Anderson Language & Technology Center
NewsletterFall 2012
Director’s Note
Startalk
K-12 FLTP
5 Perspectives
on Blogging
Director’s Note
Online Courses
Staff Update
By: Mark Knowles, Ph.D.
Director, Anderson Language and Technology Center
239 UCB
303-492-2355
Hello everybody. It’s that time again. Time to play “let’s not leave our language policies to the politicians!”
Did you hear that members of the US House of Representatives once again proposed a new law called The English
Language Unity Act? U.S. News and World Report says the bill, sponsored in early August by Congressman Steve
King, is limited to “vague and largely symbolic” provisions. It does go as far as placing an English language requirement
on work places and requires official government functions to be carried out in English. The bill would nullify a Clintonera executive order mandating federal agencies to provide interpretation for non-English speakers seeking access to
social programs.
King has said in the past that the U.S. needs an English-only law to avoid the kind of divisions that inevitably undermine
bilingual or multi-lingual nations. What I find curious about that argument is the immediate reference the congressman
has jumped to is Québec. But observers of the elections on Québecois separatism know that it has more support in
the more rural regions of Québec where people have less access to higher education and are saddled with a paucity
of jobs and decent wages. Québecois sovereignists offer up precisely the type of demographic that votes for Mr.
King, with one small exception – their monolingualism is in French and not in English. On the other hand, it is among
the multicultural pockets of the province’s most multicultural city, Montréal, that Québecois separatism has its least
support. Ironically, one of King’s favorite hobby horses, multiculturalism, is a concept he also views as divisive.
To their credit, Québecois separatists fear the loss of their culture as they lose their language, and given the small
island of francophones surrounded by the ocean of anglophones, the francophone separatists may just have some
kind of leg to stand on. It is not clear that the same case can be made for English. According to the 2010 U.S. Census,
over 225,000,000 Americans speak only English at home, and an additional 55,000,000 Americans are bilingual in
English and another language at home. Canada adds another 25,000,000 to the number of anglophones in North
America. In contrast, there are 44,000,000 people in the U.S. who frequently use another language other than English,
be it Spanish (34,000,000), Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, or Mapuche (214 speakers). Some
estimate that there are 1 billion learners of English around the world. The number of English learners in China alone
may be as high as 300 million (but we can be steeled by the 250,000 Americans learning Mandarin Chinese). Sorry
French teachers, your enrollments are a little below that of ESL and EFL this year!
King says he sees no logic in “borrowing money from the Chinese to fund interpreters to speak Chinese for people
lined up for welfare.” That’s so rich with half-truths that I’m tempted to ask if someone so concerned about logic
couldn’t recognize a red herring when he sees one.
And thanks to the wonders of the two-party system, at least we can count on King’s opponent, Christie Vilsack, a
former school teacher, to bring us linguistic enlightenment. Vilsack is on record as someone who has struggled to
understand the speech patterns of blacks and that Southerners have “slurred speech.” She also proffered that she
would rather learn Polish than speak in a Jersey accent.
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ALTEC Hosts New Startalk Program in Hindi/Urdu
The Center for Asian Studies (CAS) and ALTEC
received a $75,000 grant from the Startalk foundation
this summer, this time to raise awareness and interest
for the Hindi/Urdu languages among high school
students. The grant allowed CAS to offer a free 3-week
intensive summer language camp that took place at
ALTEC from June 4th through July 6th. Mark Knowles
and Edwige Simon of ALTEC were the two lead
technology instructors, guiding the students through
an innovative “Virtual Immersion” with Indian language
partners using Skype. The curriculum was designed
as an intensive introduction to the mostly-identical
languages of Hindi and Urdu, as well as the diverse
and shared culture and history of India and Pakistan. A
total 15 high school students attended the program. Visit the Facebook page to see more pictures: https://www.
facebook.com/HindiUrduLanguageProgram. In July, for the third year in a row, ALTEC and CAS welcomed 11
Chinese middle school teachers for an eight-day workshop on teaching methods. This was also made possible
by a Startalk grant.
Congratulations to the
Newest FLTP Completions!
Congratulations to Tyson Hazard and Katherine
Meis for completing all of the FLTP requirements.
Tyson’s student-centered approach to technology
use in the classroom is evidenced through the
music, Facebook and Wiki projects described in
great detail in his portfolio, which can be viewed
at http://www.tysonhazard.com. In her portfolio,
Katherine Meis presents the language exchange
sessions that she conducted in the spring of
2012 with her introductory Spanish students.
Katherine’s students used Skype to converse
on a bi-weekly basis with language partners in
Spain. Her portfolio can be viewed at:
http://katherinemariemeis.wordpress.com
K-12 FLTP
ALTEC is launching a K-12 version of its Foreign
Language Technology Program. The K12FLTP began in September 2012. It is spread
across 6 Saturdays (3 in the Fall of 2012 and
3 in the Spring of 2013) and culminates with a
two-Saturday capstone workshop (April 2013)
where participants will build their multimedia
portfolio. Teachers who participate can receive
either recertification credits from the Colorado
Department of Education or graduate credits
from the school
of Continuing
Education.
