"Teaching about Tasks:" COTSEAL Fall 2022 Webinar, Fri., 12/9

 

Talking about Tasks: Exploring the language learning
potential of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

by Dr. Koen Van Gorp, Assistant Professor in the Applied Linguistics
Program and Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Coordinator Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
Michigan State University.*

Everyone seems to talk about tasks. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) may well be the strongest empirically supported teaching approach around. However, for many instructors, TBLT is still an innovative approach that deviates from more familiar structure-based or form-focused teaching methods. They find it difficult to incorporate strong tasks in their teaching practices.
This talk will focus on tasks, on what makes a task different from an activity or exercise, on how classroom tasks can be used to support language learning at different proficiency levels. This talk aims to provide you with the foundational principles of TBLT
so you can make tasks work for you and your students.

.*Dr. Koen Van Gorp is also Head of Research for the National LCTL Resource Center (NLRC) and serves as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Language and Education (KU Leuven, Belgium). His research interests are task-based language teaching and assessment, language-in-education policy, multilingual awareness and multilingualism. He is founding Co-Editor (together with Kris Van den Branden) of TASK. Journal on task-based language teaching and learning and Treasurer of the International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching and learning (IATBLT). 

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Register: https://ucla.in/3WQhpwU by Wednesday, Dec. 7.
Zoom link will be emailed on Dec. 8.

REGISTRATION is FREE for COTSEAL members.
To become a COTSEAL member, please click this link: https://cotseal.net/COTSEAL_membership_form.pdf

(Dues are $30/one-year and $55/two-year.)

Co-Sponsor: UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Contact: Juliana Wijaya, Ph.D., jwijaya@humnet.ucla.edu

COTSEAL Spring 2022 Webinar, April 22

COTSEAL Spring 2022 Webinar Friday, April 22, 2022

via Zoom 3:00 pm PST, 6:00 pm EST, 5:00 pm CST, 12:00 pm HST

Aligning Proficiency-Based Reading Activities to Ensure Success with Proficiency-Based Reading Assessment

by Catherine C. Baumann, Senior Instructional Professor and Director of the University of Chicago Language Center (CLC).
 

Dr. Baumann received her Ph.D. in Second Languages and Cultures Education at the University of Minnesota, specializing in reading comprehension and language testing. She directed the German language program at the University of Chicago from 1999-2019, and since 2016 has directed the CLC. In 2016 it received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, “Transforming Language Instruction at the University of Chicago and Beyond: Collaborative Curricula and Professional Development.” A year later, she co-founded, the Language Pedagogy Innovation Initiative. Both grants support innovation in language pedagogy through an assessment-driven reverse design approach and have directly impacted the testing and teaching practices of hundreds of instructors of languages across North America and the world. She is a contributor to a variety of academic publications, and is frequently asked to consult for language programs in higher education on a variety of curricular and assessment-related issues

When teaching toward proficiency-based outcomes, assessment and instruction need to be aligned. This workshop will present reading proficiency outcomes for the intermediate and advanced levels and briefly share examples of assessment tasks. We will then explore the types of classroom reading activities that ensure not only that learners are successful on assessments, but also truly gain meaningful reading comprehension skills.
 

Register: https://ucla.in/3rk55H4 by Wednesday, by April 20.

 Zoom link will be emailed on April 21. Free for COTSEAL members.

 To become a COTSEAL member, please click this link: https://cotseal.net/COTSEAL_membership_form.pdf

 Sponsor: UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies

 Contact: Juliana Wijaya, Ph.D., jwijaya@humnet.ucla.edu

Screenshots from the Dec. 3 COTSEAL Webinar

 Screenshots from our Dec. 3 Webinar, "Developing Learners’ Proficiency with Every Lesson:"

 

 

 

 

Photos from the COTSEAL Webinar

 

Connecting SLA to Language Teaching: COTSEAL 2021 Webinar

Connecting SLA to language teaching: A focus on multiword items

COTSEAL 2021 Webinar

 

 

Speaker: Prof. Charlene Polio   Friday, March 12, 2021 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (PST)

Register by March 10, 2021: https://www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/event/14933

(The Zoom link and login information will be emailed only to registered participants).

 

Registratiom is free for COTSEAL active members:

To renew COTSEAL membership or become a member, please fill out this form: http://cotseal.net/COTSEAL_membership_form.pdf.

(Dues are $30/one-year and $55/two-year.)

 

Description:

 

One of the most interesting areas of research in second language acquisition is how language learners process and use multiword items, or chunks of language.  Theory and empirical research suggest that a pedagogical focus on multiword items can facilitate language learning.  I will start with an overview of what a multiword item is and will provide evidence for why multiword items are psychologically real.  The bulk of the talk will describe what we know about how to best teach these items. Sample activities for listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as for different proficiency levels, will be demonstrated.

 

Dr. Charlene Polio is a professor in the Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian, & African Languages at Michigan State University. She is also a core faculty member in the Second Language Studies Program. Her main area of research is second language (L2) writing. She is particularly interested in the various research methods and measures used in studying L2 writing as well as the interface between the fields of L2 writing and second language acquisition (SLA). She has published and done research in the areas of SLA, foreign language classroom discourse, and behavior differences in novice vs. experienced teachers. Dr. Polio is the co-editor of TESOL Quarterly and the past associate editor of the Modern Language Journal.  She is also a member-at-large for the American Association for Applied Linguistics.

 

Co-sponsor: UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies