Next Meeting: September 27, 2005 9:30-11:00 at UW Language Learning Center
Present
UW: Klaus Brandl, Paul Aoki, Hedwige Meyer, Patrick (LLC SA);
Washington State Coalition for International Education: Michele Anciaux
Aoki, Rebecca Hodges
Goal of the Symposium
To present:
- Linguistic aspects of language learning/acquisition
- Practical strategies for teachers
- Information of value/interest to parents and community
(This still needs refinement...)
Audience(s)
- School officials/administrators looking into increasing Early Language opportunities
- Teachers
- Parents and PTSA
- University students and faculty interested in Early Language Learning
- Community language programs
Draft Agenda
Note: Proposed speakers have not been confirmed yet.
9:30 Welcome (John Keeler? Anyone else?)
9:45 Keynote speaker: Patricia Kuhl? Katarzyna Dziwirek?
10:30 Interactive activity to see who the participants are and to help know each other
10:45 First panel on the hidden benefits of Early Language Learning
and its broader implications (who is on this panel?)
** I think that there should be a moderator with questions we have
prepared ahead **
11:30 Heritage students and Language Learning (Galina Zakashanskaya (Russian), Betty Lau (Chinese), Hussein Elkhafaifi (Arabic))
12:00-1:15 LUNCH BREAK
1:15 Presentation about language acquisition (Julia Herschensohn?)
2:00 Going beyond colors and numbers: Global passport and culture-based LL (Jennifer Geist and Hiromi Pingry?)
2:30 Various possible Early Language Learning structures and what expectations about Early Language Learning should be (Michele Aoki?)
3:00 Second panel, which is actually break-out sessions: Language instructors / School officials / Parents
4:00 Closing words (?)
Some notes from our conversation
We talked about how to share the "hidden advantages" that Early Language Learning brings. In other words, fluency or becoming bilingual may not be achieved, but the invisible benefits will be there.
- They have an openness to learning new things (in general), but especially to seeing new cultures.
- They don't see our borders as confining. They want to travel and meet other people. They realize we can't function like this (in our box of isolation) anymore.
- They expect to have larger circle of friends from outside their own school or city.
- They understand their own country in greater depth because they can understand the concept of "culture." (You have to "get outside yourself" to see yourself; otherwise your culture is invisible to you.)
- They easily pick up a third and fourth language. They know how to learn languages and can take ownership of their own learning.
Another issue is how to manage parents' (and administrators') expectations. It would be good to have a panel from John Stanford International School and Puesta del Sol, for example, to really talk about what the students' language looks like after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+ years. Good to get a student who graduated from high school in Bellevue with 12 year Spanish immersion experience.
Logistics and Planning
Location
Most likely hold it in Denny Hall at UW. Possibly consider larger locations if registration justifies it or if we can get space for free.
Outreach
- Flyers to WAFLT (Washington Association For Language Teaching) Conference Oct 13-15 in Spokane
- Flyers to Social Studies conference in Edmonds Oct 15
- Emails to News and Coalition listservs on Coalition
- Link on OSPI website (maybe email to principals?)
- Promote around university
- Other?
We'll use http://internationaledwa.org for planning notes. When we have a web page ready with final information and agenda, we'll host that on the UW Language Learning Center website. On that website, we should include links to Reading Lists for parents and teachers.
Registration
Can handle online registration with web form on the http://internationaledwa.org. We talked about whether to charge or not, but felt we don't have the infrastructure to handle payments. We might consider taking a donation on day of event.
Clock Hours
Should look for way to offer clock hours (free, if possible), for teachers.
Food
See if we can get funding for coffee and muffins in the morning. Leave time for people to go to the Ave for lunch on their own (or perhaps reserve some group space in some restaurants).
Budget
- Poster/Flyer printing -- about $200
- Refreshments -- about $100
No honoraria, etc. Everything is pretty much in-kind.