Category Archives: Language Studies

Business Spanish Immersion Trip to Chile

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Congress

Congress

During the Spring Break, SPLA 8482 Business Spanish students traveled to Chile with the purpose of  becoming immersed in the Spanish language, culture, green business and their field of interest.   At the same time, they made contacts with important Chilean professionals and are in the process of obtaining internships for the summer.

Students participated in a  Homestay Program  living with Chilean families and so were able to  experience the Chilean lifestyle and culture up close and practice Spanish language skills.   Round Table discussions were held with the Minister of the Environment,  the President of the Senate,  Judge Juan Guzman,  and other  important professionals in the University, legislature, and Environmental fields.
Students participating were Chui Archuleta, Beny Cardenas, Sean Curran, Brian Johnson, Anita Joshi,  Brent Knowles, Sarah Lisenbee and Charles Matack.

Spring Speaker Series starts off strong!

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Barbara Sawhill gave an engaging two-hour interactive talk last Friday to TESOL/TFL students on the importance of renouncing a “multi-paged, intricately detailed, iron-clad syllabus” and replacing it with a student-centered, participatory class outline with collaborated class goals between the students and teacher. Barbara teaches Spanish at Oberlin College and is the Director of the Cooper International Language Center.

photo from: cogdogblog

Barbara renounces the old Factory Model of Education, which in her opinion lacks a context for students’ learning. This “Fordist” classoom is out of touch with the world around it and sees students as empty vessels who simply absorb and memorize, rather than experience and create.

As an educator, Barbara sees her job as “making this experience [in the classroom] as meaningful for you [the student] as possible”. She insists that as educators, we need to listen and model for students what we expect of them. As learners, we don’t need to simply find all of the answers, but learn how to create “really well-rounded, thoughtful questions”.

Four questions that Barbara asks her students at the beginning of each term are:

How do you learn?

Why are you here?

What do you want to learn?

How can we help you get there?

You can check out her work and ideas at  http://languages.oberlin.edu/lab-info/center-staff/ and http://languagelabunleashed.org/ and typical posts like http://languagelabunleashed.org/2010/03/15/the-backwards-syllabus/ Barbara introduces herself at http://vimeo.com/19050537 .You can read about her Spanish class at http://languages.oberlin.edu/courses/2010/spring/hisp205/ and http://languagelabunleashed.org/tag/hisp205/

Marciel Santos will be the next speaker this Spring, He will be talking on April 14 from 3-5 pm. Stay aware of fliers around campus for more information!

Professor Dai is honored for her innovative CFL Pedagogy

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Professor Dai was invited to conduct another 4 CFL Pedagogy (Chinese as a Foreign Language Pedagogy) workshops on Chinese Grammar Pedagogy and Curriculum Design of Content-based Instruction by National Hsinchu University of Education after completing 3 CFL Pedagogy Workshops for them last year. The workshops ran from December up until April, and the last one is scheduled for April 25th.

The above is a collaboration of Professor Dai’s workshop title pages from the National Hsinchu University of Education. The top left image is from workshop 1 in early December titled “Learning environments and Chinese programs in the U.S.”, the top right image is from workshop 2 in late December titled “Life, Cognition and CFL Pedagogy (Teaching Chinese)”, the bottom left image is from workshop 3 in January titled “Blogging Language Education in the Virtual Environment”, and the bottom right image is from workshops 4 and 5 in March titled “Chinese Grammar Pedagogy: An Introduction and Practicum”.

She was also invited to join a team of teacher training STARTALK program and will teach for a 2-week intensive STARTALK Program for non-native teachers of Chinese this summer at ACC/ Hamilton College.

In addition to the workshop invitation (National Hsinchu University and Education) and StarTalk Teacher-Training Program (Hamilton College), Professor Dai was invited to give a 2-hour talk on CFL Pedagogy on April 19th at the National Pingtong University of Education.

Participants in Professor Dai’s workshop are able to view her PPTs via GoogleDoc sharing.

Hsinchu Teaching Chinese 2011

https://sites.google.com/site/hsinchuteachingchinese2011/

Winter Break Updates

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The wonderful professors in the MIIS Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education are frequently attending seminars and workshops related to their field around the world, and this winter has been no exception.

