Fall 2006 BLC Fellows Instructional Development Research Projects
Designing Communicative Tasks for the Bulgarian Language Classroom
Stiliana Milkova, GSR, Comparative Literature
For this project, I have created a handbook of communicative tasks and culture-based activities to facilitate instruction of intermediate Bulgarian at Berkeley. The handbook is meant to provide supplementary materials for five chapters from Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook and Reference Grammar, the only scholarly textbook for English-speaking learners. The tasks I have designed are intended to equip the Bulgarian language instructor with activities for communicative interaction that she could use directly or modify to fit her classroom needs.
An Ecological Perspective On Modeling Writing To Language Learners In Two Secondary English Classrooms
Agnes Mazur, GSR, Graduate School of Education
I investigate how writing is modeled in two secondary English classrooms to students who have been classified as English language learners, but are now in mainstream English classrooms. In particular, I look at the teaching of high stakes writing “genres” assessed by the California High School Exit Exam. I explore the relationship between multiple layers of institutional and classroom context and these two teachers’ perceptions of their students’ educational needs, focusing on how each teacher’s understanding informs classroom modeling practices.
Designing a Content-based Module for First-Year Mandarin Chinese Heritage Students
Liu Li, Lecturer, East Asian Languages and Cultures
This presentation focuses on the design of materials for first-year Mandarin Chinese heritage students. Drawing on the strengths of heritage language learners and addressing their specific needs, we created a five-day module on Chinese food and cooking, incorporating grammar instruction (ba- and le-structures), cultural information, and practice reading and writing Chinese characters. Some examples of our Web-based materials will be shown.
Designing a Bosnian Language Corpus
Elena Morabito, GSR, Slavic Languages and Literatures
This project deals with documenting a new official language, Bosnian, which arose after the fall of Yugoslavia. To this end, I designed the prototype for an electronic Bosnian language corpus with texts from 1997-2006. Text selection is one significant issue in the design of this corpus: what texts can be classified as “Bosnian” when the borders between the new official languages—Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian—are still largely undefined? The sociolinguistic situation is explored, as well as differences between the languages.
December 8, 2006
3:00 – 5:00pm, B4 Dwinelle