Happy Holidays from COTSEAL!

Dear COTSEAL members,

We wish you the happiest of holidays! It seems like the year has flown by! We hope it has been a good one for you. As the year of 2020 is approaching, we’d like to thank every member of their continuous support. The success of COTSEAL network and programs is built on our collaborative efforts – so thank you all.

It has been a great year for COTSEAL. We’ve had successful panel at AAS and conference and workshop at the University of Washington with the supports from the Henry Luce foundation, Southeast Asian NRCs across the country, and Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC).

It is important for our field of Southeast Asian language teaching to grow. Therefore, we will keep our commitment to advance the field by providing opportunities for professional growth of our members. Please take the opportunities and participate in our upcoming events in 2020:

1. COTSEAL panel and business meeting at AAS in Boston on March 20-21,
2. COTSEAL conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in June,
3. SEALC-sponsored workshops (OPG-follow-up Workshop at Ohio University, in September, and Project Based/Heritage Language Teaching Workshop at UCLA in the fall).

We also urge you to participate in the upcoming COTSEAL officer elections in January, 2020.

All the encounters and sharing this past year has brought forth renewed enthusiasm and joy for us.

We look forward to continue working with you in the coming year. 

Best wishes for the New Year!

Juliana, Pittaya (Fon), Agustini

Position Announcement: Full-Time Vietnamese Language Lecturer, UW-Seattle

Follow this link for details on a full-time Vietnamese language lecturer position available at the University of Washington-Seattle:

UW-Seattle Vietnamese Language Lecturer Position Announcement

Priority will be given to applications received by Dec 9, 2019.

Applications being accepted for Oral Proficiency Workshop Dec. 14-18, 2019

Oral Proficiency Workshops for Southeast Asian Language Teachers

 University of Wisconsin, Madison, December 14-18, 2019

Sponsored by Southeast Asia Language Council (SEALC)

You are invited to apply to participate in the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Language Specific Oral Proficiency Guidelines (OPG) Workshops for Southeast Asian Language Teachers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Participants should plan to arrive in Madison on the evening of December 13, 2019.  Workshop activities will take place from December 14-18, 2019.

Applications are due by October 4, 2019.

The OPI workshop will introduce the ACTFL rating scale, the structure of the ACTFL OPI, techniques for conducting and rating the interviews, and its applications in the language classroom.

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

- interview learners to assess oral proficiency by evaluating interpersonal and presentational modes of oral communication. 

- apply proficiency principles to the tasks of curriculum design and instructional methods. 

- pursue ACTFL certification as OPI tester of your target language if you so desire.

On the last day of the workshop (the 18th), there will be sessions to discuss the development of language-specific Oral Proficiency Guidelines (OPG) for the SE Asian languages. The goal of this language-specific OPG project is to formulate proficiency guidelines that will address specific attributes of your language. This standardization will promote better communication among instructors and allow for more reliable tests. The language specific OPG will provide a common yard stick for the field and also allow students to gauge their own progress.

Those who have had prior OPI training are invited and encouraged to join the OPG workshop on December 18 (arriving on Dec 17).

Upon completion of the workshop, there will be follow-up activities online, involving collaboration among colleagues within language groups where there are sufficient numbers of teachers to form a working group. The language specific groups will collect and rate oral proficiency interviews. For those collecting and rating interviews, there will be a second workshop in Fall 2020 to consolidate the data and to formulate the oral proficiency guidelines (OPG) for your language (SEALC will provide modest honorarium and cover major travel expenses for this 2020 workshop).

Priority will be given to those applicants who make a firm commitment to participate in the follow-up activities.

Applications should be submitted online at https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8uGqJoTvm6xJvXD by October 4, 2019.

To apply to participate in the Oral Proficiency workshops, please submit:

1. A one page statement describing your background in teaching a Southeast Asian language and your commitment to apply the knowledge you gain from the training to participate in the OPG project for your language.

(For those with prior OPI training who would like to join the Dec 18 OPG workshop and follow-up project, please state where and when your OPI training was obtained and your commitment to participate in the OPG project for your language)

2. Your CV covering your language teaching experience.  

With acceptance, your registration cost for the workshop is covered. 

To request funding support for travel and accommodation

3. Submit a statement of need including information from your institution indicating what portion of the cost they can cover.  It is expected that participants from NRCs will seek travel funds from their institutions, but if full funding is not available, please specify level of travel support your institution can offer.

Active membership in COTSEAL is required to participate in the ACTFL workshop. To renew or become a member please fill out this form: http://cotseal.net/COTSEAL_membership_form.pdf

Questions should be addressed to sealc@iris.wisc.edu.

