5th Annual CCSU Conference for Language Teachers
Languages: Engaging the Community, Engaging the World
March 12, 2011, 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY
STUDENT CENTER, Ella Grasso Boulevard, NEW BRITAIN, CT 06050
Sponsors:
CCSU Department of Modern Languages
Center for International Education – CIE
CT Council for Language Teachers – CT COLT
CT Italian Teachers Association – CITA
Intensive English Language Program – IELP
Italian Resource Center – IRC
Summer Institutes for Language Teachers
.6 CEU credits offered by CCSU Continuing Education & Community Engagement to participants attending the entire conference
8:008:30
8:308:45
Sign in
Welcoming Remarks
Lilián Uribe, Chair, Modern Language Department, CCSU
Carl R. Lovitt, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, CCSU
8:459:45
Keynote Address:
9:4510:00
10:00
11:00
Coffee Break
Rita A. Oleksak, former ACTFL President, Glastonbury Public Schools Board of Education, “Language Communities Engage
the World”
Session 1
Room A
Chinese
Barbara Chan, Three
Rivers Com. Coll.Norwich Free
Academy:
“Understanding
Chinese Culture
Through Chinese
Opera”
This workshop provides
an overview of the
Chinese opera,
covering a brief history
of the development of
today’s Chinese operas,
an explanation of major
roles, make-up,
costumes, music, and
operatic gestures and
movements,
participant
interactivity, and a live
demonstration.
Room B
ESL
Matthew Ciscel,
CCSU: “Language
and Content:
Balancing Inclusion
and Immersion for
English Language
Learners”
Room C
French
Room D
General Topics in
English
Marie-Bominique
Jessica Haxhi, CCSUBoyce, SCSU:
MIMS Waterbury,:
“Hybridité Culturelle
“Advocacy 101:
au Québec”
Engage Your School
Nous examinerons la
Community, Maintain
nouvelle forme
your Language
d’écriture appelée forme Program!”
The presentation will
explore the key
features of and issues
related to contentbased instruction, such
as the SIOP, which
provide methods and
approaches to teaching
language and content
monolingually to
English language
learners in K12
institutions and
beyond.
d’hybridité culturelle des
auteurs récemment
immigrés au Québec.
Ces auteurs brouillent
dans leurs textes les
frontières entre langues
et cultures refusant la
prétendue supériorité
de la culture Québécoise
de vieille souche. Ils
relancent ainsi la
question de leur
intégration culturelle au
Québec.
Yunjeong Lee,
TESOL-CCSU:
“Vocabulary
Learning Through
the Reading and
Abdellatif Hissouf,
CCSU: “French in SubSahara: a Tool of
Engagement and
Creativity”
Maintaining world
language programs for
the long term requires
advocacy that engages
both the school and
local community.
Participants will hear
about successful
advocacy efforts and
discuss how to
determine the efficacy
of various advocacy
activities.
Room E
Italian
Room F
Spanish
Rita Leonardi, CITABMM HS Norwalk:
“Cultura Italiana e
seconda guerra
mondiale”
Antonio García-Lozada,
CCSU: “The Presence of
Written Spanish in the
Northeast-Nineteenth
Century”
Aspetti culturali italiani
relativi alla seconda guerra
mondiale in una
presentazione
multimediale.
In the early 19th century,
waves of Latin American
writers arrived to the
Northeastern coast of the
U.S., driven from their
countries as rebels against
the Spanish Crown, and
created significant literary
works that should be
included in our curriculum.
Antonio Scontrino,
CCSU: ” Real-Life
Teaching in a Virtual
World”
Universities such as
Harvard, Texas State, and
Stanford have Second Life
campuses. More than 200
educators and about as
many universities are using
Second Life. Some
universities and colleges
use the tools provided in
Second Life to build exact
replicas of their campuses.
Marco Cupolo,
University of Hartford:
“Community Service
Abroad: An Experience
in Ecuador”
An example of student
community service as part
of Spanish courses abroad.
Description and discussion
of the Winter 2011
Writing Words”
The study compared
two different ways of
vocabulary acquisition.
ESL learners at the
intermediate level were
tested in two
conditions; reading and
writing. The results
indicated that
vocabulary acquisition
through reading
passages was more
effective, especially for
productive knowledge.
11:1512:15
Francophone literature
in Sub-Saharan Africa
has evolved from a level
of purism to a literature
characterized by a
powerful imagination
carried by a Frenchlanguage that has been
transformed to become
a language of
engagement creating
worlds and hopes.