5 Perspectives on Blogging
Go to http://altec.colorado.edu/speakers/ to listen to the interviews!
Anne Becher is a Senior Instructor of Spanish at CU Boulder. She used student blogs
in her fourth year writing course.
“I’ve presented what I’m doing at the AATSP conference and I feel like [using blogs] is
pedagogically aligned with the most productive way that we know how to teaching writing.”
Kyoko Saegusa is a retired Senior Instructor of Japanese at CU
Boulder. She used blogs to help first year Japanese students
document and reflect upon their language learning experiences.
“Since the blog allows you to use multimedia, many students insert Youtube clips, Internet
cartoons, so I’m enjoying not only their writing but what they find and insert into their blogs (…). I
don’t think we could do that just with paper and pencils.”
Amber Navarre is a former instructor of Chinese at CU Boulder and the Director of the
Lantern Institute. She used a blog as a course management tool to teach her Chinese
courses.
“I did a survey and interestingly, all the students who answered recognized that it was a very
effective tool for them to practice real life Chinese because they had to express their thoughts
instead of just repeating vocabulary or doing grammar drills.”
Maggie McCullar is an instructor of Spanish at Boston College.
She used a blog as a course management tool to teach her Spanish courses.
“A blog opens up more of a daily dialogue with the students rather than just having some files
online. I think a blog lends itself to being a dynamic tool outside of class as well as inside of
class.”
Tatiana Mikhailova is a Senior instructor of Russian at CU Boulder. Tatiana uses blogs in her
Advanced Russian Language classes because they enhance the students’ productivity and
creativity. In addition, blogs create an immersive learning environment.
“As a tool for their [students’] achievement records and success records, blogs prove to be very
successful.”
Check out Edwige and Courtney’s article on Using Mobile Learning
Resources in Foreign Language Instruction in the latest issue of the
Educause Review!
http://tinyurl.com/cp83yvl
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Online Language Courses at ALTEC: Teachers Needed!
This spring, ALTEC offered a 7-week
online French for Reading Knowledge
course to 12 graduate students from
the Music School. The course focused
on the acquisition of basic vocabulary,
grammar
lessons
and
reading
comprehension strategies that students
practiced using song lyrics, magazine
and scholarly articles about French/Francophone music. ALTEC also offered French (http://frenchrefresher.
blogspot.com/) and Spanish (http://spanishrefresher.blogspot.com/) refresher courses this summer (June and
July). These 3 week online courses are non-credit and open to both CU and non CU students. The courses
review important aspects of the second year curriculum and help prepare students for the third year. Next
summer ALTEC is hoping to add a German course and possibly a Chinese course to its offerings. ALTEC will be
hiring teachers to teach the refresher courses next summer. Please contact Edwige Simon if you’re interested!
Fall 2012 FLTP Updates
Staff Update
This fall, the Foreign Language Technology Program
has some exciting new offerings. In our first
workshop (September 18th and 19th), we explored
the world of OERs and discussed how we can use
these pre-existing resources for our own purpose.
On October 9th we heard from our Fall 2012 guest
speaker, Dr. Christopher M. Jones, who came from
Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Jones presented
more background on OERs and discussed Carnegie
Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative: http://oli.cmu.edu/.
Go to http://altec.colorado.edu/speakers/ if you didn’t
get the chance to go. In November, our new Online
Speech Tools workshop will explore voice recording
options for us and our students.
Courtney Malone was hired as a temporary aide to
replace Dave Nicoll as the Resources Coordinator.
A former CU graduate, she previously worked as
the department’s graphic designer and an attendant
in the multimedia library. She will manage the
multimedia library, organize the non-credit language
classes, and oversee the department’s
finances.
Goodbyes, hellos, and who we are happy to keep!
Anna Cook was hired as the
graphic design assistant replacing
Courtney Malone. Anna is a
Studio Arts Major with a minor in
Technology Arts & Media. Feel
free to come by in Hellems 147
and meet her if you haven’t already
done so.
Open Educational
Resources th
September 18 , Tues. 3pm-5pm
19th, Wed. 10am-12pm
Last year we introduced you to Courtney Fell. This
year, we are proud to announce that Courtney will
be staying with us for another year to supervise the
FLTP, as well as work with the Spanish Department
and the school of Continuing Education.
Guest Speaker:
Christopher M. Jones
Open Educational Resources &
Language Instruction
October 9 th, Tues. 12pm-1pm
Online Speech Tools
Over the summer, we had to say our goodbyes to
Dave Nicoll. He was recently hired at CU’s financial
aid services. We are sad to see him go, but we are
also excited for his future career!
November 13th, Tues. 3pm-5pm
14th, Wed. 10am-12pm
Check out our new website altec.colorado.edu!
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