Lecture series Archive

Speech and Thought Presentation in French Sophie Marnette, University of Oxford, Medieval French Studies Dr. Marnette will offer a brief overview of her work on Speech and Thought Presentation in French.  More particularly, it will highlight and discuss hybrid forms of reported discourse that can be found in press articles and day to day conversations.…

Fall 2014 BLC Fellows Instructional Development Research Projects Memoria Histórica: A Film Module for Intermediate Spanish Donna Southard, Lecturer, Spanish & Portuguese The purpose of this project was to develop pedagogical material for a film module on historical memory in Intermediate Spanish, as part of a larger departmental goal of increasing the presence and effectiveness…

Teaching World Languages in the High School Context: Realities, Challenges and Aspirations Don Doehla and Nancy Salsig, Berkeley World Language Project Although the ideal model for world language courses is based on theory and research and is codified in state content standards and ACTFL documents, most secondary language teachers are overwhelmed by the challenges of…

Linguistic Contributions to Native California Language Teaching Andrew Garrett, Linguistics Department, UC Berkeley Academics with PhDs in linguistics rarely have graduate training in language learning or language teaching; applied linguistics is not often part of a linguistics graduate program, and when it is the students in applied linguistics and in theoretical and descriptive linguistics are…

Digital Social Reading: Textual Interpretation as Collaborative Activity Carl Blyth, Department of French & Italian, University of Texas at Austin Current e-reading devices allow multiple readers to read the same text together, annotate the text and to share their annotations. The resulting practice is referred to as digital social reading. This new literacy practice violates…

Spring 2014 BLC Fellows Instructional Development Research Projects Got Llorona?: Reflections on the potential to develop learners’ symbolic competence in the language and culture classroom Kimberly Vinall, GSR, GSE This presentation traces the development of my own reflections on symbolic competence and its potential to facilitate learners’ critical reflections on meaning making in the language…

Multilingual Inequality: What narratives reveal about social segmentation and academic success in two European crossroads of migration   Katharina Brizic, Postdoctoral Scholar, Berkeley Language Center At the heart of the challenges of modern societies is social inequality. In my research, the term of social inequality refers to the academic success or failure of whole immigrant…

Linguistic Landscape: A tool for documenting, analyzing and contesting societies and their complexities Elana Shohamy, Professor, Tel Aviv University Linguistic Landscape (LL) refers to languages displayed in public spaces on signs, advertisements, instructions, buildings, streets and billboards, etc. ‘Language’ within LL refers not only to written forms but also to other sources that interact in…

The Legitimacy Gap: Multilingual native language teachers in monolingual foreign language departments Foreign-born language instructors who teach their native language in the U.S. face the difficult task of mediating between two worlds that often seem historically, socially and culturally incompatible. While they are expected to represent the stereotypical native speaker and to make their students…

Blended learning: a new (and better) approach to beginning Italian Alessia Blad, University of Notre Dame The study of foreign languages faces numerous opportunities and challenges in today’s increasingly globalized world. In the United States, many foreign language programs are disappearing or in decline. Meanwhile developments in technology and the creation of new media challenge…