CLC Workshops
CLC workshops aim to cover a diverse range of topics and presenters. For Spring 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 limited to University of Chicago faculty and staff unless otherwise noted.
For a list of external offerings, please visit our list of Online Professional Development Opportunities for Language Instruction.
Spring 2022
Options for Accessing Foreign Language Films
Nick Swinehart (CLC), Nancy Spiegel (UChicago Library), and Mark Kaiser (UC Berkeley Language Center)
Tuesday, April 12, 2:00-3:00 PM
This workshop will feature two invited guests to talk about different options for accessing foreign language films. Nancy Spiegel, the Bibliographer for Art and Cinema at the UChicago Library, will talk about different ways to find, access, and request foreign language films here on campus (and digitally). Then Mark Kaiser, Associate Director Emeritus from the UC Berkeley Language Center, will give a (re-)introduction to a platform called Lumière, formerly called the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips. Mark will give a brief overview of how to use the site, including both technical and pedagogical considerations. UChicago has historically been one of Lumière’s participating institutions, and this re-introduction will help instructors learn more about the benefits it can provide.
Using Debate to Push Students out of the Intermediate Plateau
Noha Forster (Arabic)
Thursday, April 28, 2:00-3:00 PM
How can we get students to move from the Intermediate to the Advanced level of proficiency? How do we lead them beyond school, home, and leisure, and dive with them into current events and public interest topics? To speak and write in paragraphs? In this workshop, Noha will focus on one sort of course structure she has found helpful on this journey, namely, debate. We will look at why debate is so effective as a structure, the sorts of activities involved, and what students think of the experience.
Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Cathy Baumann (CLC) and Mike Tabatowski (Linguistics)
Tuesday, May 3, 2:00-3:00 PM
We know that enrollments are down across the US, but what is the situation on UChicago’s campus? What do the data tell us about our learners? How might attrition and retention, the growth of The College, and our own efforts to spur language study impact enrollment, if at all? Join us as we look at data from multiple sources to explore issues, challenges, and solutions.
A Case Study of a Function- and Culture-Oriented Study-Abroad Course
Janet Sedlar (French)
Tuesday, May 10, 3:30-4:30 PM
This talk presents a case study of an intermediate-level Study-Abroad Spanish course designed specifically for American students living short-term in Barcelona. The two primary learning goals are: 1) for students to successfully navigate everyday communicative situations in Spanish; and 2) for students to expand their awareness of cultural differences between Spain and the U.S. The course content revolves around two sets of unscripted audio recordings: one modeling important linguistic functions needed by students in daily life, the other featuring short interviews with native speakers on cultural differences between Spain and the U.S. The talk concludes by sharing feedback on the course from instructors and students and discussing implications for future.
Teaching Heritage Language Courses Completely Online in Just Three Weeks
Lidwina van den Hout-Huijben (Spanish), Jieun Kim (Korean), and Yi-Lu Kuo (Chinese)
Wednesday, May 18, 2:30-3:30 PM
We will start with how the idea of offering short online heritage language literacy courses in Chinese, Korean and Spanish took form. We will illustrate the main purpose of these summer literacy courses: to strengthen specifically the reading and writing skills of heritage language learners. The course titles that were decided on were, “Heritage ______ : Developing foundational skills“. We will also share our curriculum design, class activities, and students’ works for each individual course. The presentation will finish with our reflection on what worked well and what could be adjusted.