Language Workshops
Tips, Tricks, and Treats Talk Series
This ongoing EPIC-Lang series of workshops is led by language instructors for language instructors.
The Communication “C” and Technology
This talk by Bhavya Singh aims to share with language educators the use of immersive educational technology tools in language classrooms to enhance learners’ language proficiency and performance. Examples are presented from all three modes of communication — Interpretive, Interpersonal and Presentational.
Designing Online Language Modules
Dr. Kim DeBacco, a Senior Instructional Designer with the UCLA Online Teaching and Learning team, shares models and samples to inspire instructors’ course design. This seminar considers factors that influence the nature of sequencing for language learning. These include language learning methods, online technologies and tools, the balance of formative and summative learning assessments, and student and instructor workload.
Bilingualism and the Relationship between Speech Perception
This talk by Professor Ji Young Kim, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at UCLA with specialization in heritage language phonology, focuses on the perception and production of Spanish lexical stress by two groups of Spanish-English bilinguals: English L2 speakers of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers, and highlights the distinct learning experiences exhibited by the two groups. Professor Kim also discusses effects of language dominance on bilinguals’ Spanish lexical stress and propose ways in which this multidimensional construct should be explored when understanding bilingual phonetics and phonology.
Linguistic Variation and Language Design
This talk by Professor Anoop Mahajan, Professor of Linguistics at UCLA with specialization in theoretical syntax, looks at a small set of linguistic variables across which natural languages do differ, and then shows that only a very small subset of logically possible languages is actually attested. Much of the data comes from fairly rich data sources in typological linguistics; the data patterns clearly show that language variation is severely restricted, often in predictable ways.
Entering the World of Asynchronous Online Language Courses
Dr. Magda Tarnawska Senel is the Director of the German Language Program and Lecturer at the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at UCLA. Her research focuses on teaching languages and humanities for social justice. This talk focuses on the design of an asynchronous beginning German language course. Dr. Tarnawska Senel shares her experience teaching this class in Fall 2021 and reflects on wins, possibilities, and challenges of communicative language instruction in an asynchronous online setting.
EPIC-Lang ACTFL Symposia: Transformative Language Pedagogy
These pedagogy-focused symposia from Septemeber 2021 introduced participants to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (the Five Cs), and then will discussed their incorporation into our language curriculum at UCLA. Each symposium was led by Paul Sandrock, the Senior Advisor for ACTFL Language Learning Initiatives.
ACTFL Symposia Day 1: Proficiency Guidelines in Higher Education
ACTFL Symposia Day 2: World Readiness Standards for Language Learning in Higher Education
ACTFL Symposia Day 3: Practicum Units and Modules