Wallace Chen, Assistant Professor and Chinese Translation and Interpretation Coordinator, has been very busy this season. He gave a keynote speech at the 15th International Conference on Teaching Translation and Interpretation, held at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan, Taiwan on Dec. 17 2010. The topic was “Using Corpora in Teaching Translation and Interpretation.” He has also recently given a workshop to undergraduate students of translation and interpretation at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. The topic was “Corpora: a Translator’s Treasure Box.”

Photo: Daymin Taipei, Taiwan

Dr. Jin Huei Dai, Assistant Professor of Chinese, was invited for a three day Teaching Chinese Workshop at Hsinchu University of Education (Hsinchu, Taiwan) on Dec. 6th, Dec. 20th 2010, and Jan. 3rd 2011. The workshop went very well and afterwards Professor Dai was asked to give a few related talks before she left for the U.S.

Stay posted for other exciting news and events about our professors and graduate students!

Faculty Publications: Professor Leo van Lier

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Too often, the needs of English language learners are met with simplified curriculum and lowered expectations. What would happen if instead classrooms were organized to honor the promise of these students by increasing rather than decreasing the intellectual challenge of instruction, by increasing the support such challenge requires, and by increasing students’ active engagement with their own learning?

Scaff-Cover2

This book is the result of a decade-long effort in school districts to implement challenging instruction that is designed for classrooms that include English learners and that raises the bar and increases engagement for all learners.

Classroom vignettes, transcripts of student interactions, and detailed examples of intellectually engaging middle school and high school lessons provide a concrete picture of the instructional approach developed by coauthor Aída Walqui, founder and director of WestEd s Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) initiative.

Underlying the QTEL approach and giving it coherence and power are three strands of instructional theory – cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, and sociocultural learning theory. Coauthor Leo van Lier, internationally recognized author, linguist, and sociocultural theorist, lays out through clear and frequently wry examples just what these theories have to offer the classroom teacher, in particular the teacher of English learners.

GChat and Facebook Chinese and Technology Acquisition: Perspectives from a Teacher and a Student, or Who is the Learner?!

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GChat and Facebook Chinese and Technology Acquisition:
Perspectives from a Teacher and a Student, or Who is the Learner?!

This paper, to be published in the Proceedings of The Sixth International Conference of Technology of Chinese Language Teaching (TCLT6), June, 2010, is a collaborative work between Chinese Studies Professor Jinhuei Enya Dai and recent MIIS alumni Valkyrie Anderson.  It documents an ethnographic study of conversation between a teacher and a student.  The focus was on learning the Art of Sunzi (Prof Dai’s Fall class) and technology using functions of gmail chat and status change, and Facebook status updates.  Prof. Leo van Lier’s concept  of “ecology” (2004) was examined in this learning module, and participation and acquisition were exemplified throughout the gmail text-chatting history. Transactions and acquisition of knowledge range from Human Trafficking issues and Sunzi’s Six Terrain in Chinese to the use of PrintScreen on a Mac and with the Prezi presentation tool.  Real life roles of teacher and student morph in the virtual world.

7th Mini-Monterey Model Event

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Mry Model screen shot

The Monterey Institute is  renowned for our special Monterey Model courses, which are taught simultaneously in multiple language sections. The Language Studies program offers professionally-relevant language courses for our students pursuing degrees in policy and business. These sections may focus on a topic such as Challenges of Globalization, Issues in the European Union, or Green Business (to name just a few), which each group explores from their own language and cultural perspective during the semester.  These language courses, some of which are offered in our Monterey Model format, provide opportunities for our students to enhance their language skills while exploring topics relevant to their degrees. At one or two points during the semester, all languages meet in plenary sessions (interpreted by students in our Conference Interpretation program) to share their findings.

Professor Jinhuei Enya Dai, Professor Vicki Porras and Professor Jacolyn Harmer initiated the 1st Mini-Monterey Model Event back in the Spring semester of 2007, which was entitled “Business Culture Presentation” presemted in Spanish and in Chinese, and collaborated with the Translation and Interpretation Program.  Later Japanese Professor Naoko Matsuo and Spanish Professor Pablo Oliva also joined the Mini-Monterey Model events in 2009.  Currently, as of  Spring 2010, we are celebrating  the 7th Mini-Monterey Model Semester.

