The article analyzes Sor Juana’s passion for knowledge in her lengthy poem First Dream (El Primero Sueño). The First Dream exemplifies her quest for knowledge and enlightenment. Sor Juana’s passion and desire to learn lead her to become one of New Spain’s most notable and prolific Baroque poets.

The article was published in the journal Mirabilia, housed in Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Department of Foreign Languages

Are you looking for study abroad with free housing and a free meal plan? Are you looking for a job? Korea University at Sejong is one of the oldest and largest in the country. The university’s reputation for teaching, research, and service to Korean study is acknowledged throughout the country. The university is located in the small town of Jochiwon, only a short bus ride from three major cities.

Korea needs a lot of English teachers. Why don’t you take a Summer intensive course at IUP?

CRLG 109 Korean I

• Intersession (May 20–June 4)
• MTWRF 10:00–11:50 a.m.; 1:00–2:50 p.m.

CRLG 159 Korean II

• Summer Session I (June 5–19)
• MTWRF 10:00–11:50 a.m.; 1:00–2:50 p.m.

This course will also include K-pop (Gangnam Style), K-drama, K-movie, etc.

Department of Foriegn Languages

Her presentation provided an overview of the key research findings to date and presented the case for why second-language literature and culture specialists should listen carefully to themselves as they teach and seek ways to open dialogue, not only within their own classrooms, but also with their second language acquisition colleagues.

Department of Foreign Languages

• When: April 26, 5:00 p.m.
• Where: McVitty Auditorium (Sprowls Hall, across from Foster)

Popcorn and beverages will be provided.

Assisted by the Japanese Program at IUP.

Watch the official trailer for Ponyo, and check out JAPASO’s Facebook event page.

Department of Foreign Languages

Please feel free to stop by for any question on these programs, including contents of these courses, foreign language requirement, any linguistic issues such as language and cognition, Study Abroad, the culture study tour to Japan and Korea, jobs in Asia, etc. Check us out on Facebook!

We are also offering Summer Intensive Korean, which is also open to the community:

CRLG 109 Korean I

• Intersession (May 20–June 4)
• MTWRF 10:00–11:50; 1:00–2:50

CRLG 159 Korean II

• Summer Session I (June 5–19)
• MTWRF 10:00–11:50; 1:00–2:50

These are not in URSA yet, but will be posted soon.

This course will also include K-POP (Gangnam Style), K-DRAMA, K-MOVIE, etc.

Six credits of language requirements can be done with only four weeks!

Department of Foreign Languages

The article presents the results of two small-scale surveys in West Virginia that investigated the practices of K-12 teachers in the classroom: the activities they use, their incorporation of the state standards, and standards-based assessment.

Department of Foreign Languages

Time: 5:00 p.m.

Where: Allegheny Room in the HUB

There is a $ 3 material fee for the event. You can sign up for the event in the Religious Studies office in 452 Sutton.

For further information, e-mail yt.kim@iup.edu, a.m.mcanerney@iup.edu, or chandler@iup.edu.

Department of Foreign Languages

You can win these prizes:

• Samsung Galaxy III
• PowerBag backpack, which has a built-in battery to charge an electric device
• $100 Shinobi coupon (Japanese restaurant in Indiana Mall)
• $100 Six Hand Bakery coupon
• $50 IUP Co-Op coupon
• Five Genki I textbooks/workbooks
• Five Genki II textbooks/workbooks
• Five Intermediate Japanese textbooks/workbooks
• Two Tobira Gateway to Advanced Japanese textbooks
• Two Konnichiwa Nihongo (Ready-to-use simple Japanese expressions)
• Headphones
• Plus many more prizes will be added until April 6!

If you want to sing, please leave your comment at IUPJP Facebook.

You can also download the list of songs.

Cheers!

Department of Foreign Languages

Special guests will be Jean-Dominique Le Garrec (honorary consul, French Republic) and Jean-Pierre Collet (president, Consular Association and former honorary consul, French Republic).

The conference will take place in Stephenson Hall, Room G-41, at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

The event will also be broadcast live on Ustream.

Refreshments will be served.

RSVP: J-Louis Dassier (dassier@iup.edu, 724-541-1872) before April 1 2013.

Merci.

