Calendar

The University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL)’s is pleased to announce the first annual ENLIGHTEN event on May 17–18, 2012, in College Park, MD.  Join experts from across academe, government, and industry to examine how language research can advance America’s economic competitiveness and strengthen our national security posture and readiness. Topics to be addressed include:

• Accelerating language learning through cognitive and neuroscience
• Mitigating the cyber threat with insights from behavioral and social sciences
• Increasing the efficiency of language professionals with human language technologies
• Meeting workforce requirements for highest level language, regional and cultural expertise

ENLIGHTEN marks a prominent milestone for CASL, a language research center about to enter its tenth anniversary year. For more information, please visit: http://www.casl.umd.edu/enlighten

Pamela R. Morse

Assistant Director, Communications

University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL)

Email: pmorse@casl.umd.edu

Phone: 301-226-8899

New Summer On-line Methods Course for Elementary School World Languages

Iowa State University will offer “Methods in Elementary School World Language Instruction,” as an online course in Summer 2012 for practicing teachers and pre-service teachers who have studied a world language extensively. Lori Langer de Rámirez, Ed.D., who is Chair of the ESL and World Language Department at Herricks Public Schools, New Hyde Park, New York, will serve as the instructor for the course, which will begin June 11 and end August 3, 2012, pending enrollment of 18 pre-service and/or in-service teachers. Marcia H. Rosenbusch, Ph.D., Adjunct Associate Professor, Iowa State University, who conceptualized this unique online course, invited a team of 14 leading national experts in elementary school world language education, including Dr. Rámirez, to teach course components in their areas of expertise. The collaborators, who include practicing teachers and teacher trainers, represent both the commonly and the less commonly taught languages. The course is available for three credits of undergraduate or graduate credit and meets requirements for the Iowa Endorsement in K-8 World Language Education. Check with your State Department of Education to see if this course meets requirements for endorsement or certification in your state. For more information visit http://courses.elo.iastate.edu/wlc/486/XW/overview or contact Marcia H. Rosenbusch: Email: mrosenbu@iastate.edu; Office: 515-294-6454. This course will be taught Fall 2012 and Spring 2013.

Primary Years Programme IB training workshops

Hosted by CASIE at the Atlanta International School

June 26-28, 2012

Designed specifically for U.S.A. and Canadian educators and administrators,

these courses are sponsored by the Education Office of the Embassy of

Spain and prestigious Spanish Universities.

SUMMER COURSES FOR EDUCAT ORS AND

OTHER EDUCATI ON PROFESSIONALS

Designed specifically for U.S.A. and Canadian educators and

administrators by prestigious Spanish Universities

ELI GIBLE PARTI CIPANT S

• K-12 teachers of Spanish and Community College teachers.

• Teachers of other subjects.

• School Administrators and other professionals.

• Graduate and undergraduate senior students.

LENGTH

MASTERS: 500 hours split into two summer periods in July.

COURSES: 60 hours in July.

GRAD UAT E CREDIT S

Three credits every 60 training hours, recognized at some

U.S. Universities.

REGISTRATI ON

From November 14 to February 29, 2012

On line at:

http://www.educacion.gob.es/eeuu

(CONVOCATORIAS Y PROGRAMAS)

or

https://sede.educacion.gob.es/tramite/login/inicio.

jjsp?idConvocatoria=173

ADDITI ONAL IN FORMATI ON

For further information:

http://www.educacion.gob.es/eeuu

Summer immersion Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina <http://connectionsdt.tripod.com/totalimmersion>  , click here for full information

July-5- July 15, 2012

Spaces are limited!!

For Spanish Educators

Beneficial to non-native/native at every level

Scholarships available!

Creative Bridges for Language Learning Institute is offering a unique hands-on/theory Spanish immersion program; fun-filled with unlimited exposure to language and culture, on a variety of topics of interest that embraces everyone of the aspects related to the Latin American Culture .

It is designed to enhance teaching practices. Participants will learn innovative teaching strategies and how to create dynamic lessons that incorporate authentic culture into daily instruction based on their experiences.

All the sessions will be in the morning and every afternoon and evening, participants will be engaged in unique cultural learning opportunities and tourist/educational excursions.

Seventy two professional development hours Professional Development Provider# 4477

Dear Language Supporters and Advocates,



North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU) will host the second summer language academy for high school rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in June and July 2012.  The Federal Service Language Academy (FSLA) is a three week residential program for students who are interested in an immersion intensive language experience, fitness, and exploring international-related careers with the federal government.  Last year, 96 students from over 25 US states and three foreign countries successfully completed the FSLA



During the three weeks, students will be immersed in intensive language instruction in First-Year Arabic, Chinese, Russian, German, Korean or Second-Year French from highly qualified teachers, participate in a daily fitness program, receive career counseling from federal agencies (CIA, FBI, State Department, Homeland Security, and US Armed Forces), and receive high school credit for successful completion of the academy.



