Let's Talk Conference
The CSLC sponsors the Let's Talk conference, which brings prominent language scholars together to discuss relevant topics in the area of second language acquisition and language instruction.
The conference has three broad aims:
- To create a culture of research and best practices among the faculty and staff engaged in foreign language teaching at Notre Dame. To this end, the CSLC strongly encourages ND faculty and staff to present papers at the conference.
- Showcase the research and innovative approaches to language teaching used in the Notre Dame classroom, across the United States, and around the world.
- Raise the CSLC’s national and international profile by inviting preeminent keynote speakers as well as burgeoning scholars to visit Notre Dame and speak about the latest advances in language acquisition theory, technology, and practice. Keynote talks will be recorded and made available on the CSLC website.
Interested in organizing a Let's Talk conference? Please contact Alessia Blad.
Past Let's Talk Conferences Topics
Let’s Talk: In Our Own Words: Native Language Revival and Preservation in the Indigenous Americas (2018)
Let’s Talk 2018 highlighted efforts across the United States and in the Indigenous Americas to reclaim native tongues and, at the same time, allow for exploration of issues tied to them, such as notions of identity and community, the role of academia within traditional community structures, changing language, and indigenous activism.
Let's Talk: Relationships, Research, and Results (2017)
Let’s Talk 2017 provided scholars and professional educators a venue to discuss research, theories, and best practices in regards to language-focused Community-Based Learning (CBL).
Let's Talk: Language and Identity (2016)
The relationship between language and identity has been investigated in many disciplines such as anthropology, education, linguistics and literature. Language use reveals speaker's’ social identity, and membership. For language learners, the language learning experience reconstructs their identities. There are many theories about language and identity from the traditional model (identity being static) and the postmodernism model (identity is a site of power struggle). Let’s Talk 2016 brought scholars from different disciplines together to redefine the role of language in social identity construction.
Let's Talk: Language on the Boards (2015)
Let’s Talk 2015 explored the impact and praxis of performative teaching and learning in the second language classroom. Scholars, teachers, artists, and practitioners from around the world gathered to explore how theatre and film can enhance and enrich the experiences of foreign language students.
Let's Talk: Low-Enrollment, High-Prestige Languages (2014)
Let’s Talk 2014 addressed the following questions: Why are Notre Dame students not seeking to learn languages that are clearly important to contemporary society? How can language programs improve enrollment numbers, engage student interest, and increase linguistic and cultural competency? How does the current research and scholarship in the field of language acquisition deal with such issues? Do co-synchronous, co-located courses, flipped classrooms, or hybrid courses have a quantifiable impact on student ability and production? What results have peer institutions reported as the result of innovations in second language instruction, and how can Notre Dame and other institutions learn from them? In what ways can the ever-evolving technology of today help create and retain student interest? How can language centers work with individual language programs to increase the visibility of these languages on Notre Dame’s campus? How can language programs work with other departments in the social sciences, humanities, and hard sciences to produce the global citizens Notre Dame should be producing? How can we shift students’ understanding of language classes from a requirement to graduate to a requirement for a successful career?