Glisan addressed faculty and students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures as well as area foreign language teachers and university administrators.

If you speak French, read French, or need proficiency in French for your career or for any part of the curriculum you teach or the major you have declared, and if you agree to be filmed like the subjects on our French advocacy Facebook page, please contact your friendly IUP French faculty as soon as possible (J-Louis Dassier at dassier@iup.edu, or Charles McCreary at chasmc@iup.edu). We would be glad to come to you, ask you a few questions, and let you tell your “French” story.

Be sure to “Like” our Facebook page!

Thank you in advance for your help.

Department of Foreign Languages 

The session was entitled “Nuisance or Necessity: Personal Electronic Devices in the Classroom.” The focus of the session was the role that these devices can play in the language classroom, including best practices, current research, potential uses, and how what may seem a nuisance can be a positive medium for our students.

The paper focused on Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s outsider status on multiple levels: emotionally, physically, linguistically, olfactorily, professionally, intellectually, and morally. It analyzed how, despite social integration never being his ambition, in the end, Jean-Baptiste becomes one with society like few people ever do.

Rodriguez and Alarcón had the rare opportunity to sit down for an hour-and-a-half interview at Menchú Tum’s home in Mixco, Guatemala. The interview covered many topics ranging from the 13th Baktun to women, education and politics in Guatemala. Forthcoming articles about the interview are to follow.

Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan of the Quiché ethnic Mayan group. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, and in 1998 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award from Spain. Over the years, Menchú Tum has become widely known as a leading advocate of human rights of the indigenous people in Guatemala and in the Western Hemisphere as well as women’s rights. Her work has earned her several international awards. Menchú Tum is an UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. She has been awarded over 20 honorary degrees from various distinguished world universities.

• When: February 22, 5:00 p.m.
• Where: McVitty Auditorium (Sprowls Hall, across from Foster)

Hosted by JAPASO, and assisted by the Japanese program in the Department of Foreign Languages.

More details about the movie 

JAPASO’s goal is to bring students who are interested in Japan together in order to explore both the Japanese language and the culture. We meet on Friday afternoon twice a month.

JAPASO Facebook group

Recertification is granted to those testers who complete a rigorous training process and demonstrate the ability to conduct and rate OPIs according to the criteria established by ACTFL.

Glisan has been a certified OPI tester since 1986.

Department of Foreign Languages 

The session presented the five national priority areas for research in foreign language education and details of the project's second research phase, planned for 2013–2014.

Department of Foreign Languages

The book, edited by Ana María González, professor of Spanish at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, is a bilingual collection of stories, poems, and essays. Each piece is presented in Spanish with the English translation appearing on a facing page.

Glisan was a panelist in the session "ACTFL Research Plenary: Introducing Phase II of ACTFL's Research Priorities." She also led two follow-up sessions: "ACTFL Research Priority Area #1: Teacher Preparation Model Programs: Documentation, Implementation, and Outcomes" and "ACTFL Research Priority Area #2: Profiles of High-Performing FL Teachers in K-12 Settings."

Glisan directs the ACTFL national Research Priorities Project, the purpose of which is to establish a national research agenda and conduct research on the identified priorities to inform and improve practice in foreign language classrooms. The project was begun in 2010 and is currently in Phase II.

In “Preparing Foreign Language Teachers: It Takes an Entire Educational Community,” they offered information to assist faculty at universities across the United States in emulating the successful foreign language teacher education program at IUP, which has twice earned national recognition.

The session was entitled “The Writing Proficiency Guidelines: Evidence from a Department-wide Assessment.” The session presented a pilot study implementing the newly revised ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines into a research study.

• German is going from four 3-credit courses to three 4-credit courses for the Elementary and Intermediate language sequence.
• GRMN 151, 152, 251, and 252 will be phased out as GRMN 101, 102, and 201 are phased in.
• GRMN 151 and 152 formerly comprised the Elementary level sequence, and GRMN 251 and 252 the Intermediate level. GRMN 101 and 102 will replace GRMN 151 and 152 respectively, and GRMN 201 will be the only intermediate level course. It contains content from both GRMN 251 and 252.
• GRMN 151 and 152 will no longer be offered. Thus, students starting the language without any previous exposure should be advised into GRMN 101. GRMN 102 is intended for students who have already had a year or two of German in high school or a semester at the university level.
• GRMN 251 will no longer be offered after Spring 2013. Students who completed GRMN 151 and 152 but are unable to take GRMN 251 in Spring 2013 should be advised to take GRMN 201 in Fall 2013 or after.
• GRMN 252 will no longer be offered after Fall 2013. Students who complete GRMN 251 in Spring 2013 but are unable to take GRMN 252 in Fall 2013 should be advised to take GRMN 201 in Spring 2014 or after.
• GRMN 101, 102, and 201 will be totally phased in by Spring 2014.

