[Ervin Malakaj]

CfP: Sessions Organized by the MLA Forum on Second-Language Learning and Teaching2024 Modern Language Association Annual ConventionJanuary 4-7, Philadelphia
The MLA Forum on Second-Language Learning and Teaching invites submissions for consideration to be included in two guaranteed and two non-guaranteed sessions to take place during the 2024 MLA annual convention, which will take place January 4-7 in Philadelphia. Please check out the CfPs below and be in touch with the designated contact person if any questions come up.
The four sessions:

<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>Curriculum (Re)Design in the Upper Division: Collaborations within Language Departments (guaranteed)
<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>Prioritizing Wellness in Second: Language Teaching and Learning (guaranteed)
<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>”Artificial Intelligence” in Language Teaching and Learning (non-guaranteed)
<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>The Perils and Pleasures of Language Program Recruitment (non-guaranteed)

 

1. ​​Curriculum (Re)Design in the Upper Division: Collaborations within Language Departments

Language curriculum design has traditionally been the work of lower-division programs where the development of materials, assessments, and pedagogical practices has tended to focus on supporting language learning through sequential, vertical articulation of courses. In contrast, upper-division language curricula, which have been largely conceptualized as collections of course offerings, have received comparatively less attention—this despite longstanding calls in the profession to develop new curricular structures across entire undergraduate programs (2007 MLA Report).  Various factors have been identified as making upper-division curriculum efforts particularly challenging: limited models that address advanced language learning situated within humanities education; persisting labor inequities in language departments that mirror and reify the oft-cited bifurcated curriculum model; and changing expectations surrounding faculty work in higher ed, coupled with siloed departmental cultures in which information and resources are minimally shared.  Curriculum designers in language departments who have engaged in redesigning the upper division (e.g., Byrnes, 2001; Maxim, et al., 2013) acknowledge the importance of collaboration among faculty in developing common goals, values, and practices to support student learning across all instructional levels. Adopting an experimental mindset, this session explores models for program development undertaken collaboratively in language departments that focus on the upper division. It welcomes reports on successes and failures of collaborative efforts with the goal of developing deeper understanding on how best to support advanced language and intercultural learning in partnership with others. Interested speakers are invited to submit abstracts (up to 300 words) outlining their planned presentation alongside a bio (up to 150 words) to Cori Crane (cpcrane@ua.edu) by March 20, 2023. This special session is sponsored by the MLA Second Language Learning and Teaching Forum. It is a guaranteed session. Participants must be MLA members to be included in the convention program.  Byrnes, H. (2001). Reconsidering graduate students’ education as teachers: “It takes a department!” Modern Language Journal, 85(4), 512-530.Maxim, H., Höyng, P., Lancaster, M.,  Schaumann, C. & Aue, M. (2013). Overcoming curricular bifurcation: A departmental approach to curriculum reform. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 46(1), 1-26.MLA Ad Hoc Committee of Foreign Languages (2007). Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world. Profession, 234-245.

2. Prioritizing Wellness in Second: Language Teaching and Learning

College students are reporting unprecedented levels of distraction, isolation and burnout in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, recent studies confirm that the mental health of faculty has worsened as a result of the shift to remote instruction and the difficulty balancing public health concerns and educational priorities (Pandya & Lodha, 2022).  In response to this “mental health tsunami” (McGee, 2022), many institutions of higher education have begun wellness programs. Wellness is defined as the pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to an optimal state of well being. As a holistic concept, wellness includes multiple dimensions of human health: the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, the environmental and the social.
This session explores how second language educators are seeking to prioritize the concept of wellness by adopting pedagogical and curricular practices that promote a greater sense of human connection and well being.
Interested speakers are invited to submit abstracts (up to 300 words) outlining their planned presentation alongside a bio (up to 150 words) to Carl Blyth (cblyth@austin.utexas.edu) by March 20, 2023. This special session is sponsored by the MLA Second Language Learning and Teaching Forum. It is a guaranteed session. Participants must be MLA members to be included in the convention program.

3. “Artificial Intelligence” in Language Teaching and Learning  

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) suggests that the cultivation of skills such as adaptability, creativity, open-mindedness, communication, negotiation, interpretation, critical thinking, interconnection,  perspective-taking, and ethics will play critical roles in the “Future of Education and Skills(2030).” As artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities expand and develop, educational research advocates for “intelligence augmentation” (Dede, 2022) so that instructors may collaborate effectively with AI to develop students’ critical 2030 competencies. Innovative pedagogical applications of AI in the teaching of languages and cultures, with a goal of honing the previously described skillset, could offer language instructors models to differentiate instruction and ultimately prepare language learners for tomorrow’s world. This session will present creative integrations of “artificial intelligence” in the teaching of languages and cultures to promote “intelligence augmentation” through thoughtfully designed perspective taking, critical thinking, and interactive tasks.
Panel presenters will be encouraged to submit to a special section in the Second Language Research and Practice (SLRP) journal on artificial intelligence in postsecondary language education.
Interested speakers are invited to submit abstracts (up to 300 words) outlining their planned presentation alongside a bio (up to 150 words) to Janice McGregor (jmcgregor@arizona.edu) Nicole Mills (mills@fas.harvard.edu) by March 20, 2023. This special session is co-organized by the MLA Second Language Learning and Teaching Forum and the American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Language Programs. It is a non-guaranteed session and will be part of the MLA internal peer review process. Participants must be MLA members to be included in the convention program.

4. The Perils and Pleasures of Language Program Recruitment 

The strategic defunding of humanities disciplines and the neoliberal instrumentalization of higher education has left a devastating impact on language and culture studies program enrollments. In this context, some program chairs and their colleagues are urgently scrambling to get student recruitment initiatives off the ground in the hopes of “improving the numbers.” Others may be resting upon existing, long-term recruitment initiatives proven to be successful for their institutional setting. Some might have given up in the face of insurmountable obstacles to provide students access to their courses.
Regardless of the institutional context, the success of recruitment initiatives depends on resources. Funding and collegial support go a long way in facilitating effective student recruitment. Here, innovative ideas meet eager co-conspirators, which can be a source of joy for the scholar practitioner and an opportunity for building a strong community. But sometimes even the most financially supported recruitment initiatives rest on the exploitation of individual faculty. The time and effort recruitment requires might surpass the allotted or available time for program “service.” Even though recruitment is vital for program strength, it is not always rewarded or recognized as vital labor practice in higher education. All of this is compounded for scholars in contingent positions, whose very job safety often feels tethered to recruitment success. The “cost” of recruitment can thus feel like a structural failure even in the face of successful recruitment initiatives.
This session seeks to bring scholar-practitioners in the language and culture studies together to reflect on these and other ideas relating to recruitment cultures and our discourses about them. It aims to feature innovative recruitment strategies, scholar-practitioner reflection about the pleasures and pitfalls in recruitment, and work toward a critical engagement with recruitment as a vital practice in language and culture studies.
Interested speakers are invited to submit abstracts (up to 300 words) outlining their planned presentation alongside a bio (up to 150 words) to Ervin Malakaj (ervin.malakaj@ubc.ca) by March 20, 2023. This special session is sponsored by the MLA Second Language Learning and Teaching Forum. It is not a guaranteed session and will be part of the MLA internal peer review process. Participants must be MLA members to be included in the convention program.
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