Kelly Arispe, Fatima Cornwall, Amber Hoye, Cassie Shelton and Rebecca Sibrian, Department of World Languages faculty members, recently attended the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Arispe gave a presentation on intermediate language teaching. The presentation, titled “Help! I’m Intermediate, I keep falling and I can’t get up,” was a praxis-oriented presentation to help language teachers and professors use concrete, high-impact pedagogical practices to move their intermediate learners beyond the barrier of intermediate-mid performance. Drawing from her research in this area, Arispe focused on three areas: retaining vocabulary, circumlocution and avoiding the English crutch, and chunking frequent grammatical structures.
Fatima Cornwall presented an ePoster titled “Spanish Students Help Wishes Come True.” Cornwall shared the process and feedback about her collaboration with Make-A-Wish Idaho where her students translated forms so that local Spanish-speaking parents of children facing life-threatening medical conditions can apply for services.
Cornwall also accepted the 2018 Global Engagement Award on behalf of her students who have been collaborating with Project LAURA, a local nonprofit legal services provider.