Consortium Workshop Award – Fumiko Nazikian and Jisuk Park

April 2, 2017 – This year’s winning proposal for a workshop funded by the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning is titled “Working at the Intersection of Language and Culture in the Digital Age: Social Network Approaches (SNA) to the pedagogy of language teaching” and was submitted by Fumiko Nazikian, senior lecturer in Japanese language and Jisuk Park, lecturer in Japanese language, at Columbia University, New York.

The proposal outlined the pedagogical rationale on which SNA is grounded and put forward an argument in support of its instructional uses, particularly in light of the frameworks of global communities within which students operate, and the intercultural component of their engagement with global issues.

The workshop has been awarded $5,000 and will take place at Columbia University during Fall 2018. In addition to workshop sessions that will allow instructors of all languages to discuss the incorporation of  SNA, the workshop will include a keynote address by Prof. Tohsaku of the University of California, San Diego.

Update, Spring 2021:  Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, Fumiko Nazikian, Jisuk Park published an edited volume, “Social Networking Approach to Japanese Language Learning.” This book is rooted in the workshop “Working at the Intersection of Language and Culture in the Digital Age: Social Network Approaches (SNA) to the Pedagogy of Language Teaching,” held at Columbia University of New York in October 2018. The workshop was funded by the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, National Research Centers of US Department of Education, and the Language Resource Center of Columbia University (LRC), the department of East Asian Studies and Languages (EALAC) and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University. The book outlines an innovative approach to language instruction that goes beyond the communicative approach and encourages a global view of language education and curriculum development through the use of social networking.

More information on the EALAC website.