Transitioning to Teaching Language Online (TTLO)

January 6–April 20, 2020

This unique semester-long professional development program is for experienced classroom language teachers who want to transition to teaching their language class online. Offered completely online, TTLO will give teachers the first-hand experience of being an online learner while focusing on the important elements of a successful online language class such as creating community, time management strategies for teachers and students, choosing appropriate technology tools for communicative-based activities, and developing a variety of online activity types. In addition to delving into these concepts of online teaching, participants will see them in action by taking part in model online language activities as language learners. By the end of the program, participants will have a portfolio of activities ready to be incorporated into an online language course.

During this 15-week online program, participants will:

• Experience being an online learner and see model online language activities and tools in action;
• Explore the differences between teaching in the classroom and teaching online;
• Apply guidelines, best practices, and readiness quizzes to prepare for teaching and learning in an online environment;
• Review and revise traditional language lesson plans and assessments for online teaching; and
• Test, create, and evaluate online tools and activities within the framework of the three communication modes (interpretive, presentational, and interpersonal).

Marlene Johnshoy (Program Director) is the Online Education Program Director and Web Manager for the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.

Ritu Jayakar (Instructor) is an adjunct lecturer of Hindi language and User Experience Analyst of Outreach and Online Education at the Pennsylvania State University.

Frances Matos-Schultz (Instructor) is Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Shannon Spasova (Instructor) is Assistant Professor of Russian and Technology Specialist at Michigan State University.

TTLO has been offered twelve times to a total of 276 teachers of Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, ESL, Finnish, French, German, Haitian-Creole, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Urdu, Russian, and Turkish.

CARLA Summer Institutes 2019

CARLA celebrated a successful conclusion to the Center's 24th annual summer institute program in August. This year CARLA offered a total of 13 summer programs, including nine face-to-face institutes and three online institutes. In addition, the online institute Transitioning to Teaching Languages Online was offered to a group of Pakistani EFL teachers under a special contract with the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.

THE STATS

As in years past, language teachers from all over the world attended the CARLA summer institutes—either in person or virtually. Check out these impressive statistics for 2019:

• 264 participants engaged in CARLA-sponsored professional development programs this summer: 184 people participated in the CARLA summer institute program in person. CARLA's online options had a total enrollment of 80 virtual participants.
• Participants hailed from 30 states and Washington D.C. and 12 countries including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Spain, and Singapore.
• The summer programs served teachers of 21 languages: Arabic, Chinese, EFL/ESL, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Kalkatungu, Korean, Kurdish, Latin, Ojibwe, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Urdu.

And—check out these statistics on the program since it began in 1996:

• CARLA has offered 244 summer institutes since the program's inception.
• A grand total of 6,315 attendees have come from 50 states (plus Washington D.C., Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and 69 countries.
• The program has served teachers of 68 languages including 13 indigenous languages. The top ten less commonly taught languages taught by summer institute attendees were: Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian.

Society, Identity, and Transformation in Language Teacher Education:

11th International Language Teacher Education Conference

The 11th International Conference on Language Teacher Education, held at the University of Minnesota from May 30 to June 1, 2019, was a tremendous success! A total of 248 language teacher educators participated in the conference; they came from 33 states, American Samoa, and Washington D.C., plus 20 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Turkey, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.

Attendees commented on the high quality of the conference presentations and the inspiration they gained by networking with other language teacher educators. Below are a few samples of the enthusiastic comments from the conference evaluations:

• The Language Teacher Education conference should be on the radar of any professional who mentors language teachers. I always enjoy coming to this conference where I can count on learning about new practices to support novice language teachers, develop deeper understanding of the learning-to-teach process, and connect with dynamic colleagues in the field.
• Having never been to this conference, I can honestly say that it's one of the most beneficial I've attended. Definitely will be attending in the future.
• There are so few opportunities for language teacher educators to come together, share strategies, and improve their practices. This is a unique event that helps us do the very important work of preparing our world language teachers to educate future global citizens.

Check out the archived videos and slides from some of the plenarists. CARLA is planning to publish a volume of selected papers from the conference.

Plan Ahead: The 12th International Language Teacher Education Conference will be hosted in 2021 at Georgia State University by CARLA's colleagues at the Center for Urban Language Teaching and Research (CULTR).

New CARLA Working Papers!

Developing Advanced Speaking Proficiency:
Instructional and Curricular Models for Post-Secondary Language Programs
Edited by Adolfo Carrillo Cabello, Kate Paesani, and Dan Soneson

The six chapters in this edited volume report on curricular and pedagogical interventions designed to improve students' speaking proficiency in upper-level postsecondary language, literature, and linguistics courses and based on work carried out as part of the Language Flagship Proficiency Initiative. The practical examples and curricular models presented within these chapters are easily adaptable to multiple contexts, languages, and courses and can serve as models for language programs wishing to facilitate students' advanced-level speaking development.

Available for purchase on Amazon.com

Research Approaches to Second Language Acquisition:
Proceedings of the 2018 SLA Graduate Student Symposium
Edited by Antonio Alejandro Perez Belda, Hadley Galbraith,  Kevin Josephs, Angela Pico Pinto, Evelyn Pulkowski, Kezia Walker-Cecil, and Caolimeng Wuxih

This volume includes six selected papers from the Second Language Acquisition Graduate Student Symposium held at the University of Iowa in April 2018. Entirely student-run, the Symposium is an annual conference dedicated to giving student researchers and educators the opportunity to present studies that address current issues in second language acquisition. The Symposium is a collaboration between the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Available on the CARLA website as a free PDF!

To help them prepare the volume, the editors made use of the Conference Organizing and Publishing Resources on the CARLA website.

About CARLA

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota is a research and resource center devoted to improving language teaching and learning.

The CARLA Update is a quarterly electronic newsletter designed to give second language teachers and researchers current information on the programs and projects currently operating under the auspices of CARLA. We encourage you to share this newsletter.

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