Modern Languages Commons^™

French 203: Grammar & Conversation: A Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective & Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Erica Schauer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The following Benchmark Portfolio is the product of a full reassessment of FRENCH 203: CONVERSATION & GRAMMAR, an intermediate-level grammar course that serves as a prerequisite for students pursuing a major or a minor in French at UNL. Previously, French 203 had been a review course that covered the essential grammar structures discussed in 101, 102, 201 and 202 and invited students to practice these structures orally with peers in class. This new iteration of the course, however, seeks to broaden the reach of student comprehension of French as a functional tool of communication by requiring students to understand and …

Useful And Effective Worksheets To Enhance Communicative And Reading Skills For Japanese Language Learners, Masako Nunn

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

The purpose of this project is to create useful and effective worksheets to accord with the current textbook (Genki I, published by the Japan Times) in the aim of enhancing Japanese language learners’ communicative and reading skills. Therefore, this project includes the following worksheets in learning Japanese language in accord with the current textbook, Genki I (2^nd edition) to enhance communicative and reading practice. This package includes the following: 1) worksheet; 2) worksheet answers; 3) vocabulary worksheet; 4) three PowerPoints with voice recorded; 5) reading supplement- PowerPoint with vocabulary and sentence practice; 6) reading supplement with auditory aid; 7) …

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

Implementing Vocabutoons In The English Language Arts Classroom: Drawing Their Way To Success, William Sewell

Research & Publications

Although vocabulary acquisition remains a critical to literacy development, teachers infrequently devote classroom time to vocabulary exercises. In this article, the author demonstrates the use of "vocabutoons" as an instructional activity which draws upon students’ multiple literacies—in particular, visual literacy—in order to foster vocabulary development. Tooning is based upon the belief that "[p]roficient readers visualize what they read as they construct meaning from a text" (Onofrey & Leikam 682). Representative artwork created by English Education majors enrolled in a young adult literature course at a university in the Midwest will be featured to highlight the tooning process.

Charge/Recharge: The Educator's Powerpack Installation, Adrienne J. Royo

Faculty Works

Have you been behind the desk, as an educator, for such an extended period of time that you need to re-charge your learning experience "batteries"? Do you need some "out-of-the-box" ideas to bring some new teaching strategies to the classroom?

Beating The Odds: Teaching Italian Online In The Community College Environment, Giulia Guarnieri

Publications and Research

This study analyzes data collected from Italian language online classes during the course of four consecutive semesters at Bronx Community College in order to measure the impact that distance learning has on students’ retention and success rates in elementary courses. The results reveal that reconfiguring the online meetings to a lower percentage and implementing social pedagogies reduce course abandonment and favor the creation of strong learning communities. Furthermore, the data relative to the grade distribution shows no substantial difference between online courses and face-to-face instruction.

Ua68/2 Potter College Of Arts & Letters Interdisciplinary Studies, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Interdisciplinary Studies which include:

• African American Studies
• Asian Studies
• Canadian Studies
• Film Studies
• Latin American Studies

Voyager En France, Valerie J. Spaeth

French Model Lesson Plans

In this lesson, students view a video that describes the most often used modes of transportation in France. Students then discuss the similarities and differences between travel in the US and travel in France.

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

Program Articulation And Management, Gillian Lord, Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Un Debate De Las Corridas De Toros, Raizel M. Brenton

Spanish Model Lesson Plans

No abstract provided.

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

Dream Dinner Or Dinner Disaster? French And American Cultures Collide, Wendy W. Amato Ph.D.

French Model Lesson Plans

Sociocultural Model Lesson Plan centered on a translinguistic and transcultural analysis of French and American dinner party conventions.

La Herida De Moctezuma, Mark K. Warford

Spanish Model Lesson Plans

A Sociocultural Model Lesson Plan centered on a folktale about the demise of Moctezuma. La Herida de Moctezuma comes from John Bierhorst's Cuentos Folclóricos Latinoamericanos. A Google search will yield an excerpt, but it is recommended that you use the entire tale. Targeted to Intermediate-High learners.

Héroes Y Corridos, Mark K. Warford

Spanish Model Lesson Plans

No abstract provided.

Establish Your Presence In The Blogosphere: A Guide To Blog Development For The Foreign Langauge Classroom, Peter B. Swanson, Patricia Early

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

As the wave of technology progresses, the static Web page has given way to the Weblog (blog) as a medium for delivering information. The blog has moved the technology forward with its bidirectional communication ability. This article discusses the evolution of blogs, important considerations when establishing a blog presence, and directions for creating blogs. Online examples are given to guide the reader.

Second Language Development And Guided Reading, Emilia Alejo Hummel

Graduate Research Papers

Elementary teachers are being challenged to teach literacy to second language learners. In order to best serve ELL's, teachers must understand how these students acquire English and how to meet their varying literacy needs in the classroom. This project describes best practices in teaching guided reading to ELL's. The study will describe the implementation of the ELL guided reading program and how instruction was informed by knowledge of language learning.

Digital Recordings And Assessment: An Alternative For Measuring Oral Proficiency, Peter B. Swanson, Patricia Early

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Portfolios As An Alternative Assessment Strategy In Second Language Instruction, Rhonda M. Borcherding

Graduate Research Papers

With the advent of research on multiple intelligences and individual differences, alternative methods of assessing individual strengths in content areas are needed. An integral part of the process of acquiring a second language involves these alternative methods of evaluating individual strengths. Portfolio assessment offers an alternative to conventional testing strategies for evaluating progress in second language learning. Portfolios provide meaningful methods to actively engage language students in the basic four modalities of literacy: listening, reading, speaking and writing a second language. Portfolios also can help promote and document the five standards of foreign language instruction: culture, communication, connection, comparisons and …

Expending The Content Of Curriculum : Implementation Of The World Wide Web Into Foreign Language Teaching, Ping Gao

Graduate Research Papers

This study investigated the factors that impact the decisions to integrate the World Wide Web into foreign language curriculum. This inquiry involved a combined approach -- including a survey and a case study. The current status of the technology application in foreign language instruction at a state university in the United States was assessed through the survey. It revealed that integrating the Web was the least immediate concern of most foreign language professors due to their limited knowledge, their inadequate training, and their ambiguous attitudes. A case study of an innovator's practice of integrating the Web in foreign language instruction …

The Integration Of Call In Efl/Esl Learning Environment, Kuei-Chin Huang

Graduate Research Papers

A number of studies have shown that learning through the use of computers is more efficient than traditional methods and arouse students motivation (Johnson & Osguthorpe, 1986; Jung, 1992 ). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), to investigate the immense potential of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), and then to identify ways in which computers can be used to enhance foreign language learning.

Teaching French Culture: A Unit Based Upon The Affective Value System, Carl Garrott

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was not simply to construct a unit but to provide an approach to teaching language by combining language and culture in appropriate for advanced high school students French.

For the purposes of this study seven affective values were chosen as representing the most suitable basic listings: (1) l'individualisme; (2) l'intellectualite; (3) le realisme; (4) la famine; (5) la religion; (6) is justice: and (7) la Patrie. armed with the seven values i-or the author of this project, and the grammatical skill, the next step was the actual composition of the historiettes. It became quickly apparent …