SEALC-GETSEA Virtual Language Conversation Groups

 

Dear Southeast Asian language instructors,

 

SEALC and GETSEA are interested in working with you to facilitate setting up virtual language conversation groups. These groups could meet weekly or on a less frequent but regular schedule. Ideally we could offer one group at the beginning/intermediate level and one group at the advanced level per language, depending on language instructor availability and interest. We hope to set these up for all of the Southeast Asian languages regularly taught in North America.

 

The format and schedule can be individualized for each language. These groups need to meet between 3pm and 9pm Eastern Time to accommodate instructors and students who might be anywhere between Hawaii and the East Coast. GETSEA is able to help publicize, coordinate the groups, and set up zoom links.

 

We’d like to identify one or more language instructors per language who would be interested in serving as host and facilitator for a virtual language conversation group. As a first step, we would love to hear from you by October 31 if you are interested: Please fill out the survey here. We hope you are as excited as we are about this possibility, and we look forward to working with you.

 

Best,

Abby Cohn (SEALC steering committee chair and GETSEA steering committee chair) and Ava White (GETSEA coordinator)

 

GETSEA@cornell.edu

More Information on the SEALC Reading Proficiency Assessment Workshop

 The description of and details on how to apply for the workshop can be found here.

Participants in this workshop will be collaborating in groups to develop reading tests. Groups will complete a majority of test design during the workshop in March. Producing these reading tests does not require primary data collection, as in the Oral Proficiency Guidelines project completed earlier this year. Rather, groups will work together to find reading texts suitable for the test design they have created under supervision of the workshop trainers. SEALC expects the project to finish in late June of 2022. We recognize and appreciate the commitment that instructors make when joining SEALC projects, and would be happy to discuss the expectations further with interested applicants.