingual classrooms the resources available to construct professional identities include a wide repertoire of linguistic practices and cultural frames. This context provides a space to explore how language, power and identity are negotiated in bilingual settings. The data were analyzed from a social constructivist perspective using tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1994; Martin & White, 2005) and theme patterns. The paper demonstrates how three types of positioning—attitudinal, dialogic and intertextual—contribute to the construction of various bilingual professional identities in the community and that both languages are considered legitimate in the construction of disciplinary knowledge. The conclusions point to the importance of interpreting and explaining professional identity construction as dynamic practices set in socio-historical context.
View the flyer [PDF]
"Variation in the Speech of Learners of Chinese as a Second Language"
Thursday, April 30 2009 | 12:00-1:30 | Room 53a, Olson
Xiaoshi Li, Assistant Professor in Chinese and Second Language Studies, Michigan State University
Co-sponsored by the UC Davis Linguistics Department and the Second Language Acquisition Institute
View the abstract [PDF]
"Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning"
Wednesday, January 28 2009 | 12:00-1:00 | MU Art Gallery, Second Floor Memorial Union
Robert J. Blake, Director of the UC Consoritum for Language Learning and Teaching; Professor of Spanish, Spanish and Classics, UC Davis
Co-sponsored by the UC Davis Bookstore and the Second Language Acquisition Institute
Technology has become an integral part of our daily lives, so it is only
natural that it has also become a vital component of how we teach and learn.
Over the past several decades, foreign language teachers have been using highly
varied levels and aspects of technology to aid in second language acquisition
(SLA). While much research has been conducted to measure the effectiveness of
technology in foreign language learning, an easily readable summary of all of
this research has not been readily available. Robert J. Blake’s new book,
Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning,
attempts to ameliorate this problem by deftly interweaving results of
pedagogical research and descriptions of the most successful computer-assisted
language learning (CALL) projects to explore how technology can best be
employed in the foreign language curriculum.
Written for language teachers of all educations levels—with or without
prior experience—this book focuses on how to use new technologies
effectively. Blake urges teachers to move beyond a simple functional
competence of knowing how to use the tools toward first a critical
competence—realizing what the various tools are good for—and ultimately a
rhetorical competence of knowing how the tools will help transform the
learning environment. This book examines the effective use of a range of
technologies, from Internet sites through computer-mediated communication
such as synchronous chatting and blogs, to distance learning. At the end
of each chapter questions and activities demonstrate the interactionist,
learner-centered pedagogy Blake espouses.
View the flyer [PDF]
"The Promise of Multilingualism: Symbolic Competence"
Thursday, December 4 2008 | 3:00-4:30 | Room 53a, Olson
Claire Kramsch, Professor of German, Education, and Foreign Language Acquisition, UC Berkeley
Co-sponsored by the UC Davis Spanish Department, the Second Language Acquisition Institute, and the Davis Humanities Institute Research Cluster: Language and Social Contexts
View the flyer [PDF]
"Impact of Linguistic Factors in the Assessment of English Language Learners"
Thursday, November 13 2008 | 3:30-5:00 | Room 53a, Olson
Jamal Abedi, Professor of Education, The School of Education, UC Davis
Assessment plays a consequential role in the academic life of English language learners (ELLs). It affects their classification, curriculum planning, instruction, promotion, and graduation. Therefore, it is imperative that we carefully examine the content and psychometric properties of these assessments for ELL students. Unnecessary linguistic complexity in content-based test items may be a source of construct-irrelevant variance and may threaten the validity of assessment for ELL students. Research suggests that ELL students may not possess language capabilities sufficient enough to demonstrate their content knowledge (such as mathematics and science) in English. Therefore, assessments that are developed for native speakers of English may not produce valid outcomes for ELL students. To provide fair and valid assessment for all students, and for ELL students in particular, the effect of language unrelated to content-based assessments must be considered and controlled. This presentation explicates the impact of language factors on the assessment of ELL students. Common linguistic features, which induce unnecessary language barriers, will be described and modifications for mitigating their negative impact on the performance of ELL students will be recommended.
View the flyer [PDF]