The virtual recreations can
be used as recruiting tools
to reach students and
teachers and to showcase
the institutions to other
important audiences, such
as donors.
learning experience in
Ecuador.
Session 2
Room A
Chinese
Room B
ESL
Room C
French
Ting Zhang,
Columbia U:
“Literacy
Development in
Chinese as a Foreign
Language”
Christie Ward, IELPCCSU: “The Barnard
International
Community
Education Project:
Connecting
International
Students and the
Local Community”
Marie Laffitte, Center
for the Toulouse-CT
Partnership: “Débuter
un partenariat avec
une école française :
quels sont les
avantages ? Quels
sont les outils pour
entretenir ces
échanges
linguistiques? Starting
Chinese characters
acquisition has
different laws than oral
proficiency acquisition,
hence literacy
development and oral
proficiency
development follows
different paths.
Chinese as a foreign
language instruction
should address that
difference and teach
characters separately,
from simple to
compound, within the
discourse.
IELP students connect
with students in
Hartford’s culturally
and linguistically
diverse South End
Community. Each
semester, they make
friends and practice
authentic language
skills by engaging with
children and adults at
Naylor-CCSU
a partnership with a
French school : what are
the benefits ? What are
the tools to maintain
communication in these
linguistic exchanges?”
We are going to explain
what is a partnership
and how it works
between American
Room D
General Topic in
English
Karen Hayes, CCSU:
“Language Needs in
the Workplace: Travel
and Tourism”
The presentation will
primarily be focusing on
the need for multiple
language
communication skills to
be used in the
workplace and how
these communication
skills can be integrated
into the classroom
setting for practical
application.
Room E
Italian
Room F
Spanish
Carmela Pesca, CCSU:
“Implementation of the
Oral History Project in
the Italian Classroom”
Lourdes Casas, CCSU, &
Covadonga ArangoMartín, Fairfield U:
“Técnicas para
facilitizar y potenciar la
participación oral en el
salón de clase”
An introduction to the Oral
History Project, an
initiative of CCSU Modern
Language Department that
welcomes collaboration
with schools and local
communities for the
creation of a digital archive
on immigrants, voyagers
and the languages of
memory.
Antonio Benetti, Educ.
Off. Consulate General
NYC: “I 150 anni
dell’Italia Unita(18612011)”
A 5 giorni dai 150 anni
dell'Unità d'Italia (17
Participants will address
problems and obstacles
they come across when
trying to optimize oral
participation in the
classroom. We will first
propose examples to solve
these difficulties.
Attendees will then have
the opportunity to develop
exercises to apply the
techniques discussed.
Brendon Albertson,
CCSU: “Pinyin? It can
wait! Delaying the
teaching of Pinyin in
an intro-level
Chinese course.
拼音？等一下吧！
在初等中文课推迟
拼音的教育”
Incorporating a
postponed teaching of
pinyin into syllabus
design for an intro-level
Chinese course.
Benefits of using songs
and The Silent Way to
teach pinyin at a later
stage will be discussed.
12:301:45
Cynthia Flynn ,
TESOL-CCSU: “Effects
of Implicit
Instruction on
English L2 Pronoun
Gender Acquisition”
A brief study was
conducted to
determine if exposure
to frequent pronoun
gender agreement
would result in the
attainment of pronoun
gender agreement.
schools and French
schools within the
Center for the ToulouseConnecticut Partnership.
We will present
successful examples of
connections, and show
tools for students to
communicate, as skype,
videoconferencing
works, flip camera,
recording, etc.
marzo 2011), la conferenza
offre l’opportunità per
trattare i significati di un
evento storico
determinante in
relazione allo studio
dell'Italiano.
Lunch
Guests
1:502:10
2:153:15
Community School
through games, stories,
dance, music, and
crafts.
