Workshop Registration - (click here)

While most language teaching professionals can agree that it’s not reasonable to expect novice level World Language learners to be able to fully communicate all of their ideas in the target language immediately upon entering the classroom, nothing is more frustrating for teachers of higher intermediate, advanced, and Dual Immersion programs, than to hear students who are quite capable of using the target language choosing to speak English in class!

Most students willingly read, write, and share out in the target language when prompted to, (or when the teacher is standing right next to them!), but once the teacher is away, many will revert to English for peer to peer interactions, discussions, writing, etc. Wall posters that say, Solo se habla español en este aula or class mantras like ¡Español o nada! are well-intentioned, but ineffective if not backed up by meaningful incentives. If you've found this to be a challenge in your classroom, you are invited to learn about systems that can help motivate students to stay very close to the 100% target language use we all strive for in our programs.

Learning outcomes:

This workshop will take a dive deep into using dedicated, daily group roles in the language classroom. While there will always be a handful of intrinsically motivated students who will stay on task (including staying in the target language) no matter what, the majority struggle to do so. Grouping students with daily roles can help solve this problem. For many teachers, assigning specific roles to specific tasks is a common and effective practice. Assigning them as a constant, daily role, however, can help to transform the language classroom into a student-led, student-centered, target language rich environment. Tasks as simple as rearranging tables and gathering supplies, or as complex as sharing a group’s analysis of a text or hypotheses about an essential question, become student-guided activities, full of conversationally and academically rich use of the target language. Students become more autonomous learners, taking charge of their learning, with the teacher serving less as the center of instruction and more as a learning guide and aid in troubleshooting. Daily roles also require students to step forward in their areas of weakness on some days, and to step back in their areas of strength on others, allowing others to practice their skills as well.

Another focus area of the workshop is establishing the essential components of student-managed target language monitoring and motivating rewards systems. Since increasing target language use is incumbent upon students maximizing their limited class time, every second counts. Unfortunately, until teachers become omniscient and omnipresent, students will have to take ownership of this process and hold each other accountable as a community of language learners. While every group of learners is different and there is no perfect, one-size-fits-all system for self-monitoring, working with students to find out what will motivate them to use the target language, even when no one is looking, will reap rewards far beyond the initial time invested in setting up the practice.

During the morning session of this workshop, we will practice using some examples of the systems, with the afternoon dedicated to a supported work session, where you can make them your own, refine your current practice, and share knowledge and experience with colleagues in the field.

Brad Francis

Brad Francis was a late-arriver to language learning. Having grown up in a very monolingual midwest town, after getting a couple of A’s in his high school Spanish classes by being good at creating verb charts and completing crossword-puzzle quizzes, he assumed he had Spanish pretty well figured out. That bubble was soon burst when he arrived at college and met many native Spanish speakers on his freshman soccer team. He quickly realized that his multilingual friends had an ability and experience that he desperately wanted and by the following year, was off to a study abroad program in Argentina.

After graduating from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with dual majors in English and Spanish, he spent the better part of the next three years working, traveling, and studying in Mexico, Costa Rica, and El Salvador, with stops everywhere in between. His love of working with youth at summer camps in high school and college, combined with his passion for language and culture, led him to return to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for his master’s degree in education. After teaching high school Spanish for a year in Nebraska, he moved to Portland, where he taught Spanish World Language, ESOL, Journalism, Drama, and Technology at Parkrose Middle School from 2003 until moving to West Sylvan Middle School in 2015, beginning his current role as a 7th Grade Spanish Immersion and ELA teacher. As a current parent of both a high school and a pre-school language immersion student, he firmly believes that language and cultural immersion are among the best gifts we can give to this generation of young people, and he’s proud to be a part of a community of educators that is dedicated to the same belief.

Interculturality is the focus of the world language classroom when French teachers prepare students to engage in meaningful interactions with people from other cultures by addressing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for effective intercultural communication (Byram, 2003).  When teachers gain a basic understanding of theoretical frameworks that inform interculturality in the world language classroom, lesson design can powerfully impact the learning experience for language learners. Do you believe that teaching culture is a vital component of the language learning experience?  Would you like to revise some of your current culture lessons to incorporate self-reflection, exploration, and interpersonal communication? This session will introduce participants to Deardorff’s (2004) framework for Intercultural Competence as a springboard for adopting strategies that encourage cross-cultural understanding as students prepare to build reciprocal relationships with culturally diverse people.  During this session, we will share some lesson examples and you will have the opportunity to spend some time revising and drafting new lessons in interculturality for the French classroom. Please join us as we explore and participate actively in French lessons that blend language and culture instruction. Workshop will be in English & French. 

Learning outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Identify the three components of interculturality:  attitudes, knowledge, and skills
• Revise current culture lessons to incorporate interculturality concepts
• Design lessons in interculturality using a theoretical framework (Deardorff, 2004)
• Create opportunities for students to engage with culture at a deep and meaningful level in the language classroom

Kristen Nugent

Kristen has had the pleasure to work in the teaching profession for over 20 years, both as a high school French teacher and as a teacher educator at the university level.  Her experience as a high school French teacher took her from the Chicago Public Schools to multiple public school sites in the state of Nebraska. She obtained her M.A. in French from Middlebury College and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Educational Studies with an emphasis on world language teaching methods.  Kristen currently serves as the Director of Secondary Education at Concordia University Nebraska. 

Her passion has always been for the learner as she has tirelessly researched and implemented world language pedagogical approaches that keep the student at the center of instruction.  Furthermore, the majority of her teaching assignments have opened up opportunities to work with diverse students and families, which has enhanced her desire to deliver culturally responsive teaching in the foreign language classroom.  Her dissertation experience allowed her to work with practicing French teachers who were seeking research-based best practices for teaching interculturality in their classrooms. Kristen believes that students in world language classes can learn to become more open to communicating with those from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.  It is in the language classroom that teachers can truly encourage openness and respect for those from other cultures, and thereby positively impact the future for us all.

Natalie Stamper

Natalie is a dynamic educator who has been teaching for over 20 years.  She excels in reaching diverse learning styles having taught in a variety of educational settings throughout her career, including K12, immersion schools, and the college level.    

Natalie is passionate about cultivating curiosity and creativity in the classroom. She focuses on an interdisciplinary approach so students can make connections with other content and follow their own personal inquiries...en français!  Natalie loves exploring Francophone cinema, music, history, and West African art.  When designing lessons, her goal is to allow space for authentic communication, empathy, and interculturality to flourish in the classroom.

Natalie received her Masters in French Language and Literature from theUniversity of Nebraska in Lincoln where she also received Bachelor degrees in both French and English.  She currently teaches first and second year French at Lewis and Clark College. Her pursuit of lifelong learning was recognized by the French Embassy having been the recipient of two prestigious grants for professional development in France (SPCD, BELC).  Natalie also served on the COFLT board for many years and was president from 2015-2016. She believes firmly in the magic of professional development to re-evaluate and reignite how we teach.   

Natalie enjoys collaborating with colleagues, spending time with her family and garden, and learning new things!