If you are in New Orleans, let’s meet at the Alliance Francaise on November 16. I will also give a couple of talks the next day during the the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) convention. (11/17 at 9am with Erin Whelchel of Lead with Languages at Ernest Morial Convention Center Room 237 and at 4pm with Elisabeth Shovers at the Global Language Project booth in the exhibit hall).
I enjoyed this talk with the students of the Institute of French Studies at New York University. I was invited by Prof. Frédéric Viguier who is encouraging his students to look into bilingual education and the impact it can have on various linguistic communities. The students asked lots of questions on my personal and professional trajectory, on the boom of French dual-language programs in New York, and on the diversity of the city’s French-speaking community. I couldn’t help but see future teachers for the ever-expanding French dual-language schools.
I was thrilled to interview Dr Ana Ines Ansaldo today during New York’s Bilingual Fair organized by FrenchMorning. She is a professor at the University of Montreal and a researcher working on neuroplasticity in brain trajectory and on the different factors that can impact a brain throughout life including bilingualism. She wowed us all with her insight on the bilingual brain. Thank you French Morning for making this talk available online.
During New York’s Bilingual Fair with Kathleen Stein-Smith and our soon-to-be released book, The Gift of Languages: Paradigm Shift In Foreign Language Education. The book explores the many advantages of multilingual education and sets the stage for a new paradigm in our approach to teaching and learning languages. Also, the book touches on the issue of foreign language deficit in the United States and the changes that need to occur in our schools to better serve our children and our linguistic communities. The book also explores the growth of dual-language education in recent years and explores the connection between both multilingual programming and solving the United States’ foreign language problem. You can pre-order on http://www.tbr-books.com
I was thrilled to deliver the keynote speech during the STARTALK Fall Conference in Houston, Texas which was held on October 19 and 20, 2018, at the Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria Hotel. The STARTALK Fall 2018 Conference focused on sharing practices, innovative strategies, effective learning tools and resources, and insights uncovered by reflection practices that were experienced in various STARTALK programs.
STARTALK is a federal grant program funded by the National Security Agency and administered by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. STARTALK grants fund summer world language learning programs as well as professional development programs for world language teachers. STARTALK grants support programs for students and teachers of eleven critical need languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.
Through these programs, the STARTALK program seeks to achieve three goals:
– Increase the number of students enrolled in the study of critical languages
– Increase the number of highly effective critical-language teachers in the U.S.
– Increase the number of highly effective materials and curricula available to teachers and students of critical-need languages
My speech focused on the Bilingual Revolution and how parents and linguistic communities can play a role in creating multilingual programs in schools. After the presentation I met many interesting people who were willing to translate my book in Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish and more.
Dans ce podcast, lancé par French Morning, je recevrai experts et praticiens du bilinguisme pour explorer une multitude de sujets fascinants sur la question. Mon premier invité est Sean Lynch, qui vient de quitter le poste de proviseur du Lycée français de New York pour prendre la tête de la Chinese International School à Hong Kong. Continue reading