Please forward this information to any high school teachers, counselors, or administrators in your data base who may be interested in passing this information to their students and/or may be interested in a teaching opportunity at the NGCSU Federal Service Language Academy.



For further information see below for more complete details and visit our web site:

www.northgeorgia.edu/summeracademy <http://www.northgeorgia.edu/summeracademy>

Diploma Programme IB training summer workshops

Hosted by CASIE at the Atlanta International School

July 10-12, 2012

Workshop

Event Title:  Compiling and Analyzing Your Own Corpus                                                                                             

Date/time: July 16 – 18, 2012, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

Location: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus

Registration Information: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=reg

Workshop Description:

This workshop is designed to provide language teachers and instructors with an accessible and hands-on introduction to the compilation of written learner corpora and the ways in which such corpora can be analyzed to assess learner performance and development and to inform language instruction. The workshop is organized around the following sessions:

• an overview of the principles of learner corpus design and compilation, existing native and learner corpora that are useful for language teaching and learning, and tools for learner corpus analysis;
• a step-by-step walk-through on how to use the functionalities of Graphic Online Language Diagnostic (GOLD), a freely available online tool developed at CALPER for language teachers to compile, share, and analyze learner corpora;
• a detailed demonstration of how actual learner corpora have been compiled by language teachers using GOLD with students’ written assignments and essays and the insights such corpora have brought to light in student performance and development;
• a hands-on lab session in which participants compile and analyze their own learner corpora with GOLD using their own collections of learner-produced written texts;
• a discussion session in which participants share insights gained from their analyses as well as outstanding issues and challenges; and
• a concluding session with practical guidance on how learner corpora analysis can be effectively integrated in language instruction and assessment. Participants will also be offered the opportunity to register for guided projects on utilizing GOLD.

Presenter: Xiaofei Lu (CALPER)

Event website: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=workshops

Please pass this along to faculty and graduate students!

Heritage Language Workshop for K-16 Teachers of Less Commonly Taught Languages

Online application available at www.nhlrc.ucla.edu

A Five-day long workshop, July 16-20, 2012

STARTALK sponsored languages are:

Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu

Additional spaces are available for other less commonly taught languages.

Instructors from K-16 programs and community schools are invited to apply.

About the Workshop 

This workshop is designed to address issues at the heart of heritage language teaching, including the differences between teaching L2 and HL learners, differentiated instruction, learner strategies, assessment, using the 5 Cs in heritage instruction, and more. Workshop participants will create and present a final group project for their language.

There is no charge for the workshop. A limited number of stipends will be available to cover travel and accommodations for out-of-state participants.

To apply: fill out the online form at http://nhlrc.ucla.edu/events/startalkworkshop/2012/  by April 15, 2012

Questions? Please contact us by email at cwl@international.ucla.edu

Center for World Languages

1333 Rolfe Hall

Box 951411

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1411

Phone: 310-825-2510

Fax: 310-206-5183

Workshop

Event Title: Workshop: The Interface of Language and Culture                                                                                                      

Date/time:  July 19 & 20, 2012, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

Location: The Pennsylvania State University Park, University Park PA

Registration Information: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=reg

Workshop Description:  

Focus of the workshop is on the interface of language and culture as manifested in the conceptual features of metaphor. Metaphors are not merely ways of speaking but represent the ways in which a community thinks and acts grounded in specific kinds of culturally organized experiences. The workshop first considers how metaphors (and related forms of figurative language) are constructed; next it will discuss cross-cultural differences in metaphors; it will then explore some of the most recent pedagogical approaches on teaching and learning metaphors in second language classrooms. Participants will have the opportunity to develop at least one lesson for the teaching of metaphor in their particular language. Examples will be drawn from a number of languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Korean.

Presenter: James Lantolf (CALPER)

Event website: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=workshops

Contact Person:  Gabriela Appel, CALPER Program Coordinator, gxa9@psu.edu  

Workshop: Dynamic Assessment                                                                                                                                  

Date/time:   July 23 - 25, 2012, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

Location: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus

Registration Information: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=reg

Description: Dynamic Assessment (DA) offers a fundamentally different perspective on what constitutes assessment and how assessments should be carried out and interpreted than the image of the lone individual completing a standardized test or responding to questions during an oral interview. According to DA, this type of solo performance reveals only a part of an individual’s capabilities; the rest can only be captured by providing support when s/he struggles with tasks and then carefully tracing how much support the individual required and how responsive s/he was to the support. What looks like a simple idea has far-reaching implications for how we understand the role of assessment in education. In the L2 field, the last several years have seen a number of projects carried out with classroom teachers documenting how DA principles allow them to integrate teaching and assessment during their interactions with individual learners and groups. More recently, DA was used as the basis for designing computerized measures of listening and reading comprehension here at CALPER.