Questions regarding German course offerings may be directed to Peter Sullivan (psulliv@iup.edu) or Heide Witthöft (heide@iup.edu).

Department of Foreign Languages

The paper was presented at the 25th annual Pennsylvania Foreign Language Conference on September 22, 2012. The work examines the fragment weave of public and private events that attempt to fuse fiction and history.

In celebration of Halloween, the movie Kiki’s Delivery Service will be shown at McVitty Auditorium, Sprowls Hall, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Food will be provided.

Everyone is invited to wear Halloween or Japanese attire. Please come join us as we celebrate Halloween while exploring the Japanese culture!

Department of Foreign Languages

The paper was presented at the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature, hosted this year by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, from October 12–14, 2012. The conference alternates among seven Midwestern university campuses—University of Colorado–Boulder, University of Kansas–Lawrence, University of Missouri–Columbia, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Wisconsin–Madison and –Milwaukee, and Washington University–St. Louis—and features presentations on the literatures of Spain and Latin America.

Smith-Sherwood’s study examines Janés’ current engagement with digital culture as a contemporary expression of the theme of “cultural encounter,” which has marked her literary production since the late 1980s.

Smith-Sherwood also published “‘Let Yourself Be Loved’: A Mid-Career Spanish Professor Studies Abroad” in the Fall 2012 issue of Pennsylvania Language Forum, the publication of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association.

In the essay, Smith-Sherwood reflects on her experiences as a pilgrim, walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago across northern Spain with a group of 12 IUP students and Caleb Finnegan, Department of History.

The topic was “Building Literacy Via Communication Strategies.” Each webinar focused on one of the three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational.

Department of Foreign Languages

All events are free and open to the public. Attendance vouchers for students will be available. Detailed information including a program, description of the activities, and presenters’ bios can be found on the Maya Week at IUP website.

Department of Foreign Languages

The paper was presented at the 94th annual American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July 2012.

The study examines the role of women in the novel and how they recreate history from a female point of view.

The session was entitled “Reflective Practice for the Post-secondary Classroom” and included discussions on developing a personal teaching philosophy for young university faculty and graduate teaching assistants.

Glisan will be honored at an awards presentation that will take place in November 2012 at the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Philadelphia.

Noche Latina is the annual talent show where students and faculty get together to celebrate the Hispanic Heritage Month. The theme for 2012 Noche is “Hispanics in the U.S.” Food will be served, as we’ve done in the past. This year’s theme for the food is “Picadillos Fest.”

The Noche Latina show will be on October 13.

Questions can be directed to Marjorie Zambrano-Paff or any member of the HHC.

Department of Foreign Languages

In “Essays of a (Mad?) Black Cuban Woman: The 1889 Writings of África Céspedes in Minerva,” Ryan-Sams analyzed and contextualized two essays about racism, sexism, and nationalism written by the same author and published in Minerva, a magazine for Afro-Cuban women in the late 19th century.

The presentation is related to Ryan-Sams's recent research on how Cubans of African descent responded in print to the abolition of slavery and to racial discrimination against them in the 1880s.

Huhn acted as a group leader, working with students in a classroom setting, while Erway acted as a unit (cabin) leader, guiding students in daily camp activities.

Inspired by the nationally-known Concordia Language Villages, the camp provided participants an opportunity to immerse in the language, food, music, art, history, geography and customs of the Spanish-speaking world. Participants were challenged to communicate only in Spanish and will then complete follow-up activities back in their home counties, as part of West Virginia’s focus on increasing bilingualism and global awareness among their students.

The article presents the results of a review of current literature on innovative and effective models of teacher education, and identifies characteristics of programs that exemplify those models.

