CLC Events – Winter 2022

 CLC workshops aim to cover a diverse range of topics and presenters. For Winter 2022, all workshops will be held online. To foster discussion and community we encourage attending via Zoom at the scheduled time as much as possible, but each session will be recorded for those who cannot attend. All workshops are for University of Chicago instructors, unless otherwise noted. If you are a member of the UChicago community and would like to attend a workshop, contact Nick Swinehart at nswinehart@uchicago.edu for the Zoom registration link.

Community-based Collaboration in Language Programs – Nicole Burgoyne (German) and Verónica Moraga (Spanish)

  • Thursday, Feb 3, 2-3pm
  • Some of the components of the upcoming Global Honors program include students demonstrating involvement in communities related to the target language. These could be communities of target language speakers, communities of language learners, or members of the local community. As a result, we may see an increase in students looking for these types of opportunities. In this presentation, Nicole and Verónica will share examples of community involvement with their German and Spanish students, respectively.

Teaching and Learning L2 Formulaic Language – Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi (Persian)

  • Wednesday, Feb 9, 1:30-2:30pm
  • This talk investigates the acquisition of idiomatic expressions in Persian. Idiomatic expressions are not only part of the language, but also part of the culture of the speakers of that language. Therefore, they pose further problems for a second language learner. For certain languages, such as Persian, idiomatic expressions are so common that one cannot claim to know the language without knowing these expressions. To this end, the talk aims 1) to explore how idiomatic expressions are represented and accessed in the Mental Lexicon, 2) to compare first language and second language mental lexicons, 3) to review some current theories of idiomatic expressions processing, 4) to investigate the processing and acquisition of Persian idiomatic expressions, and finally 5) to evaluate techniques for teaching second language idiomatic expressions.

Using the Multiliteracies Framework in Foreign Language Learning – Gerdine Ulysse (Haitian Kreyol, French)

  • Thursday, Feb 17, 12:30-1:30pm
  • The multiliteracies framework encompasses multiple literacy methods where learners use various modes, such as linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial, and multimodal, to learn and communicate in the target language. Communicative language teaching (CLT) is often recommended for curriculum development and classroom instruction, but I believe that the two approaches can co-exist. In this presentation, I will explain how I use aspects of multiliteracies pedagogy to improve learning, while also incorporating a CLT approach in my teaching. 

By the Numbers: Language Enrollments at UChicago…Challenge or Opportunity? – Cathy Baumann (Language Center Director)

  • Monday, Feb 21, 2:30-3:30pm
  • Enrollments from the past 20 years reveal trends at UChicago that are not unlike the data we see nationally. We’ll consider what they might mean in the context of our campus and how we must respond individually, programmatically, and departmentally. We’ll also explore how the enrollment data intersect with the student survey conducted in 2019-2020, and what we can learn from both.

Using Comics in the Language Classroom to Analyze and Discuss Various Cultural, Sociological and/or Political Topics – Shiva Rahmani (German)

  • Wednesday, March 2, 2:30-3:30pm
  • A common goal, regardless of the level we teach, is to help students read beyond the page in order to ask and answer deeper questions that the given work suggests about art, life, politics and the intersection of the two. Comics can give students the opportunity to read material which combines images with text to express satire, symbolism, point of view, and drama not possible with text alone. They can also help promote best practices of communicative language classroom pedagogy by promoting the target language through student-centered work, and varied group work and discussions. Comics can help language learners develop enhanced skills in each of the four main skill areas–reading, writing, listening, and speaking–and incorporate a wide variety of themes and topics. This workshop capitalizes on the popular appeal of comics by using them to analyze various topics throughout the quarter. This workshop also sets out step-by-step instructions on how to integrate comics into intermediate level language courses. However, it also can be used for introductory as well as advanced courses.