LITERACIES for LCTLs WORKSHOP: A Prism of Possibilities: Building Multiliteracies Grammar and Vocabulary Lessons through Multimodal LCTL Texts
Mar 29, 2025 | 11am - 2pm CDT
Online via Zoom
Cost: Free for LCTL instructors who meet the target audience criteria
By viewing text as a prism that offers a range of activities and opportunities for skillful student engagement, LCTL teachers will cultivate a diverse teaching repertoire grounded in multiliteracies pedagogy. The multiliteracies approach helps learners recognize grammar and vocabulary in context while encouraging them to view texts through multiple lenses. In particular, participants will explore the potential of multimodal texts across a variety of genres, spotlighting not only grammar and vocabulary, but also culture and context.
Adopting a multiliteracies framework, the workshop will dive into four key activity types: experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, and applying. Through hands-on experiences, participants will learn how to design engaging activities that integrate grammar, vocabulary, culture, and pragmatics. These lessons will empower learners to develop deeper meaning-making skills and engage critically with language in real-world contexts.
Participants are asked to bring an authentic text (e.g., poem, comic, Instagram post, podcast, multimodal text, etc.) to the workshop around which they would like to develop hands-on activities. They will work together to explore the possibilities and tailor them to align with their specific teaching goals. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a "prism" of new ideas and strategies to create dynamic lessons that engage and inspire their learners. This approach will not only enhance learners’ language skills but also deepen their understanding of the target language community, breaking down boundaries and offering a richer, more nuanced perspective.
After this workshop, LCTL instructors will be able to:
- Discuss the multiliteracies activity types of experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying for grammar and vocabulary teaching.
- Identify the characteristics of these activity types in sample instructional materials.
- Apply these activity types to create activities around a target language text with a focus on grammar and vocabulary.
Presenters:
Yuri Kumagai is a senior lecturer and the head of the Japanese language program at Smith College. She teaches all levels of Japanese language and culture courses. She has been developing a project-based language learning curriculum by collaborating with other language teacher-researchers. She is the co-author/co-editor of Multiliteracies in World Language Education (Routledge, 2015) and A Genre-Based Approach to Reading as a Social Practice (Routledge, 2015).
Borbala Gaspar is a Lecturer at The University of Arizona where she teaches Italian and is involved in research projects focusing on learners' literacy practices, engagement, and development of their sense of self.
Target Audience: This workshop is open to teachers of less commonly taught languages (i.e., languages other than ESL/EFL, French, German, and Spanish) beginning-level students in secondary and postsecondary contexts in the United States.
This workshop is offered free of charge to language educators within the target audience on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited.
This workshop is now full, but you may sign up for the waiting list.