Tatiana Botero, associate teaching professor of Spanish at the University of Notre Dame, has been named 2018 Indiana teacher of the year for university-level instruction by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). The award will be conferred at a ceremony on Nov. 2.…
Left to right: Rossana Luna (Brazil), Mamiko Tokuda (Japan), Han-Wen Hsu (Taiwan), Valentina Kurenshchikova (Russia), Gunes Tunc (Turkey), Seaghan Mac an tSionnaigh (Ireland), Charlotte Friederike (Germany), Gourab Ghosh (India), Thao Nguyen (Vietnam), Raghdaa Abouserie (Egypt), Silvia Junde (Tanzania)…
I sit beside a large man who is sobbing and wearing a cowboy hat. In the front of the room is a hollow, emerald green statue of Lady Liberty about as tall as I am. This is my American citizenship ceremony. I am 14 years old and irritated that I have to miss a day of school to be “welcomed” into a country that I have already been living in since I was 3.
This year, a record-breaking 38 Notre Dame students and alumni were granted Fulbright Awards to study abroad for the 2017-18 year. Fulbright recipients are able to conduct research or teach languages abroad. Eight of this year's thirty-eight recipients were affiliated with the CSLC before graduating, either as tutors or students taking TESOL courses. Read on to see what these graduates will be up to next year!…
As a professional development opportunity for Notre Dame language faculty, the CSLC hosted a 4-and-a-half-day workshop on the ACTFL OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) Assessment. The OPI is an internationally recognized assessment for determining speaking abilities using natural conversation and is used by government agencies, such as the Department of Defense and NASA; academic institutions, such as Rutgers University and Yale University; and private entities, such as Coca-Cola and Samsung.…
Congratulations to the CSLC’s nineteen seniors who will be graduating this year!
The Class of 2017 has served as Student Managers, Peer Tutors, and Desk Staff and have greatly contributed to making the CSLC the fun, exciting place that it is. We are very excited for all this is in store for our seniors.…
*This talk was filmed on Tuesday, April 18 2017.
Summary: Computers are able to easily surpass humans at many tasks such as adding large amounts of numbers together, but fail on linguistic tasks that humans do without thinking. In this talk, Kenton Murray will give an introduction to Computational Linguistics and explain the many pitfalls that computers encounter when trying to understand language. Murray will give a background on the work that's been done over the last half century to try and tackle this problem, and finish with a short overview of the cutting-edge work being done here at Notre Dame. This talk is an introduction to Computational Linguistics and is aimed at people with an interest in Linguistics, but who do not necessarily have any background in Computer Science.…
In a recent article published on the website of the College of Arts & Letters, author Grace Guibert details the experiences of several students who had the opportunity to participate in SLA.
One student was able to go to Ireland to work on her Irish language skills, and says of her experience: "The experience has helped me narrow my search of what I want to focus my studies on in my next two years at Notre Dame... The Irish culture is a huge part of my heritage, and it has now become a huge part of my life.”…
On November 6, students and faculty gathered in the LaFortune ballroom to Celebrate Asia. Below is a slideshow from this year's event.
…
This workshop presented several techniques non-native speakers can use to maximize their success when speaking and writing in English. It focused particularly on strategies you can use in your academic writing, including how to use secondary sources and how to situate your own work within broader academic discourse.…
Notre Dame FLTAs explore South Bend with city native Shiori Eleanor Hughes (back row, second from left). Top row left to right : Eman ElWardany (Egypt), Shiori (Eleanor) Hughes (South Bend, IN), Yen-Chen Huang (Taiwan), Siobhán Ní Mhuimhneacháin (Ireland), Oksana Glazkova (Russia) Bottom row left to right :…
The Center for the Study of Language and Cultures (CSLC) is excited to announce that Hana Kang, a member of the CSLC faculty, has been awarded a $10,000 grant to jump-start her new research project.
Dr. Hana Kang has been a member of the CSLC faculty since 2014 and also teaches in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Before coming to Notre Dame, she has taught Chinese, Korean, East Asian Cultures, and TESOL at the Ohio State University and at Michigan Technological University, where she also developed the Chinese Certification Program.…
The CSLC is hiring!
We are looking for a Language Technology and Administrative Program Manager. This position is a critical member of the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures team. Primary duties include coordination of language acquisition technology, Center office management, and Center communications and outreach. Specific duties include:…
More than 65 attendees from 28 different countries will gather at Notre Dame this weekend for the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) orientation. This is Notre Dame’s 11th year hosting the event.