Eileen Glisan

The issue represents the results of Phase I of the National Research Priorities in Foreign Language Education Project of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Glisan is project director.

The goals of the project are as follows:

1. to identify key areas in which research is currently needed in foreign language education,
2. to sponsor this research, and
3. to disseminate research findings to the field.

The book won the Harvey L. Johnson Book Award, conferred by the South Central Organization of Latin American Studies at its congress in Miami on March 9, 2012.

The article appears in the Journal of International Studies on Law and Education. The article addresses the need to bridge the gap between the intermediate to advanced second language learners. The approach and the activities are crucial when teaching Hispanic literary readings in the target language. There exists a need to develop communication, cultural awareness, connections, comparisons, and a sense of community for the second language learner to feel successful in reading the authentic texts.

¿Qué Tal Indiana? ("What's Up, Indiana?") covers culture, people, and a variety of topics that everyone can relate to, while engaging, informing, educating, and entertaining the IUP campus and the surrounding community. The show employs a variation of language usage from Spanish and English to Spanglish. The language variation is dependent on the guests’ fluency in either Spanish or English and their preference in speaking.

The show features Rodriguez as the host and consists of a series of guests with expertise in a field. The guests are interviewed to inform and educate, or they carry on a discussion about a particular topic. Some topics are provocative and others are general entertainment.

When asked about the show, Rodríguez said, “I’m just having fun.”

“I think the show is great!” Start said. “It’s new and it’s different.”

Guests so far have been Caleb Finegan, Francisco Alarcón, and Lourdes (Cuqui) Moretti.

After the competition, Jones was interviewed by Voice of America (VOA). Her picture and part of the interview can be viewed at the VOA Chinese website.

Jones came in third, with the first-place prize going to a student from Princeton University. Eighty students from 23 universities in the Eastern U.S. region participated. This was the first time IUP students attended this annual contest.

All of the finalists were qualified to apply for a scholarship to study in China, awarded by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing. The finalists were chosen from preliminary contests held at various places in the Eastern U.S. Three students, including Jones from IUP, attended the preliminary contest hosted by Saint Vincent College on March 24. The competition includes two sections: Chinese speech (two minutes for junior level, three minutes for senior level), and a Chinese cultural talents show (e.g., Chinese painting, calligraphy, songs, dancing, and martial arts.)

Department of Foreign Languages

The chapter was published as part of the volume Conversos of Medieval Iberia in March 2012 with Brill Press.

The session was entitled “Learners Wanted: Strategies and Methods in World Language Classrooms” and focused on the classroom practices of K12 language teachers.

Department of Foreign Languages

The MLA serves educators of English and foreign languages and has over 30,000 members in 100 countries.

The session was entitled “In Search of Innovation in Teacher Preparation: On Oral Proficiency Levels and Innovative Preparation Models.”

Dr. Huhn’s portion of the presentation introduced her research on innovative and effective models of teacher education. Publication is forthcoming (May 2012).

She moderated the research plenary, “Research Priorities—Phase I: Moving Language Education Forward,” and co-presented the session “A Decade of Standards: Empowering the Profession.”

Dr. Glisan completes her year as immediate past president of ACTFL on December 31.

The presentation was made at the sixth conference of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora, held in Pittsburgh in early November 2011.

The article presents the results of a program analysis of an online component into a beginning Spanish program.

The article is published in the fall 2011 issue of the International Association for Language Learning Technology Journal —(available online).

For questions or further information, please contact Dr. Huhn (huhn@iup.edu).

The journal is a collaborative effort among OMA, the Department of Sociology/Anthropology, and the Department of Communication Studies at Pace University. The RCI journal is housed at Pace University.

“La familia: Unity and Latino Identity in Loida Maritza Pérez” examines the Latino family characteristics and behavior that contribute to their identity and their strong alllegiance as exemplified in Pérez’s novel that closely represents reality.

The presentation weaved other authors such as Esmeralda Santiago, Julia Alvarez, and Christina García.

Dr. Lydia Rodríguez of the Department of Foreign Languages was one of the few invited to attend a reception hosted by Mr. Jorge Dezcallar, the Ambassador of Spain, in Washington, D.C., in July 2011.

