Speakers

Ford’s responsibilities include the 25+ languages that are currently taught at the University of Oregon. Her brief welcome talk offers some interesting and not-so-obvious perspectives on the work you’ve undertaken as languge teachers and cultural ambassadors.. – 9:15-9:25, August 19^th

 

A successful year for an FLTA means satisfying both local and “national” expectations. This session informs participants what IIE is and does and describes how the FLTA program represents the interests of Fulbright and its government sponsor, the Department of State. – 11:00-12:00, August 219^th

Disbursement of Funds and Fulbright Paraphernalia

• Ted Geary,Inbound Advisor FLTA Program, IIE Official Representative

Your first month’s stipend — how to spend it wisely.  – 12:00-12:30, August 19^th

 

This is an interactive session with three campus leaders in the areas of student safety, mental health, and sexual violence prevention. Each will describe their office’s mission, the kinds of services and education they provide for students and how to access similar staff and resources at the university you’re attending. We recommend viewing these three short videos before attending. – 1:30-3:00, August 19^th

 

We conclude the first day with a cross-cultural simulation which is meant to encapsulate the themes addressed in today’s formal talks and panel discussions, and prompt questions and observations, especially personal ones that may not have surfaced in large group settings. We’ve updated the venerable game Ba-Fa, Ba-Fa to reflect 2018 issues and styles of learning, for example, participants learn the rules and “vocabulary” of the simulation through now an interactive app. It should be fun to play, insightful to debrief, and a nice follow-on from the preceding session. – 3:15 – 5:00, August 19^th

30 Years of Language Teaching: Where has it got us? What do you need to know?

• Robert L. Davis, Professor, Romance Languages

This is an illustrated talk detailing the landscape of language teaching trends, beliefs, and outcomes in the U.S. since communicative language teaching arrived in the 1980’s. What is the language teaching context you’ll likely encounter at your institution? How did it get that way? What do terms like “assessment” and “proficiency” mean? And much more. 9:00-9:50, August 2o^th

This is our introduction to Foreign Language Methodology. It begins with a warm up discussion on the nature of good language teaching (“think/pair/share”), segues into a large group brainstorming and problem solving session, and concludes with a demonstration lesson in Turkish.

Ms. Khalsa’s, Ms. Santos’, and Ms. Anderson’s demo lessons will exemplify a learner-centered approach that is optimized for interaction, uses interesting materials, is clearly presented, and where learners get useful feedback. Participants demonstrate their understanding of those concepts through a variety of elicitation methods: shared rubrics, Q&A, and small group discussion. – 10:00-11:30, August 2o^th

 

This session (and Part 2b in the afternoon) uses 1-2 minute mini-teaching scenarios to elicit observations and discussion about key aspects of methods for teaching and learning. – 11:30-12:30, August 2o^th

The mini-scenarios briefly illustrate specific issues, pitfalls, and/or techniques (supported by handouts with room for notes) and discussion of these as departure points for topics such as:

• Student motivation/needs analysis/community building
• Identifying objectives using ACTFL standards
• Contextualizing learning
• Syllabus design that reflects these topics

Mini-scenarios for both morning and afternoon sessions will include:

• Building class community building/getting to know learners and needs (vs. not)
• Communicating a clear purpose for a task (vs. not)
• Using an engaging material for input (vs. not)
• Providing opportunities for formative feedback during tasks (vs. not)
• Deductive vs. inductive teaching

 

As in Part 2a, demos of 1-2 minute mini-scenarios that briefly illustrate specific issues, pitfalls, and/or techniques (supported by handouts) and discussion of these as departure points for topics. – 1:30-3:00, August 2o^th

These topics include:

• communicative/task based teaching
• flipped learning
• planning for 3 core elements of input/interaction/feedback opportunities
• encouraging learning strategies
• classroom management through good planning/good instructions

(The morning and afternoon sessions on Day 3 will be somewhat fluid, with the morning dealing explicitly with the core elements of methodology and the afternoon with more specific practices).

 

Participants try out several of the techniques introduced in Parts 2a and 2b with facilitators on hand (we choose the techniques most compatible with micro-teaching, such as eliciting, giving clear & brief instructions, giving feedback). Facilitators will include experienced instructors from many different languages who embrace a common communicative/task based teaching framework in their own teaching. The goal is to have a 10-minute lesson planned for the next day. – 3:15-5:00, August 2o^th

 

 

Lesson planning only takes you so far. How well do those words on paper translate into effective language teaching pedagogy? Participants have less than 5 minutes to prepare and then up to 10 minutes to teach the mini-lesson they planned yesterday. Your peers are your students–a linguistically very mixed group. When will you use L2? When will you use a common language? This short trial should be fun and a chance to see yourself in a new light. Enjoy it — you’re among friends! 9:10-10:30. – 9:10-10:30, August 21^st

 

Participants will be assigned to one of three technology-based workshops. Each is focused on software that is web-based, free, and useful for all language teachers. 1) The ANVILL/Flipped Learning session demonstrates H5P’s tools for interactive listening comprehension and explains how participants might use it to shift expectations about what class time can (and should) be used for. 2) The Power of Place in the Language Classroom uses Google Maps to demonstrate the advantages of personalizing and contextualizing language instruction. 3) The Essentials of Speech and Comprehensibility also uses ANVILL to show participants how to design voice and video-based forums and other out-of-class tasks to provide feedback to their students and promote inter- and intra-class connections. Prior to coming to orientation, participants will have had experience with each of these tools on our FLTA web portal. – 11:00-12:30, August 21^st

 

How does the FLTA learn to think critically about their new cultural environment while in the U.S., while at the same time trying to forge relationships with supervisors, colleagues and students to do the same? As discussed during the cultural introduction to the U.S. higher education, teachers no longer have a choice to whether they want to interact with diversity and the mixing of cultures that comes with it. To become inter-culturally and cross-culturally competent in the classroom and work environment, the FLTA must understand important ways in which cultures differ and how this affects the ways in which their supervisors and students think and behave. Through studying the cultural backgrounds of those around them, FLTAs can learn to avoid some of the problems that surface each day. – 1:30-2:45, August 21^st

 

Here’s a chance to practice what language teachers engage in everyday when they think back on their lessons of the day: reflective teaching. Using the rubric and principles discussed in Day 2, you’ll have a chance to do a self-reflection on your lesson from this morning and seek the input of colleagues and your mentor teacher. – 3:00-4:15, August 21^st

 

What did I learn from this orientation? What was most beneficial? Least beneficial?  What could make it better? – 4:15-5:00, August 21^st