Columbia LRC

Invited Guest Speaker Presentation | Breathing Through Both Nostrils: Introducing Yiddish in the German Classroom
2023-09-22 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
In an effort to bring Yiddish and German closer, graduate students at Columbia University organized two workshops to foster collaboration between the languages and to conduct a sample lesson. This session will highlight the first programmatic steps taken to 1) overcome the isolation of Yiddish within the Germanic department; 2) explore how Yiddish could be integrated into the Germanic language classroom, and vice versa; 3) create resources and strategies for co-teaching languages that hold close cultural and linguistic ties; 4) evaluate future implications of this interlinguistic collaboration and reimagine the future language classroom. The steps will provide the springboard for discussion and generating further ideas. Participants will receive materials to adapt for their own use.

Invited Guest Presentation | Engaging Students and Teachers to use their Multilingual Repertoires as a Resource for Learning and Teaching
2023-10-27 15:00 - 17:00
On Friday, October 27th, guest speakers Jérémi Sauvage and Nathalie Auger, University of Montpellier, France, will be presenting their lecture on Engaging Students and Teachers to Use their Multilingual Repertoires as a Resource for Learning and Teaching: Examples in France and Europe.
Multilingualism in Europe, particularly within France, presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities in the realm of language education. In this two-part discussion, we intend to fuse theoretical insights into language acquisition with their practical implementation in real-world classrooms, all within the context of a multilingual environment.
Jérémi Sauvage will initiate the conversation by delving into the historical evolution and legislative framework underpinning French language instruction. He will underscore the traditional French perspective, which separates language acquisition, often approached from a psychological standpoint, from pedagogy, predominantly rooted in educational sciences. He will contrast this with the more integrated approach prevalent in North America, exemplified by organizations like CARLA, and explore the feasibility of incorporating such methodologies into European settings.
Nathalie Auger will follow with pragmatic solutions, emphasizing the significance of capitalizing on students’ pre-existing linguistic and cultural knowledge in the process of second language acquisition. Drawing upon an array of scholarly sources, she will introduce the “language diamond” model, designed to harness all available linguistic resources for more effective language learning. The presentation will be enriched with live demonstrations, video clips, and web resources to substantiate the model’s applicability.
In sum, this discussion aims to strike a harmonious balance between linguistic theory and teaching methodologies, with a particular focus on the French perspective in this context.

Invited Guest Speaker | Teaching for Social Justice Through Multiliteracies Pedagogy
2023-11-03 15:00 - 17:00 | 304 Hamilton Hall, 1130 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY, 10027, United States
Come join us on November 3rd at 3pm in Hamilton 304 and on Zoom for a talk with Dr. Kate Paesani (Ph.D., Indiana University) about the intersection between Social Justice and Multiliteracies Pedagogy.
“Critical pedagogies that prepare learners to participate in multilingual, multicultural, and multimodal societies are gaining ground in language education. The multiliteracies framework (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; New London Group, 1996) is one example of a critical pedagogy that not only develops learners’ language proficiency as they engage with target language texts, but also empowers students to question and critique how language and culture embody, maintain, and challenge structural inequalities and biases. To illustrate how multiliteracies pedagogy can support social justice in language education, this talk is organized around three central questions: Why is the multiliteracies framework a viable critical pedagogy for implementing social justice in language classrooms? What facilitates and hinders teachers’ implementation of this approach?, and How can teachers be supported in carrying out this work? I begin by discussing key concepts related to social justice, critical pedagogies, and the multiliteracies framework. Then, I present teacher cognition and identity research that pinpoints the affordances and constraints that language teachers encounter when teaching social justice themes through critical pedagogies. Finally, I share resources developed at CARLA that support teachers in learning about and enacting social justice in language education.”
BIO: Kate Paesani (Ph.D., Indiana University) is the Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on postsecondary language programs, critical pedagogies, and language teacher cognition and identity development. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles, chapters, and books, including Literacies in Language Education: A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Educators (Georgetown University Press, 2023).

Transforming (Language) Pedagogy in Response to Generative AI: Developing Critical AI Literacy & Instructional Content for Foreign Language Writing
2023-11-09 16:00 - 17:15 | Zoom
As a member of the Modern Language Asssocation (MLA) /CCCC Task Force on Writing and AI (2023), Anna Mills will summarize their first working paper highlighting the benefits and risks of large language models for language, literature, and writing programs. She will share an approach to teaching with AI that supports language development to build critical AI literacy, including awareness of the linguistic and cultural biases of AI systems in a given language.
This presentation will be followed by a workshop conducted by Simon Zuberek that will delve into the transformative potential of generative AI in crafting instructional content for foreign language writing. Participants will explore ways that generative AI can empower educators in both curricular development and teaching materials creation. Starting with lesson objectives, participants will be guided through a step-by-step lesson design that harnesses various generative AI tools, including text-to-image generation, providing a departure from traditional text-based frameworks.
Presenter Bios:
Anna Mills teaches writing at Cañada College and previously taught at City College of San Francisco for 17 years. Her collection “AI Text Generators and Teaching Writing: Starting Points for Inquiry” is featured in the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse. She serves on the MLA/CCCC task force on writing and AI, and as a consultant for OpenAI, she tested GPT-4 before its release. Her Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook, How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College has been used at over 65 colleges. Anna’s writing on AI has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.
Simon Zuberek specializes in integrating technology in language pedagogy as the senior educational technologist at Columbia Language Resource Center. With degrees in Germanic Studies and Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois, he is now pursuing Computational Linguistics at CUNY, focusing on AI’s role in enhancing foreign language education.
To attend this event, please click on the included Zoom link at the appropriate time. This event will take place on November 9th, 4:00-5:15 PM.

Invited Guest Lecture I | Paula Krebs and Lydia Tang, the MLA
2024-03-01 15:00 - 17:00 | 503 Hamilton Hall, 1130 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY, 10027, United States
Join us as Drs. Krebs and Tang discuss the MLA’s 2023 Report on Foreign Language Enrollment in Higher Education.
Since 1958, the Modern Language Association has regularly conducted a census of enrollments in foreign languages at US institutions of higher education. The latest census, conducted in 2021, reveals several notable trends, including an overall drop of 16.6% in the number of enrollments in foreign languages across the US relative to the previous census in 2016. At the same time, a number of lessons have emerged from the many language programs that remain strong. These include, among others, the importance of support for languages from the institution as a whole, emphasis on the cultural component of language learning, regular assessment and evaluation, connecting language study to real-life contexts, and building relationships with organizations
outside the institution.
Paula Krebs, Executive Director of the MLA; and Lydia Tang, Assistant Director of Programs, will share their insights from their work with the latest census. This conversation will be an occasion for Columbia language faculty to reflect upon nationwide trends and Columbia’s place within this landscape. It will also be an opportunity to ask questions of two of the leading voices on the state of language learning at US colleges and universities.
*More information can be found here:

Meeting Information:

Friday, March 1st, 2024, 3pm
In-person in 503 Hamilton Hall
Remotely via Zoom (Meeting ID: 203 508 3989): the event link is here.

You can also access the MLA report here.