Rodríguez also had the honor of meeting and speaking with U.S. Latina author Esmeralda Santiago. Santiago is the author of When I was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, and Conquistadora.

Also in July, at the conference of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Dr. Rodríguez had the distinct opportunity to meet Rosemary Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, and brainstorm with her about new conference and journal ideas.

Dr. Rodríguez was invited by Dr. Sintia Molina from St. Francis College in New York to form part of a conference panel on “Drifting Writers: Cases and Things in Dominican Women’s Narrative” (Escritoras a la deriva: casos y cosas en la narrative femenina dominicana).

The panel was one of the sessions at the ninety-third annual American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Conference in Washington, D.C., in July. The paper examines the broken immigrant family structure in Pérez’s novel.

While at the conference, Rodríguez had the opportunity to meet Rosemary Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, and brainstorm with her about new conference and journal ideas.

Also presenting at the conference were dozens of other scholars from the U.K., Spain, Ireland, the U.S., and Mexico.

Dr. Carranza’s paper focused on the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, the most important poet of the Spanish Renaissance, and its relationship to the poetry of Ausonius, the fourth-century Latin poet and author of the Mosella, a poem describing the Moselle river.

All interested students should plan to attend. For more information, contact the Department of Foreign Languages at (724) 357- 2325.

Dr. Brooks’ workshop concentrated specifically on strategies and techniques for providing contextualized, comprehensible language input and desiging strategies for students to use the new language in the classroom to the maximum extent possible.

Linguists and educators from the U.S. and various European countries attended the conference, which continued the dialog begun in last year’s conference held in Leipzig, Germany.

The goal of the conference was to explore correspondences between two systems for assessing the language proficiency of students: the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) on both theoretical and empirical grounds.

Dr. Marjorie Zambrano-Paff, Department of Spanish, recently presented her paper, “Mediated Humor in the Legal Setting: The Construction of New Identities,” at the International Society for Language Studies conference, which took place June 23–25, 2011, in Oranjestad, Aruba.

The study examines humor in immigration courtrooms. Judges often attempt to interject humor into the proceedings, yet the interpreter’s target language rendition often does not reflect these attempts. This study seeks to identify the conditions associated with this phenomenon and show how this violates the principles of good interpreting.

This study highlights the difficulty bilinguals experience when interpreting ironic remarks, jokes, or verbal play and shows how their linguistic choices can change not only the meaning of the original message—that is, not only the jokes or verbal play—but also the pragmatic force, or what the judges intended; for example, to mitigate the seriousness of the case, or to show solidarity toward the defendant or witness. This constitutes a violation of the ethical standards for interpreters set forth by the Federal Judicial Center.

Although the main focus is on the interpreter’s mediated rendition in instances where verbal play has occurred, attention is also paid to the judge’s humor or sarcasm so as to understand the judge’s perceived attitudes regarding the defendant’s credibility.

This event is sponsored by IUP’s Latino Student Organization, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Office of Admissions, and ASPIRA, Inc., of Philadelphia. This program is designed as an outreach program aimed at the recruitment and enrollment of high-achieving Latino students.

The theme of her keynote address was “Dare to Discover Your Possibilities.”

The conference took place at the Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort and Conference Center. In attendance were 180 participants, mostly K-12 foreign language teachers from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.

The conference featured a welcome by IUP Interim President David Werner and a series of three one-hour conference sessions (each series offered four sessions from which participants chose to attend).

Our keynote speaker was Dr. Duarte Silva, executive director of the California Foreign Language Project and professor in the School of Education at Stanford University. His keynote address was “World Language Teachers in the Twenty-First Century.”

Also in attendance were faculty members from both departments of Spanish and of French and German, as well as about twenty-five IUP alumni, all teachers of foreign languages.

Her presentation built on the 3P’s culture framework of the national foreign language standards. Participants were introduced to “pragmatics” as one of the most challenging aspects of language and cultural learning.

The session elaborated on examples and activities on how we might help our students develop greater cultural insights about the connection between language and culture through pragmatics.

The program is ideal for K-12 teachers of Spanish; professionals seeking career opportunities in international business, translation, and government; and future doctoral students.

Take courses during the Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters. Flexible scheduling allows for full- or part-time pursuit of the degree, with many late afternoon and evening classes.

