Past Events

Events Archive

2021-2022 Sept

FORUM: BLC Summer Fellows Forum: Film in the Language Curriculum
Nikolaus Euba, Vesna Rodic, Chika Shibahara, Donna Southard, Jason Vivrette, Lihua Zhang

Oct

INFO SESSION: Studying Languages Abroad
Jeroen Dewulf, Barbara Tassielli, Darin Menlove, Breanne Tcheng, Milan Filo, Alexander Tan

Oct

PANEL: Study Abroad in a Post-Pandemic World
Robert Blake, Glenn Levine, Dan Davidson, Sonia Shiri, Cristina Sanz & Gorka Basterretxea Santiso, Kimberly Morris, Vivian-Lee Nyitray

Nov

TALK: Moving Beyond Product, Process, or Genre:...

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, the BLC...

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...

March 15, 2024: Simon Coffey

March 1, 2024
Sparking the imagination: Creative connectivity and emotional investment in language learning Dr Simon Coffey King’s College London

There has been an extraordinary rise of interest in the use of ‘emotion’ and ‘creativity’ as leitmotivs in language learning research and teaching. I begin this talk by briefly reviewing some developments of these terms in language education scholarship (including two recent special issues I jointly guest-edited), before then presenting some approaches I have...

Dec 2, 2022: Fall BLC Fellows Forum

November 18, 2022
Instructional Development Research Projects
 North African Arabic Language Course Amel Belguith, Lecturer Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures

This presentation outlines a course designed to teach North African Arabic, with an emphasis on Moroccan Arabic, for students who know Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and are interested in pursuing further study in Arabic or a career in politics or international relations. In addition to providing students with a different cultural experience, learning Moroccan Arabic allows them to engage in everyday...

Dec 1, 2023: Fall BLC Fellows Forum

December 1, 2023
Instructional Development Research Projects Building Classes in Languages for Professional Purposes: Opportunities, Challenges, and Best Practices Claire Tourmen Lecturer, Department of French

The UC Berkeley French Department has recently launched an innovative project, aiming at developing professional paths for students through French for Professions classes, local and international internships, and partnerships. Yet, strategic and practical questions remain: Will this project help us recruit students? How can we integrate it...

Apr 28, 2023: Spring BLC Fellows Forum

April 14, 2023
Instructional Development Research Projects Learning Mandarin and Cantonese in Health Communication Contexts Chi Leung Chan Lecturer, East Asian Languages & Cultures

When Mandarin speakers learn Cantonese (and vice versa), they enjoy abundant transferable knowledge, yet suffer from tricky exceptions. The situation is more acute when it comes to professional contexts. This presentation aims to describe a Chinese learning materials development process that will equip students with the skills and knowledge needed for health communication contexts...

Apr 7, 2023: Patricia Baquedano-Lopez and Netta Avineri

March 24, 2023
'Applied Linguistic Anthropology' in Action: Language & Social Justice Projects and Praxis Netta Avineri Associate Professor, Language Teacher Education & Intercultural Communication, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey Patricia Baquedano-López Associate Professor, Berkeley School of Education

Over the past 15 years in the...

Sept 23, 2022: Summer Film Fellows

September 8, 2022
BLC Roundtable: Film in the Language / Culture Curriculum Karen Llagas (Filipino)
Minsook Kim (Korean)
Amir Effat (Spanish)
Cristina Farronato and Giuliana Perco (Italian)
Nataliia Goshylyk (Ukrainian)
Nora Melnikova (Hindi)

Led by Mark Kaiser, BLC Associate Director Emeritus, this past summer the seven speakers listed designed a lesson plan for classroom use based on clips that they created from the foreign language...

Nov 3, 2022: Panel on the Berkeley Language Center - Taking Stock

October 20, 2022
The Berkeley Language Center - Taking stock: Remembering the Past and Envisioning the Future Claire Kramsch (BLC Director Emerita)
David Szanton (IAS Executive Director Emeritus)
Alan Timberlake (Professor of Slavic, Emeritus)
Richard Kern (Former BLC Director)
Mark Kaiser (Former BLC Associate Director)
Kimberly Vinall (BLC Executive Director)
Emily Hellmich (BLC Associate Director)

Founded in 1994, the...