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CUNY Council on World Language Study

The purpose of the Council is to promote CUNY-wide articulation among foreign language departments and programs through the dissemination and exchange of information; to discuss issues of interest to the CUNY language instructional community; to further and enhance the study of modern and classical languages and literatures at CUNY and make recommendations for the improvement of same; to encourage faculty development; and to act as the spokesperson for foreign languages at CUNY vis-a-vis the Central Administration and other organizations and institutions.

Council Office:
Box B6-280
Baruch College
55 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 646-312-4217
Fax: 646-312-4211

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Announcement by Ping Xu on 12/12/11

  • Posted by Ping Xu on December 12, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    Evolving Pedagogies in the Modern Language Classroom

    Dear Fellow CUNY Foreign Language Teachers,

    Please join us for a half-day workshop on language teaching at CUNY's Calandra Institute on

    Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 from 10:00-2:30. (25 W. 43rd Street, 17th Floor, Manhattan.)

    Several professors from various CUNY schools have

    put together the following program in the hopes that it will help us improve our teaching as we reflect on and share our

    language-teaching practices. Lunch will be served and a Certificate of Attendance will be given to all attendees.

    As you can see in the brief program below, it is a relatively casual affair but we do need to know if you intend to come.

    Please RSVP to giulia.guarnieri@bcc.cuny.edu if you plan on coming. We are inviting all foreign language teachers

    in the CUNY system. Even though some of the examples will be in Italian, the presentations will be in English. Please

    spread the word and please RSVP by January 18th if you intend on coming.

    10:00-10:30 Coffee

    10:30-11:00 Teaching Foreign Languages at CUNY

    An open discussion of what we all find to be our strengths and areas for improvement while teaching in the CUNY system

    (led by Tom Means, BMCC, and Morena Corradi, Queens College).

    11:00-11:30, Lesson Planning, Mary Refling, BCC

    Planning a Lesson in Four Easy Steps. We will review how to write more effective, performance-based objectives, plan

    your classroom activities for varying time segments, and avoid over-reliance on textbook exercises and worksheets. The

    last ten minutes will be devoted to games and props that make learning vocabulary and doing verb drills much more fun.

    11:30-12:00 Traditional and Task-based Instruction, Tom Means, BMCC

    This talk will present what is commonly referred to as Traditional Instruction (TI) or PPP (Presentation, Practice,

    Production) of foreign languages, and why it is still the dominant method of teaching languages in the US. We will then

    discuss one emerging methodology that has some empirical support for its efficacy: Task-based instruction (TBI). The

    presenter will walk through one "cycle" of TBI, illustrating its most promising features to foster fluency and accuracy in

    our students.

    12:00-12:30 Lunch break (pizza offered by Calandra Institute)

    12:30-1:00 Culture through Language and Language through Culture, Samuel Ghelli, York College

    A discussion of how a study of the bones of the (Italian) language–lexicon, morphology, syntax–can represent/teach the

    culture of the (Italian) people. Such a grammatical analysis can help students learn culture through the lens of language.

    1:00-1:30 Harnessing technology to help deliver pedagogically sound lessons, Antonietta D'Amelio, Baruch College

    Technology plays a crucial role in exposing learners to authentic language and culture but it can also be used to deliver

    highly effective lessons. The presenter will demonstrate and discuss some proven strategies that will help you create

    highly interactive learning modules that boost learning and promote target language fluency.

    • Learning the present indicative tense using PowerPoint

    • Expanding vocabulary through music and YouTube

    • Speaking meaningfully by incorporating short films

    The presenter will discuss and demonstrate effective ways to achieve your objective and how to effectively utilize

    available media resources in order to support and expand in-class instruction.

    1:30-2:00 Introduction to Blackboard and Web. 2.0 tools, Giulia Guarnieri, BCC

    This session will provide a pedagogical framework on how to meaningfully integrate technology into your courses. We

    will begin by exploring some of the basics of Blackboard and then present several Web 2.0 tools that will stimulate

    interest in the subject matter and generate a passion for learning foreign languages.

    2:00-2:30 Q&A session with all presenters

    J. Thomas Means
    Assistant Professor of Italian
    BMCC/CUNY, Modern Languages Dept
    212-220-8000 x5275

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