Linda Dalpe, President, CT Council of Language Teachers – CT COLT
Students share their experiences: “Student Community Engagement Through Language Knowledge and Cultural
Understanding”
Meetings/Information Sessions (MLD Summer Programs for Teachers, Bilingual Education, SITS, IRC, Oral History Project)
Session 3
Room A
Chinese
Joanne Wu
Havemeyer ,
C.Sacred Heart:
“中文带，动，唱”
I would like to share
中文带，动，唱
which I used in
teaching Pinyin,
Measure Words,
writing stroke orders
Room B
ESL
Philippa Howe Ivain,
TESOL-CCSU:
“Ultimate
Attainment of
English Phonology by
Speakers of
Lebanese Arabic”
This study examines
speech samples by
Lebanese Arabic
Room C
French
Room D
General Topics in
English
Jakub Kazecki, CCSU:
“Prezi: Beyond
PowerPoint in the
Classroom”
Room E
Italian
Room F
Spanish
Christi Moraga,
Farmington WWU
ES: "Cross-cultural
Comparison of
Carnaval and Mardi The presentation
explores the advantages
Gras"
Silvana Mangione,
IACE-IDEA-CGIE:
“Bridging USA and Italy
by Fostering Cultura di
ritorno (Two-way
Culture)”
Marta Krzemien &
Bonnie Hoskins
Glastonbury PS,
“Traveling to Mexico
with the Monarch
Butterflies”
How incredibly different,
yet similar, are the
February holidays of
Carnaval and Mardi
The IDEA project is a
means to exchange
cultural experiences
If you are wondering how
the Monarch butterfly
story can add excitement
to your Spanish classroom,
of Prezi in the classroom
instruction. Prezi, the
Web-based presentation
and collaborative tool, is
and basic Chinese
grammar sentence
patterns. I will also
show cultural activities,
Beijing masks,
SiHeYuan and Chinese
bookmarks which I
blended into the
lessons.
speakers to determine
the extent of mother
tongue influence on
English phonology.
Pronunciation errors
are interpreted within
the framework of
Flege’s Speech Learning
Model. Observations
support
recommendations for
early development of
perception in
phonological
acquisition.
3:154:15
Gras! If perspectives are
almost identical,
products and practices
vary widely. Presenter
will share findings from
three-day workshop at
Tulane.
as an alternative to the
widely used software,
such as PowerPoint or
Keynote.
between USA and Italy and
promote “Cultura di
ritorno.” A variety of
useful materials for
teachers of Italian will be
presented in this occasion.
join us for an overview of
the Glastonbury’s sixth
grade curriculum that
revolves around an
imaginary trip to Mexico.
Session 4
Room A
Chinese
Betty Chang-Twillie,
Cindy Yu & Jasmine
Harding, Hartford
PS-DB Asian SA: “The
Role of Mandarin
Language in Our
Community School”
Dwight-Bellizzi Asian
Studies Academy is a
Hartford Public School,
Pre-K to 8, located in
the heart of south
Hartford. Come visit
ASA’s workshop, and
learn how full
immersion Mandarin
teaching (in our
language classes) and
East Asian culture
learning bind our
school community
Room B
Arabic & Japanese
Topics in English
Hazza Abu Rabia,
CCSU: “Teaching
Arabic for non native
speakers”
Teachers of Arabic for
non-native speakers
must be aware of the
stages which students
pass through from
beginning to high level
in order to achieve the
best possible results,
based on the efficiency
indicators that were
laid by the ACTFL in
1986.
Shizuko Tomoda,
CCSU: “Student’s
Attitude toward
Language Study as
the General
Education Language
Requirement and
Room C
Spanish Topics in
English
Edite Sammons, AIM
Language Learning:
“Achieving Fluency
with Your Students
Using only the Target
Language”
Teach Spanish through
drama, music, and
gestures. The presenter
will demonstrate how
drama, music and
storytelling, taught with
hand gestures, rapidly
accelerate the
acquisition of a second
language, speaking only
in the target language.
Room D
Room E
General Topics in
Italian
English
Joyce Bogdan, NEAMaria Carmen Triola,
ELL, ESL West Hartford, Kennedy Longfellow S
“Enjoying Language
Cambridge-MAE
through Poetry”
Boston: “A taste of the
Poetry reveals a snapshot Reggio Emilia
in time, memory, feeling,
Approach”
description, event,
character or expression.
What better way to
experience literacy
without the constraints of
formal writing, grammar
and conventional rules
while targeting
vocabulary or unit
concepts.
An overview of the
Reggio Emilia approach,
which is an educational
philosophy focused on
preschool and primary
education recognized
around the world. The
presentation will include
videos that cover the
main points of a typical
school day in a Bologna
preschool.
Room F
Spanish
Paloma Lapuerta &
Gustavo Mejía , CCSU:
“Using the Internet to
Enhance Language
Learning”
Ideas will be shared to
design activities that make
use of internet resources
according to the level of
students and sills that we
wish to emphasize
SITS Projects, CCSU”
together.
Implications for
Curriculum”
Discussion of students’
attitude toward
learning Arabic,
Chinese and Japanese
and their expectation
of learning outcome in
the elementary level,
as an evaluative tool of
a successful learning
experience.
4:154:30
Conference Evaluation
4:305:30
CT Council for Language Teachers – CT COLT Wine & Cheese Reception