Choose from one of two tracks: Applied Linguistics andTeaching Methodology or Literatures and Cultures.

Courses in both tracks integrate reading and interpreting authentic texts and explore cultural products, practices, and perspectives in the Spanish-speaking world.

The department is now accepting applications for Fall 2012. For more information, e-mail spanish-ma@iup.edu or visit the Spanish Department website.

The workshop was about on assisting students toward advanced-level speaking proficiency. Both the workshop and presentation took place at Smith College in Massachusetts on April 14, 2011.

The article describes a study on linguistic strategies that interpreters employ as repair mechanisms when confronted with both semantic and pragmatic challenges. The data show that the interpreter’s linguistic choices often altered the defendant’s testimony, sometimes damaging his or her credibility and potentially affecting the outcome of the case.

The topic of her address was “Research and Practice: A Tale of Two Worlds in Foreign Language Education.”

She also copresented a session at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, held in Baltimore, the title of which was “The Impact of the National Standards on Language Education and National Initiatives.”

Under the auspice of the University of San Pablo (Brazil) in conjunction with other European universities (Spain, Portugal, and Germany), the literary organization CEMOrOc was created. CEMOrOc houses various literary journals and also publishes a few academic books.

The director, Dr. Jean Lauand, well known in the literary field of medieval studies and twentieth-century Latin American literature, invited Dr. Rodríguez to form part of two editorial boards of two international literary journals that CEMOrOc currently directs: Revista Internacional d’Humanitats and Notandum: Revista Semestral Internacional de Estudios Académicos.

In addition to these two editorial boards, Dr. Lauand invited Dr. Rodríguez to serve on a third editorial board for CEMOrOc, the Conselho Editorial dos livros do CEMOrOc. This editorial board reviews academic manuscripts for forthcoming publications.

Notandum is housed in the Department of Philosophy and Education at the University of San Pablo in Brazil.

Her article “Being: Latin American Women Writers and Their Quest of Their Inner Being,” was published in 2011.

STARTALK (“Start Talking”) is a presidential initiative to fund summer programs for teachers and students in critical languages including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Swahili, and Urdu.

The purpose of the meeting was to develop workshops for training STARTALK teachers in various aspects of language teaching, including how to develop a learner-centered classroom and how to provide comprehensible input in a foreign language.

The conference was held in Boston and had the largest attendance ever—over 7,000 attendees.

At the Opening General Session, Dr. Glisan presented a “State of the Profession” talk. She also served as moderator for three plenary sessions: “The Lost ‘C’: The Communities Goal Area,” “Research Priorities: A Vision for Moving Language Education Forward,” and “World Language Teacher Development: Urgent Issues.”

The book was published in 2010 by Sussex Press and edited by Dr. Elizabeth M. Willingham, professor of Spanish at Baylor University in Texas.

The book included a chapter article by world famous Mexican author Elena Poniatowska.

The paper was presented at the twenty-third annual Pennsylvania Foreign Language Conference on September 25, 2010.

The paper examines cultural and universal humor in the three authors.

The title of her keynote was “Turning Up the Heat in Our Language Classrooms: On Paradigm Shift and Climate Change.”

Some 150 language educators attended the keynote presentation.

The title of her keynote was “On Finish Lines and Backward Design: Building Foreign Language Capacity.” 

Her workshop topic was “Crossing the Major Border: Strategies to Promote Advanced-Level Performance.”

Department of Spanish

The title of Dr. Glisan’s talk was “Advanced Oral Functions in Upper-Level Literature and Culture Classes” as part of the panel on Assessment in the Third Year and Beyond.

The seminar was sponsored by the Modern Language Association and was attended by some fifty chairs of university foreign language departments from across the country.

The paper was presented at the sixteenth annual Carolina Conference on Romance Literatures on March 27, 2010. The paper examines works by these three authors from the humorous perspective.

The Journal Milenio is housed at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón. The article examines the role of women in power in academia vis-a-vis literature.

The book was published in 2010 by Edwin Mellen Press and authored by Dr. Ingrid Matos-Nin, professor of Spanish at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Hispanic Journal is a peer-reviewed journal published by the IUP Department of Spanish.

