I am pleased to be presenting on "Digital Integrated Language Pathway Programs" June 11 at 12 noon at the CBIE Regional Meeting hosted by McMaster University and their 2021 Ontario Association of International Education (OAIE) Conference.
I'll be discussing ways of moving towards a more strengths-based approach to language teaching and learning by integrating academic language study with discipline specific content course study in higher education. But I won't be speaking the whole time. Participants will be invited to imagine an EAP 2.0, and we'll be using Jam Board for some collaborative brainstorming! Looking forward to it!
0 Comments
Over the past 3 months, I have thought several times about how social isolation due to the Covid 19 pandemic might impact language. I had considered the possibility of new additions to our lexicon, the way social media memes might creep into our everyday speech, and even how small children might be impacted by spending more time talking to their family members, rather than teachers and peers. I had not, however, considered the way language might affect infection rate. Today I learned that several researchers are looking at whether some languages can pose a larger risk for pathogen transmission than others. While there is no consensus, it does bring up an interesting discussion about aspirate languages, the frequent use of ejectives in English, and their role in the spread of disease. It also adds credence to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's speaking moistly comments. See this article on language and the spread of coronavirus for full details. Back when I was studying for my TESL ON certification to teach English as a Second language, we were asked to come up with our own new language for one of our online assignments. We had to describe our new language, how it worked, its form, etc., and share it online via the course discussion board. My language was called Iris. It was based on colours. It was merely conceptual, but I liked the idea of using colour to express ideas and convey meaning. Today I learned that this is a thing! Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have come up with an app to study language evolution using colours. The app "allows large numbers of players to interact freely and build shared visual languages" through the use of a defined set of black and white symbols. Players effectively use these symbols to invent a language to communicate. The objective is for the opponents to guess a target colour by decoding the symbols. Read more about this genius concept here. You can give it a try yourself by downloading the app. It's called Max Planck Color Game. So far I'm up 750 points! Photo by Jakob from Pexels
From an article discussing effective multilingual teaching strategies such as translanguaging. A worthy read. Go to the full article.
Paul Mayne // Western News: source I'm excited to share a profile Western did on my doctoral research project. This really tells the story of what I'm out to accomplish in plain language. As I head into the very final stages of my project, this is really a warm reminder of what a fulfilling process it's been.
Thanks to Western News for featuring my work. Check out the full article: Taking students deeper into a foreign language by Aniruddho Chokroborty-Hoque "Given the state of connectedness in our world, no (national) culture exists in isolation"
"...culture is in a constant state of flux and cross-fertilization..." - Ingrid Pillar, 2011, p.69-70 |
AuthorMeredith McGregor Archives
June 2021
Categories |