MIIS alumni and former advancement fellow, Rajeev Rao (Chinese  Studies, MBA and IPS joint degree), commented on the Monterey Model’s

tremendous value of enhancing language learning at the institute and to academic life at MIIS.

monterey model

The 7th Mini-Monterey Model, held on April 23th, 2010, was a collaboration between the Translation and Interpretation Program, the Chinese Studies Program and the Spanish Studies Program.  The topics ranged from China Nuclear Doctrine, Provincial Reconstruction Team, Renewable Energy, Waste Management, to Chinese Pedagogical Grammar. This Model provides and enhances learning opportunities for T & I students and Language Studies students from different majors and expertise. It also showcases the outcomes of MIIS’s signature pedagogy in Language Studies Program: Content-based Instruction and Individualization.  We will continue celebrating Mini-Monterey Model and hope you can join us soon!

Professor John Balcom wins 2010 Northern California Book Award

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John Balcom‘s translation of Cao Naiqian’s “There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night” won the 2010 Northern California Book Award in the category of translated fiction.

translated by john balcom

Cao’s novel (actually a series of inter-locking short stories) deals with the lives of poor Shanxi villagers who can scarcely rise above the level of necessity. The work is set in the early 1970s. The book was published in Taiwan in 2005 and in China in 2007, where it was rated one of the top-ten books of the year in one poll. Michael Duke said, “The best thing about these stories, aside from the realistic depiction of a world none of wants to visit and few of us can imagine, is their almost lyrical presentation of human poverty, depravity, and occasional comradeship and mutual warmth. An excellent novel; the image of these disposable lives stays with one long after reading.”

Cao Naiqian (b. 1949) works for the Public Security Bureau of Datong City. He began writing in 1986. Swedish Nobel academician Goeran Malmqvist wrote that Cao Naiqian is one of three Chinese authors who deserved the Nobel Prize.

Professor Balcom’s award-winning translation has made this novel accessible to English readers around the world.

“Green Business” Goes Multilingual and Individualized: Designing and Implementing Curriculum for “Green Business in China”

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Professor Jin huei Dai presented at Ross Business School at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, March 20th, 2010

This paper addressed the design and implementation of business curriculum for a special purpose: environmental protection in China.  To integrate technological use in the language classroom, “Green business in China” advocates the use of blogging, GoogleDoc, Moodle, Youtube and others as part of Chinese language instruction.  Moreover, to broaden the influence of “Green Impact”, this course has an unique multilingual component in sharing the blogging site with Spanish Program’s “Green Business in Latin America.”  Learners in both classes can not only learn the language but also learn the content through the weekly blogging site.  In addition to blogging, this course may be tailored to the learners’ needs by integrating individualization and innovative approaches to encourage learners to further their interest in environmental protection and green business using Chinese language.

MIIS Career Fair

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For the first time, an institute-wide career fair was organized by the Institute‘s new Center for Advising and Career Services. The Center, launched last spring, combines the traditionally separate functions of academic and career advising into a comprehensive campus resource intended to ensure students receive a constant flow of support, advice, and training from the day they register to the day they graduate.

Registration & Career Fair Check-In

Registration & Career Fair Check-In

Ranging from local non-profits to global corporations, participating employers included government agencies such as the U.S. Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency, private sector leaders such as Apple and Facebook, and NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Employers such as the Defense Language Institute, the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy, UC Riverside and Monte Vista Christian School were hiring MA TESOL/TFL students and alumni.

“We‘re extremely pleased with this year‘s fair,” commented Institute President Sunder Ramaswamy. “The strong turnout from employers speaks to the value they place on the kind of cross-cultural, cross-sectoral professional skills that Institute graduates acquire.”

Students introduced themselves to employers at booths throughout the conference center‘s expansive Serra Room, learning about job opportunities, dropping off resumes, and setting interview times. Workshop panels during the day featured Institute alumni talking about their professional experiences and offering tips on launching a career, networking, and advanced career strategies. The daylong fair finished up with a networking reception for students and employers.