Oscar 2024

Cultural competency is a buzzword that has been floating around in education for a few years. But what does this look like in our classrooms? We share best practices for creating an anti-bias classroom and work through case studies that will help put theory into practice. These case studies present instances of microaggressions in the classroom and participants learn and practice different strategies and language to address them.

This presentation reports on “travel-reading” as an approach to teach Asian literature. Travel-reading was a humanities grant project and implemented in a summer study abroad program in Taiwan in 2022. Reading Interior Chinatown worked as a pedagogical mechanism that helped students stay thematically engaged with a text while abroad. Students strategically interpreted and evaluated what they heard and saw in the country in comparison with their reading and developed an evolving framework that enabled them to appreciate differences, examine their beliefs, challenge the stereotypes that they had held about East Asian people, and reflected on how the invisibility of certain minorities can affect our consciousness and distort reality in our society.

An IPA (Integrated Performance Assessment) is an assessment sequence using the modes of communication–Interpretive, Interpersonal, & Presentational–but which can also provide a framework to design curriculum and instruction. We can repurpose the IPA as a framework for designing learning sequences and curricular units. We explore the IPA framework to deliberately move learners from meaningful input to authentic interaction, providing specific classroom examples drawing from our new (2022) ACTFL publication “Proficiency-Based Instruction: Input & Interaction in World Language Education.”

What is the #1 thing learners say they want to get out of their world language classes? They want to speak the language! So, let's get them started in their proficiency journey on day one. Under the right conditions, this is possible! Proficiency and SEL walk hand in hand in creating language learners and users in real-world situations that can forge positive relationships, develop empathy for others and learn responsibility. This session will share some ideas and examples that are proficient-focused, SEL anchored, cognitively engaging, and performance-based driven.

The inevitable transition to online learning in institutions of higher education has increased the necessity to know and understand the learner from across the screen. The digital revolution has not only changed the physical, social, and cultural space, but it has also changed the learner himself, his behavior, and ways of thinking. Along with the challenges of combining classroom language teaching with distance learning, we must pay attention to the learner. We answer questions such as: Do language learners, born and living in today's digital world, experience less anxiety in this space? Has the global epidemic forced us to move to the online space without providing any other options? Would some pedagogical ways, such as the Socratic seminar, provide an answer? (edited)

Empower students to value and honor the rich diversity of target language cultures through authentic resources that integrate language and culture, building from cultural products and practices to understanding diverse perspectives. Also train students to reflect and understand their own culture by "bringing it home," as they compare target language communities with their own, focusing their cultural lenses to respect and honor both cultures. Guide students to develop vocabulary and language functions as they move from interpretive to interpersonal and presentational communication activities.

Empower students to value and honor the rich diversity of target language cultures through authentic resources that integrate language and culture, building from cultural products and practices to understanding diverse perspectives. Also train students to reflect and understand their own culture by "bringing it home," as they compare target language communities with their own, focusing their cultural lenses to respect and honor both cultures. Guide students to develop vocabulary and language functions as they move from interpretive to interpersonal and presentational communication activities.

Short film is a powerful authentic resource and tool to be used with L2 students. However in our class many times short film does not go beyond a set of comprehension questions. This session uncovers how short film can build a unit that incorporates AP themes, 3 modes of communication, builds interpersonal communicative competence with the 3 P’s (products, practices and perspectives) and promotes language aquisition.