The Fulbright FLTA program gives fellowships to academically accomplished graduate students providing them with the opportunity to teach their native language and study at various U.S. universities. It is managed by the Institute for International Education and the U.S. State Department with the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC) at Notre Dame as a co-sponsor and facilitator.…
I never imagined myself sitting at the CSLC on my last regular week of classes as an undergraduate, drawing pictures of a little Japanese girl wearing red shoes, sharpening color-pencil after color-pencil, and telling her story through a classical Japanese nursery rhyme for my Japanese Extensive Reading class.…
On a warm Saturday afternoon on April 16, the Notre Dame Japanese Department held their annual Cherry Blossom Festival, the Sakura Matsuri. All levels of Japanese classes came together to celebrate both Japanese Culture and the coming of spring, with various performances that captured aspects of Japanese pop culture in a way that we can all relate to. There was a dramatic retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Japanese, a few insights into Japanese television shows, a very relatable performance regarding the stresses of studying, and much more.…
Congratulations to the University of Notre Dame Class of 2016! Here is a video with reflections from several CSLC seniors.
The CSLC would like to recognize the following graduating seniors. The CSLC will miss you!
Student Managers
Peer Tutors
The Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC) is excited to congratulate graduating desk staff member Luke Wajrowski on the receipt of a 2016 Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistantship) to Argentina.In the spring of 2017, Wajrowski will begin teaching English at an Argentinian university, and will also work on a research project on Argentinian theater.…
On Wednesday, April 13th, the Snite Museum was full of excited, uniform-clad students from the Perley Fine Arts Academy. The event celebrated an on-going partnership with the University of Notre Dame and the local South Bend school. In particular, the event showcased the work of Notre Dame Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants who have been teaching second, third, and fourth graders Hindi, Korean, and Portuguese respectively since the start of the school year. With help from Dong-gyun Kim, Maria Gabriella de Castro, and Suman Rani, these students learned about the cultural traditions of South Korea, Brazil, and India. After many hours of practice, the students were ready to perform for their families during their night at the Snite Museum.…
On March 16th, the CSLC welcomed Dr. Ann Devitt for a lecture on Semantic Networks: What they are and how they can help us in the classroom. Dr. Devitt is an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Education…
For interviewing purposes, one must be able to describe one’s research and teaching in a succinct, clear, and interesting way. There are many questions and customs that are associated with interviewing for a job. This workshop explored ways to prepare for the interview stage of an academic job search, offering information about interview practices, and strategies for addressing common questions posed during the interview. If you missed the workshop and would like to see the slides, they can be found here…
On March 29th, Professor Shalini Shankar of Northwestern University presented a talk titled The Semiotics of Spelling Bees: Sound, Temporality, Language, and Materiality. Shankar presented her research on spelling bees and discussed how the increasingly popular event has turned into a mass-mediated, sport-like spectacle. Her talk also examined the relationship between the competing speller and the judge. This dialogic relationship is important for a speller to be able to translate sounds into letters and words in the competitive environment. Shankar has spent the last 16 months conducting field research, which included access to ESPN during the live broadcast, time with Merriam-Webster, and over 45 interviews with spellers, parents, producers, and directors.…
This one-session advanced grammar workshop, which took place on 7 April 2016, was especially designed for international graduate students. The workshop was based on some of the most challenging rules of usage from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style (originally published in 1920).
The slides can be accessed here…
On Saturday, April 2, the McNeill Room in the LaFortune Student Center was abuzz with activity. Students, professors, faculty, and even a few children enjoyed Venezuelan and Korean food while learning about what can be done with a TESOL-enhanced education.
TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and linguistics courses have been a part of the CSLC's curriculum for years, but until now there has been no formal TESOL program through the University. Just this past December, the TESOL minor was put on the books. Students who declare the TESOL minor will learn about linguistics, classroom management, and lesson planning, and will get hands-on experience in teaching English before graduating.…
Analise Taylor is an ND alum with extensive experience traveling, teaching, and living abroad. Through her experiences in different parts of the globe, she noticed the high demand for native-speaking English teachers. This led her to pursue a degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) to become a more impactful language instructor.…
Kris and Akiko Gravender delivered a talk on the current status of those closely affected by the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster that occurred in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture five years ago.
Akiko, a Japanese citizen, and her husband Kris reflected on the unwavering resilience of the Japanese people, as well as dedicated volunteers who relieved the stricken country of the heavy burden caused by the disaster in 2011. The couple presented a moving example of the Japanese sentiment towards the volunteers who had helped them: a beautifully expressed letter of gratitude, which was distributed to each of the volunteers.
…
This month, the CSLC is testing and evaluating the latest version of the Rosetta Stone language software. Our free trial version includes online access to over 30 languages. ND students, faculty, and staff are welcome to join the trial. The trial period ends April 15. Click here…
With a multitude of language learning software purporting to facilitate foreign language acquisition, CSLC Educational Technologist Joachim Castellano helps identify innovative tools and techniques for language teachers at Notre Dame. Last month, he published two articles in two separate publications focusing on how to incorporate media into the foreign language classroom.…
Based on Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s “They Say/I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academia (2006), this workshop, which took place on 2/25/16, offered international graduate students an overview of some of the most important conventions in US English academic writing. We explored, for example, how to introduce your own views after reviewing the relevant literature; how to quote and characterize the views of others; and how to distinguish what you say from what others say.…