In this workshop, participants will gain familiarity with the theories and models associated with DA and engage in discussion and collaborative analysis of a number of video-clips showing teachers using DA with learners, and will have the opportunity to experience DA themselves as we explore items from the CALPER online DA comprehension tests. Lastly, participants will get insights into ongoing projects involving L2 teachers’ uses of DA in a range of educational contexts and will be invited to design their own applications of DA in consultation with the presenter.

Note: This interactive workshop is organized in a way to accommodate those new to Dynamic Assessment as well as those who are already familiar with this framework (and may have participated in past CALPER workshops addressing the topic). The first day of the workshop will provide the theoretical background of DA and will serve as either an introduction or review, depending upon the background of individual participants. The second and third days of the workshop will be devoted to recent and ongoing DA projects in L2 educational settings.

Presenter:  Matthew Poehner (CALPER)

Event website: http://calper.la.psu.edu/profdev.php?page=workshops

Contact Person:  Gabriela Appel, CALPER Program Coordinator, gxa9@psu.edu                                                                                                                                    

The International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) is excited to invite you to the 12^th Annual International Research Conference on Service-learning and Community Engagement.  The 2012 conference will be held September 23rd to 25th at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, MD. 

The theme of the conference is Connected Knowing, which is about the generative power of connections and relationships in research on service-learning and community engagement. The conference seeks to break new ground by focusing our attention on transformative learning partnerships in our research and scholarship on community engagement, in our research with community partners, and in the kinds of connections those learning partnerships leverage and facilitate.

Conference information and the Call for Proposal are available online at http://www.researchslce.org.  To be considered, all proposals must be received via electronic submission by 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) Friday, March 30, 2012.   Incomplete proposal submission will not be reviewed. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of May, 2012.

We look forward to seeing you in Baltimore!

Dr. KerryAnn O’Meara, 2012 Conference Program Chair & IARSLCE 2012 Planning Committee

Hosted by: University of Maryland, College Park & Co-Sponsored by: American University; George Washington University; Johns Hopkins University; Loyola University Maryland; Maryland Campus Compact; McDaniel College; Montgomery College; and University of Maryland Baltimore County

Claude Hélène Guillemard
Senior Lecturer
Department of German and Romance Languages & Literatures
Johns Hopkins University

With the support of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), Second Language Testing, Inc. (SLTI), Georgetown University, and the National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC), the East Coast Organization of Language Testers (ECOLT) will hold its eleventh annual conference on November 2-3, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Steven Ross, University of Maryland

For more information on the Call for Papers, see below or visit the ECOLT

website: http://www.cal.org/ecolt/index.html

Sincerely,

Meg Malone, ECOLT Co-Chair

Francesca DiSilvio, ECOLT Co-Chair

Beth Mackey, Program Chair

Receipt Deadline: Friday, June 15, 2012

Notification: July, 2012

We invite proposals from colleagues in academia and education, government, and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. ECOLT encourages students, researchers, and teachers to present papers or posters on projects related to language testing.

TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS:

PAPERS: (30 minutes)

This format is best suited for theory-oriented presentations or the presentation of completed research. Presenters will have 20 minutes to discuss their paper, followed by 10 minutes for questions and comments from the audience.

POSTERS: (1 hour)

Poster sessions will provide an opportunity for the presentation of work in progress and research that is being planned, as well as for the presentation of test development projects, new tests, and technological innovations.

Poster presenters will interact with interested participants at the location of the poster display for an hour.

PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA:

Contribution to the field

Quality of the research/study

Clarity of the abstract

FORMAT OF PROPOSALS:

Each submission should be on two pages.

Page One:

Contact information:

Full name of principal presenter and full contact information (affiliation, postal address, telephone, fax, email) All return correspondence will be to this individual only.

Full names, affiliations, addresses, and email addresses of co-presenter(s) if any Type of presentation (Paper or Poster) Title of presentation

AV equipment required: computers and projectors will be provided for all paper presentations. Display areas, tables, and poster boards (30x40 inch white boards with foam) will be provided for posters.

Abstract: Abstracts should be between 200 and 300 words, single-spaced.

Abstracts should be clearly written and concisely address the following:

Context of the issue(s) researched

Purpose of the study

Summary of the methodology or analytical procedures used Results/conclusions Implications/significance to the field of language testing

Page Two:

Type of presentation (Paper or Poster)

Title of presentation

Abstract (duplicated from Page One)

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS:

The two-page submission should be sent as an email attachment to Beth Mackey at msbethmackey@gmail.com by June 15, 2012. The filename should read:

ECOLT12ABS_YOURLASTNAME.

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Caveats: NONE

Dear ACTFL members,

We are pleased to send a call for papers for the Inaugural conference of the Association of Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ) to be held at The University of Sydney from 9-10 November 2012. 30 April is the deadline for abstract submission.

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. We are excited to have a wide range of expertise and issues in language/testing assessment represented - from both sides of the Tasman.

Rosemary Erlam

ALTAANZ secretary