Moderator: Mark Kaiser
Using a Modular Approach to Teaching the Conflicts in an Elementary Chinese L2 Curriculum
LIHUA ZHANG, Lecturer, East Asian Languages & Cultures
I will talk about the integration of teaching the conflicts in an elementary Chinese L2 curriculum as modules. I first discuss the characteristics of the L2 students and then the design of the modules. The major part of the presentation is devoted to a discussion on the teaching of the Chinese film The Gua Sha Treatment, as well as reflections on what students took away and what I learned from this pedagogy.
The Use of Film Clips to Teach Contentious Israeli Issues in Elementary Hebrew
RUTIE ADLER, Lecturer, Near Eastern Studies
I will describe my attempt to widen the scope of subjects dealt with in Hebrew 1B by using a film clip to include contentious topics usually avoided in Hebrew classes, especially beginning-level ones.
Moving the Curriculum towards Empathy
CHIKA SHIBAHARA, Lecturer, East Asian Languages & Cultures
I will describe the implementation of conflictual/controversial issues in my third-year Japanese class. Using Arthur Binard’s literary works, which depict the traumatic memory of Hiroshima, I will discuss how students developed empathy for people who suffered from the atomic bombs, as well as the importance of remembering the atrocity of war. I will also focus on how students reconciled the emotional conflict that arose from their individual subject positions when they were presented with this lesson material.
“Politics is Not a Dirty Word”: Acting Out the Conflicts in the Italian Classroom
ANNAMARIA BELLEZZA, Lecturer, Italian Studies
Politics, simply defined as the activities, decisions, and agreements that people living in groups make every day (and the power struggles inherent in those decisions), has a legitimate place in the foreign language classroom. While acknowledging the challenge this endeavor poses for native FL teachers in the context of the American educational system, I argue that it is our responsibility as educators to raise students’ awareness and to equip them with the tools to have such conversations. Through a performative approach as a way to “embody” the conflict (Bellezza, 2020), I will illustrate examples of pedagogical choices I make to elicit an emotional response in students, leading to a more critical reflection on social and political issues.
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Friday, April 9, 2021
3 – 5 pm
Zoom Session (Registration Required)