Luce Grant Announcement and ACTFL OPI Workshop

As discussed at our strategic planning meeting at the recent COTSEAL conference in Seattle, the University of Wisconsin in collaboration with SEALC submitted a grant proposal for a project “Professional and Materials Development to Strengthen Southeast Asian Language Instruction,” to the Henry Luce Foundation Southeast Asia Initiative.  We are delighted to report that this grant has now been funded and we will be starting with the proposed series of workshops in December. 

Here are links to the full announcement of the grant as well as a Save-the-Date announcement for the first grant sponsored workshop, the ACTFL OPI workshop to be held Dec 13-18, 2019 at the University of Wisconsin.  We hope that you will consider attending the workshop and also share this news with potentially interested colleagues.

We will be circulating more information later in the summer about the details of the ACTL OPI workshop and the application process.

SEALC steering committee,

Abby Cohn, Cornell University
Erlin Barnard, University of Wisconsin
Eric Jones, NIU
Ellen Rafferty, SEASSI
Juliana Wijaya, UCLA
Mary Jo Wilson, University of Wisconsin

COTSEAL call for papers for the 2020 AAS Conference: Deadline Extended to July 29

The deadline for proposals for a paper in the COTSEAL-sponsored panel at the 2020 AAS Conference in Boston has been extended to Monday, July 29.

Please see this post for more details.

COTSEAL-Sponsored Panel at AAS 2020: Call for Papers

COTSEAL is seeking four (4) panelists working, teaching, doing research on different Southeast Asian Languages to form a panel on the theme of "Glocalization of Southeast Asian Language Instruction" to be presented at COTSEAL-sponsored panel at the 2020 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in Boston,  March 19-22, 2020.

Glocalization of Southeast Asian Language Instruction

While global needs of Southeast Asian Language (SEAL) instruction are at the forefront of language learning, Southeast Asian programs and instructors have to balance these global needs of the next generation learners with the local institutional and programmatic goals at their local universities.  This “glocalization” means different SEAL programs and instructors have to negotiate their own goals to design a course that addresses the needs of their local students at their own institutions that also intersects with the goals for global use of SEA languages.

We are interested in the ways in which different SEAL programs and instructors “glocalize” their courses while heeding the needs of their institutions and language learners. We welcome discussions on the question of how much “national standard” to use, or different levels of proficiency to be achieved, or which dialects or content-based materials to be implemented in these “glocalized” classrooms.  This theme is broad enough to include different kinds of language, linguistic, pedagogical methods in Southeast Asian language instruction encompassing heritage and non-heritage learners and classrooms.

The topic of glocalization of language may include but are not limited to:

- Language and cultures
- Language and media
- Language and politics
- Language and environments
- Content-based curriculum and instructions
- Language and area study across the curriculum
- Integrated language and cultural awareness classes

Panel Organizer and Chair:
Thúy Tranviet, tdt5@cornell.edu
Gyanam Mahajan, mahajan@humnet.ucla.edu

Please email your abstract (250 words maximum) to tdt5@cornell.edu & mahajan@humnet.ucla.edu by July 26, 2019 (No late abstracts will be accepted).

To prepare for your proposal please check the AAS website: https://conference.asian-studies.org/conference/program/call-for-proposals/submission-types-requirements/

Funding:  Partial funding is available for presenters for COTSEAL-sponsored panel. Priorities will be given to language instructors/lecturers and graduate students. Please indicate in your email if you would like to be considered for the funding and submit your budget proposal including any support you’ll have from your institution/organization along with your abstract.

Questions regarding COTSEAL-sponsored panel can be addressed to the panel organizer and COTSEAL officers (Juliana Wijaya, jwijaya@humnet.ucla.edu).

Technology Workshop at the AAS conference in Denver, Thurs. March 21

We'd like to invite you to participate in the language and technology workshop held in conjunction with the AAS 2019 Annual Conference in Denver.

Thursday, March 21, 2019: 10:00 am - 11:30 am in the Capitol Room, Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel

Don't fear technology! Enhancing LCTL teaching with IT tools

When integrating technology in language classes, some instructors might now know where to start. In this workshop we will explore how technology can enhance LCTL teaching: providing students with more opportunities to use the language in a communicative way, customizing courses to students' needs, and even improving enrollments--one of the concerns for many LCTL programs.

We will look at pros and cons of using technology, discuss some of the challenges, explore the Hybrid/Blended Synchronous Learning model, and examine some tools and examples of activities.

The workshop will be delivered by Dr. Alba Girons Masot (Catalan Language Coordinator, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago).

The workshop is free. You're welcome to attend in person or join by teleconference by registering with Dr. Krisna Uk krisnauk@asian-studies.org by March 15, 2019.

The workshop is co-sponsored by AAS and the Henry Luce Foundation.