Speaking of Language

S2E2 - Bill VanPatten - Talkin’ L2 with BVP

In this episode, LRC director Angelika Kraemer is joined by Bill VanPatten, host of the popular SLA radio show Tea with BVP. They discuss two perennial issues in language teaching: the roles of input and output and the role of explicit teaching. Bill also offers some advice for new and seasoned language teachers.

 

Listen live to Bill’s new call-in radio show, TalkinL2 with BVP, at http://www.talkinl2withbvp.com/. The show airs on Wednesdays at 6 pm ET.

S2E1 - Angelika Kraemer - Communicative Language Teaching

Today, we introduce Angelika Kraemer, the new director of the Language Resource Center at Cornell University. In the first episode of our second season, Angelika speaks with Sam Lupowitz, the LRC’s media manager, about communicative language teaching: using your immediate surroundings to contextualize your expression and interpretation of language.

Dr. Angelika Kraemer is the Director of the Language Resource Center at Cornell University. She also currently serves as Co-Editor of the journal Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German published by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and as Co-Coordinator of the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT) Survey Committee. Angelika’s research interests include technology-enhanced language learning, program development, early language learning, community engagement and service learning, and assessment. When she is not in Stimson, you’ll find her running around Beebe Lake, watching Netflix, drinking tea, or traveling.

As Media Development Manager at the Cornell LRC, Sam Lupowitz is the lord and master of all things audio and video. Though he normally controls Speaking of Language from the shadows, on some days he simply cannot restrain his need for the spotlight. Outside of the Language Resource Center, he is an active part of the Ithaca, New York music scene as a keyboard player, bassist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is currently writing this in the third person.

S1E13 - Dick Feldman - Language, Technology, and the Future

Dick Feldman is director of the Language Resource Center at Cornell University, and has been so for nineteen years. Dick is retiring in a couple of months, so in this episode of Speaking of Language, we discuss some bigger-picture ideas, such as the importance of having a unit dedicated to technology support in language learning. We talk about teachers’ attitudes towards technology, and what the future might look like for language teaching at Cornell.

S1E12 - Meejeong Song - The Korean Language Program at Cornell

In this episode, we sit down with Meejeong Song, senior lecturer and coordinator for the Korean language program at Cornell University. We talk about the wide set of teaching schools that she utilizes for her classes, from facilitating teacher/student interaction via web-based audio, to coordinating travel abroad programs in which students are learning Korean while immersed in the rich culture of South Korea.

Ms. Song received her M.A. in Korean Studies (Teaching Korean as a Second Language) in 1998 and her B.A. in Korean Language and Literature (Major) and English Language and Literature (Minor) in 1995 from Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea.  Her M.A. Thesis Title: A Study on Using Small-Group Work to Teach Korean as a Foreign Language to Beginners.

Ms. Song has experience teaching all levels of Korean at Cornell. Her research interests include Second Language Acquisition, web-based teaching material development, interactive student group project development, and technology-aided teaching methodology, etc. She is an active member of AATK (American Association of Teachers of Korean), ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and MLA (Modern Language Association). She has been conducting various summer projects supported by a grant from the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, and creating the course project websites with students.

Ms. Song is actively attending various workshops and talks related to language teaching. She loves teaching Korean and also learning other languages. She speaks Japanese at the intermediate level and is hoping to learn Chinese in the near future.

On October 13, 2014 Ms. Song was featured on Daily Edventures by Microsoft, which highlights global heroes in education. Please follow the link to see the interview with Ms. Song.

https://www.facebook.com/KoreanLanguageProgramAtCornellUniversity/

S1E11 - María Luisa Parra - Art, Language, and Culture

What is the connection between art and language classes? Dick Feldman from the Cornell Language Resource Center talks to María Luisa Parra, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. They discuss how visual art can function as a link to culture that can build a deeper connection to, and fluency in, language.

“Considered as “windows” into other cultures’ perspectives and world views, visual arts allow for the use of languages to describe, retell, analyze and think critically about cultures. Students benefit from these pedagogical exercises as they build their translingual and transcultural competencies, along with a deeper understanding of the ‘Other’.”

For further information, view Dr. Parra’s paper, “Expanding Language and Cultural Competence In Advanced Heritage- and Foreign-Language Learners through Community Engagement and Work with the Arts” from the Heritage Language Journal, or watch her talk “Designing Magic Portals,” delivered at the Cornell Language Resource Center following the recording of this episode.

