Spring 2012 BLC Fellows’ Instructional Development Research Projects
The Parrot’s Two Feet: Teaching French in Contact with Arabic
Jonathan Haddad, GSR, French
How can the language classroom account for the ecologies of language that generate bilingual and multilingual practices, attitudes, and cultural products? Using texts and media that incorporate French and Arabic, this project develops lesson plans to engage students in the critical appraisal of the values, agencies, and registers that shape language use in francophone cultures. Download handout as PDF
RE-articulating Culture in a Place In-between: Exploring the Multimodal Experiences of Hearing Mothers of Deaf Children
Jennifer Johnson, GSR, Graduate School of Education
Culture has been commonly understood as something we “have,” acquired through membership into a community rather than something socio-ideologically situated that we “do” bodily in and through language. Through videotaped interviews with hearing mothers of deaf children discussing their language experiences in the visual world of their deaf child, I attempt to shape an emergent notion of culture as a site of struggle which includes multiple modes of communication via speech, sign, and sensory production of meaning-making. Download handout as PDF
Language and History through Silent Film in the Foreign Language Classroom
Daniel Brooks, GSR, Slavic Language and Literatures
Silent cinema represents a useful tool for foreign language instruction precisely because of its lack of verbalized dialogue. Cinematic silence can be used to demonstrate the connections between visual and verbal meaning, provide unique material for a variety of writing projects and in-class exercises, and facilitate discussion about the function of language in genre and narrative. If properly contextualized within a comparative framework, silent films and other historical documents can also provide insight into linguistic, social, and cultural change; facilitate the ability to properly contextualize historical documents encountered outside of the foreign language classroom; and make accessible the cultural codes from other historical epochs. Download handout as PDF
View slides from D. Brooks presentation
VIDEO of all speakers.
Friday, April 27, 2012
3:00 – 5:00 pm
B-4 Dwinelle Hall