Upcoming Lectures at the Berkeley Language Center

From http://blc.berkeley.edu

Here are two upcoming lectures at the Berkeley Language Center:

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The Making of a Soap Opera to Develop Students’ Foreign Language Writing and Speaking Skills
by Thomas Simpson, Northwestern University

This seminar describes a third-year, quarter-long language course centered on the creation by students of a parody of an Italian television soap opera. Students are called upon to act as writers, actors, directors, videographers, and editors of three episodes of an original soap opera. Using a simple formula for composition and with the assistance of a media center technician, participants learn the basics of a user-friendly video editing software such as iMovie, which they use to compose filmed video into a narrative sequence. With the instructor functioning mostly as facilitator and delighted observer, the course calls upon students to work collaboratively to build writing and speaking skills. The process of observing their own performances on video compels students to analyze and correct their verbal production and that of classmates.

Friday, September 27, 2013
3:00 - 5:00 pm, 33 Dwinelle Hall

http://blc.berkeley.edu/index.php/blc/post/lecture_september_27_2013_thomas_simpson

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Piecemeal but Promising: Technology Integration in Secondary Language
by Paige Ware, Southern Methodist University

In the last ten years, the pace at which technology has been integrated into classroom instruction in US secondary educational institutions has quickened rapidly. Often invoking a discourse of “21st century learning,” vibrant calls abound for schools to focus on the importance of global education, leadership development, and international engagement. Given the global orientation of these overarching goals, language educators in middle and high schools might well hope for increased attention to the promotion of foreign and second languages through new technologies. However, surprisingly few studies in the last decade have examined how and if secondary teachers are using technology for language instruction. This talk will provide an overview of recent research in this area and will highlight several trends in both the rhetoric and the reality of CALL integration in language instruction in secondary schools. I will draw on illustrative examples from my own research on second language writing instruction that explores the impact of starkly different pedagogical approaches to using technology, from the use of automated writing evaluation software to the integration of an international multimedia blogging project. These studies offer insight into the unique challenges posed by secondary language learning contexts and point to possible paths for steering the discourse surrounding 21st century learning in secondary schools toward a more multilingual orientation.

Friday, October 18, 2013
3:00 - 5:00 pm, B-4 Dwinelle Hall

http://blc.berkeley.edu/index.php/blc/post/lecture_october_18_2013_paige_ware