Photos and Documents from the 2021 COTSEAL Conference

 Here are some photos from the 37th Annual COTSEAL Conference, held online on July 23-24, 2021:

Here is the report from the SEAL language groups that met at the meeting:

 

2021 COTSEAL Conference SEAL Language Group Reports

SEALC Reading Proficiency Assessment Workshop (March 3-6, 2022) Application Deadline: Oct. 11

Note new deadline for applications: October 11!

Additional information on the workshop can be found here. 

The Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC) invites applications from Southeast Asian language instructors for a Reading Proficiency Assessment workshop, in collaboration with and hosted at Northern Illinois University from March 3-6, 2022. This professional development workshop will provide a valuable opportunity for participants to collaborate with colleagues across the United States, to develop reading proficiency assessment materials for the field of Southeast Asian languages. Lodging, meals, and workshop fees are covered for all participants.

Proposed Activities
March 3-6, 2022 Workshop (in person at NIU): Participants will receive intensive training on assessing reading proficiency from Drs. Catherine Baumann and Ahmet Dursun, language assessment experts from the University of Chicago.

Catherine Baumann is director of the University of Chicago Language Center. She received her Ph.D. in Second Languages and Cultures Education at the University of Minnesota, specializing in reading comprehension and language testing. She is a certified ACTFL tester and trainer, and does consulting for high school and college language programs on a variety of curricular and assessment-related issues. She oversees all programs in the University of Chicago Language Center.

Ahmet Dursun is the Director of the Office of Language  Assessment, where he is responsible for researching, developing, and managing the University’s language assessment programs. He is co-founder of the Language Pedagogy Innovation Initiative (LPII) at the University of Chicago where he has been designing and leading workshops in second language assessment and pedagogy. His work focusing on computer-assisted language teaching, testing research and practice, and test validation have appeared in multiple peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and books. He speaks Kurdish, Turkish, and Arabic. Ahmet was also the invited workshop trainer at the COTSEAL 37th Virtual Conference, with a session entitled "The Role of Proficiency-oriented, Performance-based Reading Assessments in Second Language Reading Instruction."

April-August 2022 Language-specific working groups of three or more instructors will complete the tools/tests for assessing reading proficiency at three levels with support from SEALC.

Follow-up workshop (in person at NIU): There will be a two-day follow-up workshop from September 17-18, 2022 at which participants will report on their group’s achievements and receive feedback from the trainers. The finalized deliverables will be submitted to SEALC by October 2022. These deliverables will be kept on file and made accessible to all instructors of that language.

Eligibility and Application Process
Applicants must be Southeast Asian language instructors and active members of The Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL). To learn more about COTSEAL and to apply for membership, click here. Additionally, applicants must have attended an ACTFL OPI workshop.

To apply for this opportunity, please email the following materials to Lisey Doty, SEALC’s Project Manager, at sealc@intl.wisc.edu by end of day October 11, 2021:

A current CV, and a statement of interest addressing the following:
 

-Your career path up to this point and your position teaching a SEA language as a foreign language, including what levels of the language you teach
-Your commitment to collaborate and develop pedagogical materials following the workshop
-How this SEALC opportunity will benefit your professional development as a SEA language instructor
-Written confirmation that you have attended an ACTFL OPI workshop, including the dates of the workshop attended

The selection committee will notify applicants within one month of the application deadline. Should you have any questions about this opportunity, please email sealc@intl.wisc.edu.

Call for Proposals: Language Program Vitality in the United States Deadline: Nov. 1, 2021

 Call for Proposals

Title: (Working Title): Language Program Vitality in the United States: From Surviving to Thriving in Higher Education

Aim

This book will document and address root causes of declining enrollments seen in language programs at U.S. institutions of higher education over previous decades. It will identify obstacles created by programs and institutions that prevent students from either initially exploring or continuing with language study, challenge long-held beliefs about language program structures, as well as promote opportunities for language programs to address these obstacles and innovate in the field.  

This publication will reflect a wide range of opinions and diversity of authors that reflect the broad roles that our readers will encompass.

For more details: https://celta.msu.edu/surviving-to-thriving/

COTSEAL 37th Virtual Conference on July 23-24, 2021

 Dear COTSEAL friends and members,
 

We’d like to invite you to participate at the COTSEAL 37th Virtual Conference on July 23-24, 2021. Here is the conference program.


We kindly ask that you register by July 20, 2021, at https://ucla.in/3hJ58qc

A Zoom link will be emailed ONLY to those who have registered. Registration is free for COTSEAL members and $40 for non-members. Here are links to the membership form and instructions on how to pay or renew your membership online. If you have any questions about your membership, please contact COTSEAL Vice President, Agustini.

For more information about the conference, please email Dr. Juliana Wijaya, COTSEAL President jwijaya@humnet.ucla.edu.  
 

Best wishes,

Juliana, Agustini, and Ime (COTSEAL officers)

Call for Nominations: SEALC Liaisons (deadline July 1, 2021)

 Call for Nominations: SEALC Liaisons 

The Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC) invites nominations for two SEA language instructors to serve as liaisons on the SEALC Steering Committee. The goal of these volunteer positions is to inform and enrich discussions on and planning for SEALC activities via increased SEA language instructor representation on the Committee, as well as to provide additional opportunities for instructors to serve on professional committees at the national level.  

Responsibilities  

SEALC liaisons will attend monthly SEALC Steering Committee meetings as non-voting members and assist in the work of the SEALC committee. The term for SEALC liaisons is one calendar year from the date they are elected. 

Eligibility 

Applicants must be Southeast Asian language instructors and active members of COTSEAL. To learn more about COTSEAL and to apply for membership, click here. 

At this time, Indonesian language instructors are not invited to apply. This is to address the current overrepresentation of Indonesian language instructors on the SEALC Steering Committee.  

Nomination Procedure and Election 

Instructors are asked to self-nominate by submitting a brief bio. Nominations will be accepted through July 1, 2021.  Nominees’ information will be circulated through SEALC and COTSEAL and voting will take place virtually at the 2021 COTSEAL Conference (July 23-24, 2021). Only active COTSEAL members are eligible to vote for SEALC liaisons. To submit your self-nomination, please click here for the online form. For questions regarding this opportunity, please email SEALC at sealc@intl.wisc.edu.

SEALC-GETSEA Language Tuition Support

 

SEALC-GETSEA Language Tuition Support

With support from the Henry Luce Foundation, The Southeast East Asian Language Council (SEALC) and The Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA) consortia award financial assistance to students who incur tuition fees when studying a Southeast Asian language during the academic year at an institution other than their home institution via synchronous distance learning. This award is intended to facilitate cross-institutional collaboration and increase access to Southeast Asian language instruction. Eligibility requires that the course is credit-bearing at a North American institution and that the applicant is a full-time student at a North American institution. Priority will be given to graduate students, but all are encouraged to apply. SEALC and GETSEA encourage applicants to consider attending SEASSI which serves as an excellent resource for summer language instruction. This award is intended to improve access during the academic year so that students can obtain multi-year instruction in a timely manner. 

 

What does the assistance cover?

The award provides partial tuition reimbursement for synchronous distance learning of a SE Asian language at a North American institution.

 

Application process:

The application deadline for the 2021-2022 academic year awards is July 15, 2021. Click here for the online application. Please email sealc@intl.wisc.edu with any questions you may have.

 

 

Position Available: Lecturer in Vietnamese at Arizona State University

 Application deadline is May 31. Please visit:

https://silc.asu.edu/about/employment-opportunities