Call For Papers
NEALLT 2019
Transformative Practices: Teaching and Learning Language and Culture with Technology.
Proposals due Jan. 15, 2019
Penn Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania
April 5 – 7, 2019
Philadelphia, PA
The PLC invites proposals for the 2019 NEALLT conference. For more information about the conference and submitting a proposal online, please see out website at http://www.neallt.org/.
Conference Scope
Understanding “how to negotiate and act upon our own purposes, values, feelings and meanings rather than those we have uncritically assimilated from others” (Mezirow, 2000) becomes central to the educational mission as learners and educators seek to develop a more critical worldview. Indeed, transformative learning theory explains this process of constructing and appropriating new and revised interpretations of the meaning of an experience in the world (Taylor, 2017). Thus, the foreign language learning and teaching environment as a place of meaning and sense-making - as well as of reflection upon language and cultural products, practices and perspectives - offers a prime space to incorporate opportunities for transformative learning. Technology, too, transforms FL education, fundamentally changing the ways students learn languages and connect with diverse cultures and peoples from around the globe. The NEALLT 2019 Conference, Transformative Practices: Teaching and Learning Language and Culture with Technology, focuses on pedagogical approaches and best practices that language educators combine with technology to create new opportunities for learners to explore language more collaboratively in face-to-face, blended and online environments, and to acquire a deeper appreciation of culture.
Nine Strands
1. Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching and Learning Language in Online Environments
This strand addresses best practices and student performance based on lessons learned from designing and teaching online foreign language courses and language MOOCs (LMOOCS). Presenters will discuss the effectiveness and limitations of some common pedagogical approaches in online learning environments and explore approaches for improving participant collaboration and merging online instruction with the World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages.
2. Using Technology Purposefully in Language and Culture Blended Learning Environments
In this strand, presenters will focus on strategies and offer examples that purposefully support learning goals and meet course objectives. This strand highlights best practices through the implementation of technology within the online and the face-to-face classroom in synchronous or asynchronous spaces
3. Innovative Uses of Course Management Systems
Course Management Systems such as Canvas and Blackboard have primarily been used to organize course content. In this strand, however, presenters will showcase course examples in a CMS that create and foster active and collaborative learning experiences for students.
4. Interdisciplinary Instruction in Teaching Language and Culture with Technology
This strand examines the inclusion of analytical frameworks and methodologies from a variety of academic disciplines. Content from the target language and culture examines questions, themes, and issues that enhance comprehension and promote meaningful application of ideas within an integrated framework that draws from and supports students’ experiences across their studies. The disciplines can include but are not limited to: Digital Humanities, Environmental Humanities, STEM, Business, Visual Arts, Media and Cinema Studies, History, Art History, Environmental Science, Literature.
5. Digitally-Enhanced Differentiated Instruction and Learning
This strand explores how technology can be used to enhance student learning experiences via a variety of avenues that are goal-oriented but flexible in terms of student grouping, learning environment, assessments, content and products. Examples may include customizable Open Educational Resources (OER), dynamic pedagogical materials, and creative student projects that meet objectives in personalized ways.
6. Effective Uses of Technology in Promoting and Supporting Study Abroad
This strand highlights how the meaningful application of technology in language and culture classes can inspire students to take part in and prepare them for study abroad experiences. Community-building technologically enhanced environments, such as social media and content management systems, combined with best practices, can make the advantages of study abroad more visible to university administrators, therefore building financial and logistical support for our students and teachers.
7. Technology-Enhanced Professional Development for Language and Culture Instructors
This strand invites examples of how innovative use of digital tools can build and strengthen teaching profiles and networks, via webinars, e-portfolios, annotated recordings, interactive lesson plans, collaborative materials, etc. It also seeks models of innovative ways in which language and culture educators frame and enhance their teaching portfolios to reach a wider audience that spans beyond specific disciplines and fields.
8. Digital Pedagogies for Teaching Intercultural Communication
Inline with the recently published NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-do Statements for Intercultural Communication (ICC) this strand seeks proposals that address curricular design and scaffolded activities to foster intercultural communication in the foreign language classroom and beyond.
9. Telecollaboration for Intercultural Learning
Based on for example Gilberte Furstenburg’s Cultura model, this session will focus on the process known as telecollaboration that “allows groups of students to co-construct complex views of each other’s cultures.” Presenters will describe strategies, conditions and challenges learned from their experiences for making telecollaboration successful.