On May 10-11, 2019, the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning will host a symposium titled, “Language Education in a Time of Crisis: Innovation, Adaptation, Transformation.” The symposium will address how language programs can and should adapt and innovate to address the challenges posed by the nationwide decrease in language enrollments that has been highlighted by the latest MLA report.

Per Urlaub, Associated Dean of the Language Schools at Middlebury will deliver the opening keynote, and Francis Hult, Director of Studies at Lund University, Sweden, will deliver the closing address.

For more information and to register, please visit the symposium website.

How would the concept of translanguaging shift our understandings of bilingualism and of bilingual learners? What does a translanguaging lens reveal about the ways in which bilingual learners use language and how they develop language? These and other related questions were considered by Dr. Garcia in her talk on March 8th, 2019. In her presentation Dr. Garcia focused on how the ways in which we theorize language impact the ways in which we deliver language instruction. The talk helped recalibrate how we pay attention to the type of learners in language classrooms and in particular how the dominance or marginalization of their linguistic behaviors bears on pedagogical practices.

Studying a foreign language can help jumpstart an international career. On February 27th, 2019, Wijnie de Groot who teaches Dutch at Columbia participated in a United Nations panel on the survival of small languages in an environment where a larger language is dominant. Gefeliciteerd Wijnie! 

Dr. Mark Kaiser of UC Berkeley visited Columbia’s campus on February 22, 2019 to speak about using film clips in the foreign language classroom. He discussed the ways that filming devices and language are used to created meaning. The talk considered the various tasks that an instructor might employ with the aim of developing students’ linguistic, intercultural, and symbolic competences and their visual literacy. The talk also demonstrated the core features of “Lumière”, the Berkeley Language Center‘s database of 19,000+ clips, and the strategies used in Lumière to aid student comprehension.

For a recording of this lecture, visit the Language Resource Center’s Youtube channel.

On February 16th, 2019, Tyler Richard (Sanskrit and Tamil) and an intrepid group of his students, colleagues, and friends participated in the Ekādaśarudrapārāyaṇam (“eleven-fold rudra recital”) ceremony at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, NY. After receiving a first-class tour (half in English, half in Tamil) from the public relations officer G. Padmanabhan, the group sat on the floor of the main hall to listen to three hours of devotional Sanskrit chanting. After the ceremony concluded, the students proceeded to the temple canteen for an impromptu seminar on South Indian culinary fare, including dosa, uttapam, idli, and filter kappi.

An article by Ella Koscher in Volume XXV Issue 6 of The Eye magazine of Columbia Spectator discusses Columbia’s efforts to strengthen and promote the less commonly taught languages.

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/the-eye/2018/11/29/long-distance-language/

The Shared Course Initiative (SCI) is an inter-institutional collaboration between Columbia, Cornell, and Yale that seeks to strengthen offerings in the less-commonly-taught languages. This program was established in 2012 through the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and since then has brought over 700 students of less-commonly-taught languages into shared classrooms. In 2018-2019, the SCI transitioned from grant funding to an ongoing funding model that is supported equally by the three participating universities.

A recent article from the YaleNews describes both the SCI learning experience as well as the program’s renewal: https://news.yale.edu/2018/11/14/shared-course-initiative-renewed-year-bridges-campuses-continents

Stéphane Charitos, the Director of Columbia University’s Language Resource Center, delivered a keynote titled, “The Future of Language Study in the US: Short-term Crisis or Long-term Plight?” on September 6, 2018 at the Shared Less Commonly Taught Languages Symposium in Rosemont, IL.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqyJhPWCk70

We are excited to announce that this year seven of our students:  Nolan Bensen, Matthew Winters, Benjamin Thompson, Emma Reynolds, Kaatje Greenberg, Benjamin Regas, and Stephanie Chan, were awarded the prestigious U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships.  These highly competitive awards not only put our students in the Nation’s spotlight, but they also speak volumes about language instructors’ talent and commitment.  We could not be more proud of this accomplishment as we join in congratulating both our gifted finalists and their dedicated instructors.

For more information about this year’s awards click here.  For information about the program visit this link.