Var - Applies to some languages

Video Production Workshop

This will be a 5-6 hour workshop in which a maximum of 15 foreign language instructors/TAs (max. 5 participants per camera) go through hands-on steps necessary for teaching students to produce their own videos using the foreign language.

Multimedia Pedagogical Dictionaries for Ten African Languages

Development of pedagogical dictionaries in ten African languages: Amharic; Bambara; Hausa; Luo; Shona; Swahili; Twi; Wolof; Yoruba; and Zulu.

Digital Dictionaries for Less Commonly Taught Languages of Pakistan

Development of digital lexical resources with audio files for Khowar, Pashto, and Towali, minority languages of northwest Pakistan. In collaboration with James Nye (University of Chicago), Wilma Heston (University of Pennsylvania), and Inam Ullah (independent scholar in Pakistan). See also Summer Pilot Project.

Summer Pilot Project for Khowar and Torwali Dictionary Development

The summer pilot project will enable the principals to prepare for a larger proposal to the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning in October 2001.

Preparation of data--both lexical entries and audio files--for on-line Khowar and Torwali dictionaries.

Developing a Team-Taught Graduate Course for Foreign Language Acquistion Research and Teaching Methodology

Although graduate TA's play a critical role in undergraduate language teaching at Brown, courses in FL acquisition theory and teaching methodology are currently offered only every other year in Italian and French. In order to make available such a course to all graduate students in FL's each year, the members of this project will meet in several working sessions during the summer of 1991 to develop a team-taught course in language acquisition theory and teaching methodology. They will produce a common core syllabus as well as language-specific materials, including videotapes of teaching demonstrations. The course will be implemented in the fall semester, 1991, and systematically evaluated and revised the following spring. Thereafter, the resulting set of syllabus and materials will be made available for dissemination and adaptation elsewhere.

Videotaped Demonstrations of Language Teaching Methodologies

For an interdepartmental, team-taught graduate-level course entitled "The Theory and Practice of Foreign Language Teaching," the project will invite three consultants to Brown to present demonstration lessons and a group discussion section of the following methods of FL teaching: Suggestopedia, the Silent Way, Community Language Learning. The demonstrations will be videotaped and edited for future use.

TA perceptions of Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Training

The project will generate a survey of incoming Second Language Teaching Assistants and experienced SLTAs at Brown. These TAs will be asked about their perceptions of SL acquistion and teaching theories and methods. The results will be evaluated and utilized in restructuring SLTAs' orientation programs and supervision.

Web Technology for Foreign Language Study: A conference at Brown University

The Center for Language Studies will organize and host a two day conference on aspects of the application of web technology to the teaching and study of foreign languages. Speakers will give presentations and demonstrations of materials in six languages: Japanese, Czech, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. During the morning of the second day, selected participants will attend a separate hands-on workshops in German, French, and Japanese.

Acquisition of a Laptop Computer for Development of Language Projects

The grant will enable the Language Resource Center to purchase a Macintosh laptop computer and software to be used for the development and display of second language teaching materials.

Proposal for a Web Site for an Interdepartmental Methods Course.

This proposal seeks to create a World Wide Web site to be attached to the graduate-level interdepartmental course in the theory and methods of foreign language teaching. The web site will not be a course page per se, but will be attached to the course and integrated into the activities of the course. It is designed to serve as a reference source for language educators, combining “encyclopedia-type” entries on numerous terms and concepts in the field. Linked to these entries will be annotated bibliographies including both print and electronic sources. Students in the course will be assigned brief projects investigating articles, web sites and books and adding summaries of these materials to the web site. The project will set up the web site and establish a framework. Each time the course is taught students will be asked to make contributions to the web site, which will in this way expand and in time become an ever more useful resource.