Author Archives: GSTILE

Alumni in India

Leave a reply

P1010926

Jeff Fowler (MA TESOL ’12) and Kimby Murakami (MA TESOL ’12) travelled to India to work for fellow MIIS Alum Tarana Patel’s (MA TESOL ’06) education organization, LearnEd, at Sankalchand Patel Colleges in Visnagar. They each taught two classes in the intensive English program at the college. In addition, the duo collaborated to present English for specific purposes (ESP) courses to engineering faculty.

Fowler taught English to undergraduate students with high-beginner to low-intermediate proficiency majoring in Computer Application, Business Administration, and Natural Sciences. Murakami taught undergraduate and graduate students with intermediate to advanced English proficiency majoring in Dentistry, Pharmacology, Engineering, and Computer Application. Each course incorporated a community outreach component chosen by the students. In team of two to three, students taught a 45-minute lesson to students in grades 1 through 5.

Fowler and Murakami reported that the students were enthusiastic to practice English and to share their culture with the foreign teachers. Both teachers enjoyed participating in Indian festivals (e.g., Kite Festival, Festival of Colors), exploring the ancient buildings in nearby towns, and sampling the culinary delights available in India.

Murakami heads back to India this month with MIIS alum Angie Petinos (MA TESOL ’12) to work in a 6-month teacher training program offered by LearnEd at Divine Child International School.

12th Annual Latino Recognition Ceremony

Leave a reply

The 12th Annual Latino Recognition Ceremony at the Monterey Peninsula College was a great success. Kelly A. Fletes, organizer of the event, especially thanked the Monterey Institute for providing the simultaneous interpretation equipment used at the event. Turnout rate for this year was higher and MPC students were very appreciative of the effort to support the Latino community.

Professor Kavenoki Speaks at T&I Conference in Russia

Leave a reply

Professor Kavenoki spoke on June 3, 2013 at the 5th Industry of Translation and Interpretation International Conference in Perm, Russia on the T&I Market in the United States, Russia, and Other Geographic Locations in the Russian-English Combination. The conference was held at the National Research Polytechnic University.

She also gave an open lecture on June 5, 2013. The topic of this lecture was the training of T&I Professionals in the United States.

To view an article about the conference (in Russian), please click here.

Prof. María Sierra Córdoba Serrano comes out with a new book

Leave a reply

CordobaThe University of Ottawa Press, Canada’s oldest French language university press and the only bilingual university press in North America, has just published Prof. María Sierra Córdoba Serrano’s work Le Québec traduit en Espagne: analyse sociologique de l’exportation d’une culture périphérique.

The book was selected by the publisher to be showcased at the 2013 ACFAS congress, one of the largest congresses in the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the French-speaking world.

In the book, Prof. Córdoba uses the study of peripheral cultures as a privileged observatory to examine the sociological relations that configure a corpus of literary works between Quebec and Spain (with a focus on Catalonia). In addition to this specific case study, Prof. Córdoba’s book sheds light on the different phases of cultural exchanges in general: from the initiation and selection of cultural products, to their international circulation, reception, and re-branding so they fit the logic of the receiving cultures where they are reinserted. It further examines the decisive but non-deterministic role of public institutions in forming translation flows, as well as the part other key international stakeholders (publishers, critics, translators, scouts, etc.) play in facilitating, and sometimes hindering, the international circulation of ideas. Beyond its theoretical interest, the book offers a definite applied dimension, as it critically examines specific public diplomacy policies (particularly the use of translation as a tool for national image-projection abroad), and evaluates their implementation and results.

Update: MIIS Alum in Afghanistan

Leave a reply

MIIS Alum Tara Bates, M.A. TESOL 2007, started out teaching abroad through the English Language Fellow (ELF) Program in Afghanistan. At about the same time her ELF fellowship finished, Kabul Education University had started working on a project and unexpectedly needed a course designer/mentor for their Afghan instructors. Bates offered to fill in for one semester. KEU seemed to like the work that Bates was doing and she was invited to stay on until the end of the project.

Besides helping with the KEU project, Bates is currently working for Indiana University as a consultant. She is helping develop and pilot courses for a Master’s of Education in TESOL. While she says she is really enjoying the work and having fun, she also likes that the work stretches her. Bates has had the chance to work with many different classes, including Curriculum Design, Assessment, Second Language Acquisition, Educational Research, and Adult Learning.  Much of her work for these classes has been heavily influenced by the work of the late MIIS TESOL/TFL Professor Leo van Lier.

In her experiences in Afghanistan, Bates has made many intersting observations about the Afghan system of higher education. Although it is very poor, there is a sort of built-in program of professional development: Professors are expected to write an academic paper (or book) every three years. Bates is trying to leverage this professional development program to help the Afghan students and professors get a good handle on research so that they will have at least some of the necessary skills to pursue education and learning throughout their lives. In their Education Research class, she is trying not just to teach about research methods, but to also model them for the students and Afghan instructors.

Click to learn more about the ELF program at the Monterey Institute’s regional page or the national ELF program website.

Guest Lecture on SLA Research

Leave a reply

ortegaDr. Lourdes Ortega, Linguistics Professor at Georgetown University, will be giving a lecture on “How Useful is Instructed SLA Research for Teachers, and What does Epistemological Diversity have to Do with it?” Professor Ortega will examine ways in which the blooming of cognitive, sociocultural, and sociocognitive theories of additional language learning has invigorated the capacity of SLA researchers to make meaningful contributions to knowledge about language teaching. Come join on Friday, May 17th, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in McGowan 102.

Multilingual Mural Party

Leave a reply

Our Green Thumb Garden and B.U.I.L.D. are hosting an end of the semester painting party in the garden this Friday, May 3 @ 1:00pm! We need artists and multilinguists. Let’s paint a mural that showcases MIIS love of the environment and international cooperation.

What are some words about nature in Spanish? Portuguese? Chinese? Korean? Japanese? German? French?

942812_507932769256032_169236516_n

A few “bef”ore pictures. This fence is just begging for some more artwork. So excited for this Friday…come help paint!

 

Cross-Strait Immersive Module a Success!

Leave a reply

Professors Jinhuei Enya Dai and Wei Liang took a group of MIIS students to Taipei and Shanghai during MIIS’ spring break to explore the complicated relationship between mainland China and Taiwan.

The group visited government offices, businesses, and universities, as well as meeting with a group of Taiwanese veterans. They were also able to meet up with MIIS alumni at a dinner in Taipei.

The trip (which was conducted entirely in Mandarin Chinese) was a productive and informative experience for all involved.

CS1

The group at the Mandarin State Council, Taipei

CS2

MIIS Alumni Dinner, Taipei

CS3At Pecatron Design Studio, Shanghai

 

Seminar on “Why Russia Matters to the United States”

Leave a reply

Dr. Dmitriattachment Trenin, the foremost expert in Russian foreign policy and US/Russian relations, will be conducting a seminar April 25, at 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm in Irvine Auditorium. He is a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment, the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, and the Chair of its Foreign and Security Policy Program. Dr. Trenin has been with the Carnegie Moscow Center since its inception in 1993. From 1993-97, he held posts as a senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome, a visiting professor at the Free University of Brussels, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow. He served in the Soviet and Russian Armed Forces from 1972 to 1993, and has experience working as a liaison officer in the External Relations Branch of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985 to 1991. He also taught at the Defense University in Moscow. Dr. Trenin authored Getting Russia Right (2007, forthcoming); Russia’s Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia (2004; with Aleksei V. Malashenko), and The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization, (2001). He edited, with Steven Miller, The Russian Military: Power and Policy (2006).