Illinois Global Institute is pleased to announce the IGI Summer 2022 Global Educator Workshop - 3 days of round-table discussions around the context of world languages and area studies with the theme of "World Languages & Area Studies: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Perspectives." K-12 educators from around the globe are encouraged to attend any of the events listed in the agenda below. Illinois K-12 educators are eligible to receive ISBE Professional Development Hours (PDH).
There is an abundance of activities for the K-12 World Language classroom, yet not all of them go according to plan or are as successful as we expect. This workshop will focus on specific activities that have varying levels of success and how they can be made to be more effective for relevant educational contexts by considering grade level, learning goals, or design. There will also be time for educators to connect with one another and share their own experiences.
This annual event is sponsored by Illinois Global Institute; Center for African Studies; Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies; Center for Global Studies; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; European Union Center; Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies; Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; Women & Gender in Global Perspectives at Illinois
AGENDA
Day 1 (Tuesday, July 19) 10:00 am- 12:00 pm (CT)
10:00-10:05 Introduction
10:05-10:45 Keynote: Dr. Leonard Muaka, Associate Professor of Swahili & Linguistics at Howard University: "Language as a Resource: Prioritizing African languages"
10:45-10:55 Q&A
10:55-11:00 Break
11:00-11:05 Introduction
11:05-11:45 Keynote: Jude Krushnowski, Interim Director of Foreign Language Teacher Education, UIUC: “Making the Best from the Worst: How to Make Unsuccessful Activities Work”
11:45-11:55 Q&A
11:55-12:00 Conclusion
Day 2 (Wednesday, July 20) 10:00 am- 12:00 pm (CT)
10:00-10:05 Introduction
10:05-10:40 Keynote: Carlos Molina-Vital, Latin America scholars/educators, CLACS Quechua Instructor, UIUC: "Collaborative efforts in teaching an indigenous language in the United States and beyond: the case of Southern Quechua"
10:40-10:50 Q&A
10:50-11:00 Break
11:00-11:45 Education Roundtable: "Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Perspectives of language instructors & learners: What/How Languages been taught in classroom?"
Panelists:
Dr. Kora Maldonado, clinical assistant professor in Anthropology and American Indian Studies, UIUC: “Thinking and Learning with Q'anjob'al Communities on Language Vitality in a Transnational Context”
Raquel Goebel, Portuguese Instructor, UIUC: “The future of Less Commonly Taught Languages: Challenges and Opportunities”
Dr. Anne Lutomia, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Purdue University: "Potentials and Challenges in Teaching Swahili at a University in the US"
Dr. Eman Saadah, Director of the Less Commonly Taught Languages Program, UIUC: "The Strategies SILMW Uses to Engage High Schoolers in the Intensive College Learning Setting"
11:45-11:55 Q&A
11:55-12:00 Conclusion
Day 3 (Thursday, July 21) 10:00 am- 12:00 pm (CT)
10:00-10:05 Introduction
10:05-10:45 Education Roundtable: "Pedagogy, open access textbooks, curriculum development"
Panelists:
Lauren Nelson, Russian Teacher, Pritzker College Prep, IL: “Russian para todos: Inclusivity and Relevance in the Foreign Language Classroom”
Frane Karabatić, Lecturer at Slavic Languages and Literatures, UT Austin: “Developing New Online Beginning-Level BCMS Textbook: A Culture Centered Approach”
10:45-10:55 Q&A
10:55-11:00 Break
11:00-11:05 Introduction
11:05-11:45 Keynote: Jessica Haxhi, Supervisor of World Languages, Methods Instructor, Japanese Teacher, ACTFL Past President: “Leadership for a Bright Future in World Languages”
11:45-11:55 Q&A
11:55-12:00 Conclusion
*Illinois K-12 educators are eligible to receive ISBE Professional Development Hours (PDH).
Presenters Bio
Raquel Goebel is an award-winning instructor of Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she works as Director of the Portuguese Language Program. She is also a certified Career Coach, a Leadership Coach with the Illinois Leadership Institute, the Advisor for the Luso-Brazilian Student Association, and the Advisor for the Portuguese Honors Society. She is invested in creating unique experiences for students who are interested in developing communicative competence. Her humanistic approach to teaching place students at the center of the learning process, creating an environment that makes students feel comfortable and safe so they can focus on their learning and personal growth. She serves also as a liaison between campus units and the Brazilian groups in the Chambana area, delivering cultural-rich events to the local community.
Jessica Haxhi has been the Supervisor of World Languages for New Haven Public Schools in Connecticut since 2013, overseeing 85 teachers and seven languages, including Mandarin and Japanese. Jessica is currently ACTFL Past President and is a past President of AATJ. She served on the National Japanese Standards Committee and the ACTFL-NCSSFL Can-Do Statements Committee. Previously, Jessica taught Japanese for 20 years and taught world language methods at a local university. She received the Milken Family Foundation National Teacher Award (2002), the U.S.-Japan Foundation Elgin Heinz Outstanding Japanese Teacher Award (2008), and the International Women’s Day New Haven Award for Outstanding Public Service (2019).
