Volume 05 - Issue 1
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Item Announcements and news from our sponsors(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) SLRP StaffAnnouncement & NewsItem Caring pedagogy and supervision in times of crisis and tragedy(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Marshall, KelleIn this report, I describe strategies I have developed in my teaching and program coordination to support students and faculty members in times of crisis and tragedy. I detail three significant moments of crisis which inspired my development of caring pedagogical practice and what I learned from each of these moments. Then, I discuss the idea of a pedagogy inspired by ethics of care (Noddings, 1984, 2012) and how it might frame pedagogical practice. I subsequently offer practical ideas gleaned from my own experiences, to apply pedagogical care in situations of crisis. Finally, I suggest ways to support our students, the faculty members we work with and supervise, and finally, ourselves, as foundational practice and especially in times of crisis.Item Pedagogies of the 21st century: Supporting all stakeholders(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Gleason, Jesse; Goertler, SentaIntroductionItem Promoting intercultural engagement in beginner language courses: Principles and implementation(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Hwang, Jiwon; Sato, Eriko; Wang, YiDeveloping language learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been widely recognized as a critical aspect of language teaching. Yet, integrating an intercultural perspective and practices into language classrooms is often neglected, especially for beginner learners, partly due to their limited linguistic abilities. This report presents a collaborative effort by language researchers and educators to develop and implement an interculturally-oriented intervention project in first-semester Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language courses. The three-part intervention was designed to enhance beginner learners’ intercultural reflective learning, addressing a complex interplay of factors—from societal ideologies to specific individual interactions in intercultural settings—that contribute to hurdles faced by learners of the three languages. Reflections on the intervention, challenges, and limitations are discussed with implications for curriculum development and program planning.Item Learner agency and investment in a basic language program(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Rutemeyer, Mary EllenAgency and investment are important components that determine learners’ engagement with languages and language learning. Much research on language learner agency and investment to date has focused on students in their positions as classroom-based learners, or in terms of their extracurricular learning. This study seeks to establish a more holistic picture of learner agency and investment by exploring the interplay between participants’ classroom learning experiences and their wider engagement with language learning. This research focuses on the experiences of learners in a basic language program (beginning sequence of language courses, sometimes part of educational requirements in US postsecondary education), exploring how learners in this context make decisions about their language learning for the classroom and beyond. The current study explores language learners’ engagement with learning German through survey results, classroom assignment submissions, and semi-structured interviews. Using an ecological understanding of learners’ contexts, this research examines learners’ expressions of agency and investment by analyzing the choices they make regarding language learning, as well as the capital they draw upon or hope to develop through these choices.Item Preparing the ground for intercultural communicative competence through stereotypes(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Delfino, MassimilianoIntercultural Communicative Competence has become a recognized learning goal of language teaching. This article argues for a dedicated introductory pedagogical module that teaches students the preliminary cognitive and metacognitive skills that are necessary for them to successfully approach the study of ICC. The first part of this article analyzes established theories on ICC to identify these necessary foundational concepts and skills. The article then presents a practical teaching module that prepares the ground for the learning of ICC. The module is based on a deconstruction of cultural stereotypes as a means to help students reflect on what culture is and initiate a reflection on intercultural exchange.Item Practitioner perspectives on evaluating the work of language program directors(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Crane, Cori; Rubio, Laura; Stevens, AprilAs administrators responsible for overseeing multi-section university language programs, language program directors (LPD) play an important role in the life of modern language departments. Their administrative work in developing curricula and mentoring teachers, however, can be challenging to evaluate in higher education where faculty productivity is still by and large measured in terms of traditional teaching, research, and service categories. Despite long-standing recognition of the unique contributions that LPDs make in collegiate language departments (e.g., Guthrie, 2001; Lee & VanPatten, 1991; Lord, 2014; Paesani & Barrette, 2005; Ryan-Scheutz, 2010; Schulz, 2005), little guidance exists to help those involved in the review process of LPDs’ work. To address this gap, this article reports on guidelines that were developed and used to assess the work of non-tenure-track (NTT) LPDs in a modern language department at a large R1 public university in the United States. In 2021-2022, the guidelines were developed collaboratively by the authors, three NTT LPDs leading French, German, and Spanish programs, and were approved with minor revision by the LPDs’ department and college. The article describes the process of creating the guidelines, the evaluation criteria the authors settled on, and experiences in using the guidelines in two recent retention reviews.Item Visual methods as a window into teacher cognition and technology Integration(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Arnold, Nike; Ducate, LaraWhile it is widely recognized that educational technology can enhance student learning and achievement, there are still questions about how to prepare teachers to make best use of these affordances (Kessler, 2021). Teachers’ beliefs and knowledge play a vital role in how technology is integrated. Using teacher cognition as a theoretical framework and mind maps as a data source, this study examines the impact of a stand-alone CALL course on graduate teaching assistants’ and undergraduate pre-service teachers’ cognition in regard to teaching with technology. The results reveal highly variable cognitive development and represent a reorganization of pre-service teachers’ views of technology for teaching second languages.Item TAFT: A new version of pinyin to help foreign Mandarin learners remember tones(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Taft, MarcusA group of 30 native English-speaking participants were taught in a single session how to produce tones in Mandarin Chinese and memorized a set of 24 English words along with their Chinese translation presented in an alphabetic script. For half of the participants, the alphabetic script took the form of the standardly used “pinyin” where tonal information is depicted by a diacritic line above the vowel. For the other half, the script represented the tones as letters such that each syllable and its tone formed an integrated unit. This method was named “Tones as Alphabetically Formed Tokens” or “TAFT”. Using a cued-retrieval task where the Mandarin word was to be pronounced in response to its English translation, it was found that the TAFT method was significantly better than standard pinyin for retaining both the syllable and its tone. This was true when testing both immediately after learning and after a week’s delay. It is suggested that TAFT is potentially a more effective tool for mediating the teaching of Mandarin as a foreign language than is the pinyin script that is currently used.Item Implementing multiliteracies-oriented curricula in introductory language programs: Language program directors share their insights on the process(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2024-12-04) Hashemi, TaraThe 2007 MLA challenged Language, Literature, and Culture (LLC) departments to create a more integrated curriculum combining language, literature, and culture. Although the MLA report inspired some reform efforts, it provided little guidance on implementation. To address this, adopting a multiliteracies framework was proposed as a way to incorporate textual content into language courses. Over a decade later, this study explored how U.S. Language Program Directors (LPDs) who implemented such a curriculum navigated challenges and why the uptake of the MLA's recommendations has been slow. The study revealed that while LPDs continued to use existing textbooks, they supplemented them with additional materials and assessments to support multiliteracies-based instruction. However, LPDs faced significant challenges, including increased workload and limited support from colleagues.