AATF/AATSP Spring Meeting 2009

Traditional testing is limited to measuring what a given student is able to do independently at a given point in time, but it tells us nothing about the student’s specific learning processes and more important, about their potential. This presentation will provide an overview of the Vygotsky-inspired process known as dynamic assessment. Using linguistic data centered upon Spanish past narration, the presentation will demonstrate how assessment can uncover the zone of proximal development of learners, and how scaffolding or language assistance can be fine tuned to meet the developmental needs of the learner.

The use of imaginary story telling allows the foreign language student to note the linguistic nuances of preterit/ imperfect. Creating original tales or descriptive narratives of photos or prompts allows the student to view specific uses of preterit or imperfect for narrative description, single actions, ongoing actions, etc.

Comment corriger l’accent américain des élèves dans la classe de français? Un rappel des bases de la phonétique articulatoire du français nous permettra de comprendre les interférences de l’anglais afin de mieux corriger les erreurs typiques de prononciation des élèves anglophones.

Comment utiliser Jules Verne dans les cours de français afin de donner aux étudiants une approche global du français et préparer les apprenants à des conversations ou débats sur des sujets scientifiques ou d’intérêt scientifiques et culturels dans la langue française.

The Muslim minority of Spain was expelled in 1609. This presentation looks at the trajectory of this measure by analyzing, one the one hand, how Moriscos understood their cultural identity, and, on the other, how the Christian majority debated between fear of an enemy within and the admiration of Muslim literary heroes.

Native-speakers of English learning Spanish have to focus on the areas of grammar and vocabulary, but one often overlooked area with important implications for the perception of the student as ‘native-like’ or ‘non native-like’ is pronunciation. Studies have demonstrated that a native-like accent can be acquired in the classroom if A) teachers and students are aware of specific common pronunciation problems stemming from English, and B) time is devoted to improving student accent. We will identify common problems and how to correct them in our students' pronunciation.

This presentation will demonstrate a method used to engage students with the target language outside of the classroom, while helping them become active listeners. The Radio and Internet Listening Portfolio is a tool constructed over an eight week period. The assignments included in the portfolio begin with ‘letting go’, designed to encourage students to let go of the urge to try to comprehend every word that they hear by listening to authentic speech for intonation patterns and musicality only instead of for content. In the following assignments, students listen in order to identify speech genres, and in later steps they gradually listen for specific details.