S1E10 - Alice Wu - Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids

Where do you call home? In this episode, we speak to Alice Wu, an intercultural consultant at Cornell University. Alice is the creator of a series of films about Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids: people who have spent their developmental years living in multiple countries, building relationships to many cultures “while not having full ownership in any” (David Pollock). Alice discusses the challenges and benefits of growing up this way, and what people of transcultural backgrounds have to offer our increasingly interconnected world.

Alice’s films are available at https://sales.lrc.cornell.edu/collections/intercultural-materials

“Global Nomads in the Age of Technology is a fascinating series of interviews with today’s university students who come from a wide range of internationally mobile childhood experiences. It not only showcases the increasing cultural complexity of those called Global Nomads/Third Culture Kids, but also helps us answer the question: “Has technology changed the GN/TCK experience?” It is intriguing to hear fresh insights into how they perceive and use the wealth of their individual stories.
I highly recommend this for all who want to know more about how it is for today’s youth who are growing up among many different cultures.”
– Ruth E Van Reken, co-author, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, 3rd edition

S1E9 - Michael Fontaine - Reviving a Dead Language

We all know there are two types of human languages: “dead” ones and “living” ones.  But what would happen if a dead language came back to life, if contemporary people started speaking it, and teaching it?  In today’s episode we interview Professor Michael Fontaine, professor of Classics and Associate Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at Cornell.  He himself is a Latin speaker and teacher.  How does that work?

This episode also references the work of Christophe Rico, of the Polis Institute in Jerusalem.

S1E8 - Adeolu Ademoyo - Storytelling Across Sites

Last week, Dick Feldman and Chris Kaiser talked about the benefits of a distance-learning program that can unite learners of a less-commonly taught language across locations. Today, Dick speaks with Adeolu Ademoyo, who is approaching fifteen years of teaching Yoruba at Cornell University, as well as to students at Columbia and Brown via videoconference. An experienced and adventurous instructor in the distance-learning environment, Adeolu discusses his creative methods for unifying his multi-site classes, as well as his philosophy on using storytelling and narrative to teach language.

Adeolu Ademoyo is a senior lecturer in Yoruba language and culture at Cornell. His research interests include: African Philosophy: Ethics, Epistemology and Aesthetics, the locus of African Languages in delineating met-ethical concepts in African moral discourse, gender issues, and family and social structures.

S1E7 - Christopher Kaiser - Distance Learning for Less Commonly Taught Languages

In this episode, Cornell LRC director Dick Feldman speaks with Christopher Kaiser of Columbia University. Chris is the Program Manager of the Shared Course Initiative, which connects less commonly taught language classrooms at Columbia, Cornell, and Yale using high-definition videoconferencing. The two discuss the challenges and advantages of offering these classes, and reflect on lessons learned over more than half a decade of building a collaborative distance-learning program for less-commonly taught languages.

The Shared Course Initiative (SCI) was established through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The SCI is a collaborative framework that uses innovative technology to share academic resources across institutional boundaries, enabling strategic partners to enrich existing curricula while respecting local institutional cultures.

Chris Kaiser’s areas of interest include second language pedagogy, distance learning, presence in the distance environment, inter-institutional collaboration, and language-learning advocacy.

For more information on Chris and the SCI, visit sharedcourseinitiative.org.

S1E6 - Error Correction in Second Language Acquisition

In a perfect world, we would be corrected all the time, and our output would be completely accurate. Unfortunately, our ability to process correction and produce language at the same time is limited. Certainly, our ego and other factors may get in the way. On this episode of Speaking of Language, Dick Feldman, director of the Language Resource Center at Cornell University, tackles the complex issue of error correction in second language acquisition.

This episode references the work of Natsuko Shintani, particularly her talk Examining the effects of corrective feedback: How, when and on which errors?

Natsuko Shintani obtained her PhD from the University of Auckland in 2011. She has worked as a language teacher in Japan and New Zealand, including in her own private language school for children. Her research interests include task-based language instruction, the role of interaction in second language acquisition and written corrective feedback. She has also worked on several meta-analysis studies of form-focused instruction. She has published widely in leading journals and is currently working on a single-authored book, The Role of Input-Based Tasks in Foreign Language Instruction for Young Learners, published by John Benjamins.

Twitter: @natsukonz