Dr. Glisan also conducted a three-hour workshop at the conference on “Keeping It (Inter)personal through Instructional Conversations.”

During the opening session of the conference, Dr. Glisan also served as an invited panelist for the discussion dealing with standards.

She moderated the plenary session, “Establishing Research Priorities for Foreign Language Education,” and she was a panelist for the session “A Decade of Standards: Impact and Influence.”

The poems, “Palabras Sucias” (Dirty Words) and “Lágrimas” (Tears), were accepted for publication in the journal Chiricú, published by Indiana University at Bloomington.

On November 10, 2009, she presented “U.S. Latina Authors on the Move,” an interactive lecture to the students enrolled in two different courses of two different departments—the Introduction to U.S. Latinos course in the Department of Sociology and the Latino Issues of Identity course in the Department of Foreign Languages. The three-hour presentations were sponsored by the Latino Studies Minor Office at Millersville.

The paper, “A Theoretical Look at Humor in Julio Cortázar and Cristina Peri Rossi,” is based on her published article “Introduction to Humor: Theory Exemplified in Julio Cortázar and Cristina Peri Rossi.”

Dr. Glisan’s text is widely used in foreign language methodology courses across the country by programs that prepare K-16 language teachers.

The topic of the workshop was Integrated Performance Assessment, developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

The title of the keynote address was “The Impact of Standards on Foreign Language Education: Helping Us To BECOME a Profession.” The conference was attended by some six hundred foreign language educators.

The article presents theoretical points of views that attempt to explain what humor is. In defining and explaining humor, two short stories are analyzed using the theoretical study.

Department of Spanish

Rodríguez presented on “Desplazamiento y (re)construcción: el caso de las autoras latinas en los EE.UU (US Latinas)” (Displacement and (Re)Construction: The Case of the U.S. Latina Authors).

IUP students studying abroad in Costa Rica are featured in a video recently posted on YouTube.

The video documents their experience as they fly to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, see the jungle up close, enjoy the beach, and ward off a monkey attempting to steal their food. Spanish Department chair Sean McDaniel, who is accompanying the students, shot the video.

The department is committed to the study-abroad experience and its value to students. All Spanish majors are required to study abroad for a minimum of four weeks, and Spanish minors and other Spanish students are encouraged to participate to improve their language fluency.

In addition to Costa Rica, the department offers programs in Spain and Mexico.

Learn more about the Spanish Department’s study-abroad programs.

Speak Up!: A Study of Language Proficiency and Classroom Interaction

1. Are you a beginning Spanish teacher (only one, two, or three years of teaching experience in the middle-junior high or high school) in Western Pennsylvania?
2. Have you achieved Intermediate High or higher on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI—no more than two years old)?
3. Are you teaching Spanish, level 1?
4. Does your school permit videotaping/recording to be done in your classroom during instruction?

If you can answer “yes” to these four questions, we invite you to participate in an exciting groundbreaking project! Continue reading for details and how to apply.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand better the types of teaching practices in which teachers at various levels of proficiency engage. This information will inform teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities about the possible relationship between teacher oral proficiency and teaching practices. More specifically, this study will help inform the language preparation component of these programs about the kinds of language proficiencies that teacher candidates need in order to be successful in standards-based language programs.

This project is being sponsored by ACTFL and is being conducted by Eileen Glisan (president-elect, ACTFL) and Frank Brooks, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Rick Donato, University of Pittsburgh.

Benefits

ACTFL will provide full participants in this important project with the following benefits:

• Three years free membership in ACTFL
• $100 gift certificate to use at the ACTFL convention/on-line bookstore
• One free registration to any one ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo during the next three years

Participants must complete the full project to be eligible for these benefits. Benefits will be delivered at the completion of the project.

Plus: For those who intend to pursue National Board Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, participation in this project would assist you in developing your professional portfolio entries, for which video recordings of your teaching are required.

Application Requirements

If you are interested in participating, we need from you:

• A letter stating your interest in participating in this exciting project and confirming that your school permits videotaping/recording to be done in your classroom during instruction.
• A Statement of Philosophy of Language Teaching of between 250-300 words.
• A copy of your OPI certificate (no more than two years old).

