News

AY 2025-26 Year in Review

May 26, 2026

Dear BLC Community

Language Instructors Open their Doors in Open Classroom Week

April 10, 2025
Rosa Norton

This spring brought a new initiative supported by the Berkeley Language Center. From March 10 to 14th, instructors representing 14 languages opened their classrooms to welcome more than 25 graduate students and fellow language instructors interested in expanding their pedagogical toolboxes. The brainchild of Daniel Hoffmann, a lecturer and First-Year Language Coordinator in French who received a UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award in 2023, the Open Classroom Week aimed to facilitate creative exchange and community among both current and prospective language instructors....

Congrats to Dr. Nataliia Goshylyk!

May 13, 2026

Read on to learn about Dr. Nataliia Goshylyk's forthcoming chapter "Metaphor Analysis," to be published this November in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Ecolinguistics.

Abstract:

The chapter builds on the existing approaches to metaphorical knowledge within the Ecolinguistic field, showing that people resort to common and novice metaphors to make sense of sustainable thinking. The paper demonstrates how individuals and institutions rely on both established and emerging metaphors to conceptualize sustainability. The analysis of conceptual metaphors reveals a spectrum of...

Jhonni Carr honored with Distinguished Teaching Award

April 20, 2026
Rosa Norton

Dr. Carr will be honored at a ceremony held at the Jarvis Auditorium on Wednesday, April 22 from 5-7 pm.

Dr. Jhonni Carr is a 2025-2026 recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award at UC Berkeley. This is not the first time Carr, a lecturer in the Spanish & Portuguese Department since 2018, is being honored for her excellence in instruction; she is also a recipient of the 2024-2025 Arts...

The BLC Turns 30: A Celebration Commemorating its Legacy and Looking to its Future

May 12, 2025
Rosa Norton

The Berkeley Language Center (BLC) recently celebrated 30 years of supporting excellence in language and culture instruction and building community and belonging on campus. On April 24, a crowd of about 60 gathered in Ishi Court for speeches and a reception marking the occasion. Attendees included past BLC directors, language department staff, coordinators, instructors, graduate students and fellows. The reception was generously supported by an Arts & Humanities Community Grant.

Founded in 1994 under the direction of Claire Kramsch, Professor Emerita of German...

L2Journal Special Issue Event: Essays in Honour of Claire Kramsch

In Conversation: Multilingual and Intercultural Perspectives in Language Learning: Essays in Honour of Claire Kramsch

The next special issue of L2 Journal, guest edited by Drs. Simon Coffey and Zhu Hua, is entitled Multilingual and Intercultural Perspectives in Language Learning: Essays in Honour of Claire Kramsch and will be published in late September. Join the guest editors,...

BLC Spring 2026 Event Series

January 23, 2026
Conference | Language & AI - Thinking Outside the Box

Friday, Feb 13 | B-4 Dwinelle & Zoom| 10-5 pm

Pranav Anand | Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking

Fri, Feb 13 | B-4 Dwinelle & Zoom | 3-5 pm...

CLTA Outstanding Teacher Award - María Civano

March 23, 2026

Maria Civano pic

The Berkeley World Language Project (BWLP) proudly celebrates intern María Fernanda Civano in receiving one of the five prestigious California Language Teacher Association (CLTA) Outstanding Teacher Award. Ms. Civano has over twenty years of Spanish teaching experience and serves as her school’s World Language Department Chair. Ms. Civano exemplifies excellence in world language...

A Walk on the Dramatic Side: A Tradition of German Cabaret at UCB

May 6, 2025
Rosa Norton

While advanced German and the movie The Breakfast Club might not bear an obvious connection, the two are linked in senior Ella Dittmann’s mind. She is one of eight students who participated in the German Kabarett (Cabaret) course this spring, and for her the end of the semester is bittersweet. ”We have people from all over—we’ve got people from STEM, the humanities, actors and people who have never acted before,” she said. “It’s weird, I feel like I’ve never felt this in a class.”

Started by Nikolaus Euba in 2004, for some...