Frane Karabatić is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian studies at the University of Texas at Austin and teaches primarily courses related to Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Russian language. He is also working on finishing his PhD studies at the University of Kansas focusing on second language acquisition. He holds an MA in Slavic Languages & Literatures from the University of Kansas, and an MA in Croatian and Italian Language & Literature from the University of Split, Croatia. His secondary research focuses on masculinity in the twentieth-century Russian literature. He has been teaching B/C/S as a second language since 2009. In the past, together with B/C/S, he has been also teaching all levels of Italian and elementary Russian. In addition to teaching at the University of Texas, Frane has significant experience working as an interpreter and in teaching courses at the University of Kansas, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Iowa, and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Jude Krushnowski is the Interim Director of the Foreign Language Teacher Education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He is a licensed Spanish Teacher with endorsements in English as a Second Language and Bilingual Education and has experience teaching Spanish and ESL at the University and K-12 levels.
Anne Namatsi Lutomia, is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, Entomology Department and Scientific Animation Without Borders (SAWBO) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She holds a doctoral degree in Human Resource Development with a minor in Gender Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her current research interests span scientific international collaboration, adult learning using local languages viewed on mobile phones, and agricultural resilience. She taught Swahili for many years at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as a Teaching Assistant.
Korinta Maldonado (PhD UT Austin, 2012) is clinical assistant professor in Anthropology and American Indian Studies, and the co-director of the Native American and Indigenous Language Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research centers on Indigenous social movements and racial formation in Mexico, Guatemala and within the Indigenous diaspora in the United States. Her work is articulated and produced through collaborative and decolonial. Her research is a result of decades of engagement and collaborative work with Indigenous organizations of Puebla, Chiapas and Indigenous and non-Indigenous immigrant communities in the US. She is currently working with local immigrant organizations and with the Interpreters Collective Pixan Konob’. Dr. Maldonado is a co-founder with local Maya Q’anjob’al community members of this collective. Our mission is two folded, 1) to promote and reivindicate the distinct Indigenous Languages of the county and the state, and 2) to build multilingual capacity in the area through the training and professionalization of local Indigenous language interpreters currently in the health, medical, education, and related fields. Locally, we facilitate workshops to schools, medical providers, and local organizations. We organize educational activities, cultural events, and campaigns that seek to shed light on the language wealth and diversity of the area. The messaging is done principally through radio programming in Q’anjob’al and social media platforms (TikTok: PixanKonobChampaign). Through these key interventions we assure Indigenous speakers access to their rights in distinct public domains. She is also a founding member of the Labour Health Equity Action Project LHEAP. Last year Dr. Maldonado was awarded the Fredrick J. Miller Award for distinguished community or volunteer service given by the University-YMCA and this year she was awarded the Immigrant Leadership Award by the Immigration Forum Organization.
Carlos Molina-Vital was born in Lima, Peru (1975). He currently serves as the instructor and responsible for the Quechua Language Program in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently finishing his doctorate in Andean Studies (Linguistics track) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. His studies of Quechua languages include varieties spoken in Ancash, Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Cuzco in Peru. He has extensive experience teaching linguistics (semantics, syntax, general linguistics), as well as language courses (Spanish, Southern Quechua) in his native Peru and the United States. In the field of applied linguistics, he is interested in pedagogical grammars and task-based approaches within the communicative method for second language instruction. In addition to this, he is interested in language typology and the relation between language, culture, and cognition. Since 2018, he coordinates the QINTI project (Quechua Innovation and Teaching Initiative). This initiative has brought together several Quechua instructors and activists in the US in order to develop open access materials for teaching the Southern Quechua variety. He and his collaborators are currently writing Ayni, the first multi-dialectal Southern Quechua open-access manual.
Dr. Leonard Muaka is Chair, of the Dept. of World Languages & Cultures, Associate Professor of Swahili & Linguistics in the Center for African Studies and African Languages Program Coordinator at Howard University. Dr. Muaka holds a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign. He has over 25 years of teaching and research experience in the field of linguistics. He is author of a variety of books, peer-reviewed articles, and book chapters in linguistics. Some of his research interests include: sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, hybridity, literary criticism, African linguistics with a focus on Bantu languages and foreign language pedagogy. Dr. Muaka is also a recipient of two Fulbright-Hays Awards.
Lauren Nelson just finished her eighth year teaching Russian at Pritzker College Prep in Chicago. Each year, she teaches over 175 students. None are heritage speakers of Russian, but many speak Spanish and for them, Russian is their third language. Lauren's curriculum gives students the space and Russian vocabulary to share what's important to them—their experiences, interests, and goals—with the hope that they continue to pursue Russian at the university level. Lauren serves on the Board of Directors for the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) and is part of the Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion Committee. This summer, she is finishing the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) Certificate Program in Diverse and Inclusive Pedagogies. Her teaching team at Pritzker received the 2020 AATSEEL Award for Excellence in Teaching (Secondary).
Dr. Eman Saadah is the Director of the Less Commonly Taught Languages Program, the Arabic Language Program, and the Summer Institute for the Languages of the Muslim World (SILMW) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Saadah is a Teaching Associate Professor who earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from UIUC. She has received many departmental and campus level awards, attesting to her outstanding teaching record. As part of SILMW, Dr. Saadah founded and directs a summer Arabic program for high school students on UIUC’s campus. Along with teaching and administrating, Dr. Saadah’s research informs Arabic practitioners about the best teaching practices. Her studies have depth and breadth, and her empirical findings are presented in conferences and published in prestigious journals.