BLC News Archive

Results in BLC Posts

Swahili Language Courses

During the regular academic year, elementary, intermediate and advanced courses are offered in the fall and spring semesters. During the summer, intensive beginning Swahili may be offered. A summary of this is as follows:

Why Study Language? Undergraduate Event

Cal students choose to study languages and cultures for many different reasons–curiosity, getting a job, family.  On October 24, the BLC hosted a panel of outstanding undergraduates who shared exactly why they have chosen to study language/culture at Berkeley.  The students are studying a range of languages: Spanish (Damaris Velazquez Lopez), French (Kayne Belul), Kiswahili…

Instructor Survey: Preliminary Results & New Directions

Last month, we asked for your direct input on the new directions of the BLC in the form of a survey. We are sincerely grateful to the close-to-50 people who generously gave of their time to share with us their ideas. Thank you! We are still in the process of analyzing all the results, but, in…

Congratulations to Gabriella Licata!

Gabriella Licata has just received the 2023 student abstract award from the Linguistics Society ofAmerica for her abstract titled "A semiotic analysis of right-wing surveillance of CongresswomanAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez's communicative repertoire." Click here for more information!

Parting Thoughts from Rick Kern

This past summer I stepped down as Director of the BLC because of increased administrative duties elsewhere on campus, and so this is an opportune moment to reflect a bit on the importance of BLC and the people who make it work. The BLC has been my intellectual home since its founding by Claire Kramsch…

Memories of the 2022 Open House

We gathered together on September 15 to celebrate Rick Kern’s tenure as faculty director of theBLC and to welcome Emily Hellmich, our new associate director. Amongst the chocolate andcarrot cakes and some celebratory wine, we reconnected with old friends and colleagues andmade new connections. We celebrated the Berkeley Language Center’s history and future,finding renewed inspiration…

Congratulations to Claire Kramsch!

Claire Kramsch’s book, Language as Symbolic Power (Cambridge University Press), received the BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics) 2022 outstanding book prize. Warmest congratulations, Claire!

Welcome to our new Associate Director!

Please join the BLC in extending a very warm welcome to our newly appointed associate director Dr. Emily Hellmich! Emily received her Ph.D. at Berkeley (Language, Literacy, and Culture program of the Graduate School of Education), focusing her studies on language learning and technology. During this time, she served as Managing Editor of the L2…

BLC Open House, September 15, 2022

BLC Open House Please join us in celebrating Richard Kern’s tenure as BLC faculty director and welcoming our new Associate Director, Emily Hellmich. Thursday, September 15, 2022 3:30 – 5 pm, Ishi Court Please RSVP here by 9/8

Retirement congratulations to Victoria Williams!

On May 13, with a poignant mixture of gaiety and nostalgia, we celebrated Victoria Williams' 42 years of committed service to UC Berkeley. Victoria has seen the full evolution of the Berkeley Language Center from when it was known as the "Language Lab" under the directorship of Jesse Sawyer, John Polt, Jerry Craddock, John Lindow,…

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