IALLT's free language technology magazine
By Caitlin Cornell and Megan Dean, Michigan State University The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded unprecedented innovation and adaptation from instructors and students alike. Online learning has required many students to learn how to use new-to-them digital technologies like video
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By Ann Cai, Dino Konstantopoulos, Robert Davis, Yufei Zheng, Dongying Liu, Northeastern University Introduction of the Research With the improvement of deep learning technologies, the Big 4 computer companies (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon) have been developing their robotics, machine
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By Lauren Rosen, University of Wisconsin, and Kate Grovergrys, Madison Area Technical College Students are most successful when they know what to expect while learning a language. A packed, wordy syllabus doesn’t align with today’s learner preferences. For example,
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By Deborah Cafiero, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Romance Languages and Cultures, University of Vermont During the pandemic, many educators, myself included, began to reexamine their priorities and pare their courses down to the most essential elements. In a course with
Read more![The Communal: Module 2 Choice Board Directions: choose any TWO of the following to complete on your own & post to Module 2 Padlet by Sunday, March 14 by 8 pm. The choice of which TWO activities to complete is yours. However, by the end of the semester, you must have completed all of the following: At least one activity from each category At least two film assignments (“See”) At least two critical article assignments (“Think”) SEE: Watch “Bed and Sofa” [Третья Мещанская] by Abram Room: Bed and Sofa (1927). On Padlet, post a link to a 1-page film review, along with a screenshot of your favorite still image from the film. HEAR: Listen to the music of the decadent 20s (NEP-era playlist) and post a brief response to Padlet: How are these songs designed to make you feel, and do they accomplish that? Which is your favorite, and why? Find the song & post a link (with a screenshot)! Are there equivalent eras in American music? TASTE: Read chapter 2 of Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking (Von Bremzen_1920s: Lenin's Cake.pdf). Find an image (or making-of video) of one of the dishes she mentions. Post a link to a brief “recipe review” on Padlet: why was this dish so popular, and what did it represent? (Students living at home should try to make and review a recipe from the era!) TOUCH: Browse scans from Litvina’s The Apartment for the year 1927 (Apartment - 1927.pdf) and read this article on 1920s Soviet fashion: Gorsuch_Moscow Chic. Draw upon both sources to post a detailed glossary of 10 new items (along with an image of your favorite), and briefly discuss how the material culture of the 1920s reflects the ambivalences of the NEP era. FEEL: Read one of the following articles on youth, sex, and the emphasis on “Physical Culture” [физкультура] in the 1920s: Fitzpatrick_Sex and Revolution; Grant_Creation of Ideal Young Citizens. On Padlet, briefly summarize two new facts you learned about the physical experience of life in the Soviet NEP era; are there equivalent eras in US history? THINK: Read about the Communal apartment, which became a fixture of Soviet life in the 1920s: Gerasimova_Public Privacy in the Communal Apartment. Summarize two interesting facts you learned about communal life at this time, and two connections you noticed between the article and the Bulgakov and Zoshchenko stories we have read. How does this cultural history help to illuminate these works of literature?](https://fltmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Mod-2-Choice-Board-SovExp-scaled-e1628361629777-390x205.jpg)
By Kathleen M. Scollins, Associate Professor of Russian, University of Vermont Last spring’s so-called “pivot” to online learning felt like something closer to an abrupt lurch to many language instructors, faced with the task of translating the high-energy interactions of
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By Heather Rice, The University of Texas at Austin Ask a teacher what it is they love most about their job and they’ll often tell you it’s the students. This is definitely true for me, and more specifically, it’s the
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By Shannon Donnally Quinn, The FLTMAG Editor-in-Chief, and Edwige Simon, The FLTMAG Founder Open Access for Readers When open access is mentioned, most people think of the problem of the cost of textbooks for students, but the cost of academic
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By Olga Klimova, University of Pittsburgh, Molly Peeney, University of Pennsylvania, and Shannon Donnally Quinn, Michigan State University When COVID-19 hit, many of the hands-on workshops that we conduct as extracurricular activities with our students were put on hold.
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By Amelia Ijiri, Adjunct Lecturer, Kyoto Sangyo University, and Betsy Lavolette, Associate Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University Introduction As teachers worldwide retooled to move classes online, formal and informal teacher resources for professional development (PD) experienced unprecedented growth. This
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By Lauren Taylor, Spanish Teacher, Frisco Independent School District, Frisco, TX Introduction This year, I find myself in the unique position of teaching both virtual and face-to-face classes and it has forced me to analyze the way that I design
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By Florencia Henshaw, Ph.D., Director of Advanced Spanish, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign As someone who gives workshops on technology integration and has a site with over 130 tech tools listed in it, one of the questions I am most frequently
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By Andres Antonio Daniel Labra, Saint Louis University The Podcast Project is a collaborative online resource designed by a team of graduate students and faculty from the Language Resource Center at Saint Louis University. The platform, which uses WordPress and
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By Svetlana Korshunova, Princeton University Many heritage students cite “identity” as the principal reason for studying the language; they come to class to explore and assess the deep-rooted cultural, emotional, and aesthetic values of their language against the broader social
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By Shannon Donnally Spasova, Michigan State University Many language teachers, especially those of us who teach languages with a different alphabet, have remained dependent on paper and pencil assignments for student homework. And, while there are a lot of good
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