Submission Address

Frank B. Brooks, Associate Professor
Department of Spanish
Sutton Hall, 468
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, PA 15705
E-mail: fbrooks@iup.edu

Submission Deadline

Because we would like to begin this project during the first semester of the 2009–2010 school year, the deadline for submission of the requested materials is July 15, 2009.

ACTFL1001 N Fairfax St Suite 200 Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-894-2900
Fax: 703-894-2905
membership@actfl.org

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Discover Languages

Hosted by the University of Kentucky, Lexington, the 2009 KFLC marked the conference’s sixty-second year.

The event was organized by the municipality and the Office of Education, Culture, and Tourism of the same city. In this event, Rodríguez was given a recognition by one of the city commissioners.

She gave an invited guest speaker presentation on “Acting Out and Carrying On: Latin American Women’s Writing.” She was also invited to the roundtable discussion on “Teaching and Disseminating Latin American's Women’s Writing and Art: A Pedagogy Round Table.”

Recertification involves a rigorous process of demonstrating to a tester trainer that one is able to conduct proficiency interviews appropriately and rate speech samples accurately according to the national proficiency rating scale.

Dr. Glisan’s certification is valid until 2013. She conducts proficiency interviews in Spanish for majors and minors in the department’s programs.

The purpose of the presentation was to share with other language departments in the U.S. how the Department of Spanish at IUP both constructed and manages its program assessment system. This process has resulted not only in a culture of assessment within the department but also in achieving its coveted “National Recognition” by ACTFL/NCATE, the outside accrediting agency for its Spanish Education program.

Lydia Rodríguez’s article “A Theoretical View of Games in Literature: Julio Cortázar and Cristina Peri Rossi” has been accepted for publication in the Journal Hipertexto. In addition, her most recent poem, “Alma Perdida” (Lost Soul), was accepted for publication in The World’s Muse: A Journal of Creative Writing in World Literatures.

ACTFL membership includes more than 12,000 language professionals from all levels of education and representing all languages.

The topic of the plenary was “Language Teaching and Learning: What the Research Shows and What It Doesn’t.” At the ACTFL conference, Glisan also copresented a full day of training for faculty preparing to become ACTFL/NCATE program reviewers for foreign languages.

The subject of her paper was the use of (im)politeness by bilingual interpreters in immigration hearings and the pragmatic effect on the hearer.

French author, screenwriter and director Philippe Claudel will be at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from Oct. 22 through Nov. 5 for a variety of events encouraging the discussion and study of contemporary French literature and cinema. Unless noted, all events are free and open to the community.

Claudel will present four workshops during his visit to Indiana:

• “The Link between Literature and Visual Art,” Oct. 27 and 28
• “The Art of Narration and Description,” Oct. 29 and 31
• “The Portrait of Women and Moral Values,” Nov. 3
• A wrap-up of the workshops, Nov. 4.

All workshops will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon in the Hadley Union Building Monongahela Room. Reservations are requested for the workshops and can be made by calling 724-357-2325.

“An Evening with Philippe Claudel” will be offered on Oct. 29 at Folger Dining Hall. It will begin with a reception and book signing from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by a French-themed dinner and Claudel’s presentation at 7 p.m. Cost for the dinner is $20, and reservations are due by Oct. 23. Guests may attend the reception and book signing without attending the dinner.

Claudel’s Les Ames Grises will be shown at the Indiana Theater along Philadelphia Street at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20, 21 and 22, and Il y a Longtemps Que Je T’aime will be shown there at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23, 24, 25 and at 8 p.m. on Oct. 26.

Claudel will lead a discussion about his films Oct. 26 following the 8 p.m. screening.

Claudel also will present a special presentation in French on Oct. 24 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Indiana Theater. Act 48 credits will be available for this program.

Claudel is a native of Dombasle, near Nancy, France. He first visited Indiana in October 2006. Claudel is the author of Le Rapport de Brodeck, which received the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens. Il y a Lontemps Que Je T’aime received a prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008.

Claudel’s visit is co-sponsored by IUP’s Department of French and German. To register for the events, call 724-357-2325 or contact Marie Thomas-Olson at lkwh@iup.edu.

The role of input in the classroom and creating a context for communication were two of the topics addressed in conjunction with reactions of teachers in the field.