Symposium on Language Pedagogy in Higher Education (SOLPHE)

October 4–5, 2024

https://sites.google.com/view/solphe2024

The goal of this symposium is to serve as a professional development forum tailored to the needs of post-secondary language educators, which will not only help to enhance the quality of language programs but also provide opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration. During the symposium, we will host talks and sessions about different aspects of language teaching and program administration in higher education settings.

Submission Topics

We welcome submissions from all languages and all ranks (including language program directors/coordinators/supervisors, tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty, instructors, and graduate students) for 20-minute presentations. Proposals may be either practice-oriented or research-oriented, as long as they have practical implications that may be relevant to language programs in post-secondary settings in the United States. 

In 2024, we plan to have a total of 24 sessions, all held online via Zoom. 

Proposals must fall under one of the following two strands:

STRAND 1: LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Topics that fit this strand include, but are not limited to, the following:

 Research-based pedagogical approaches

 Technology integration

 Experiential learning

 Assessment of instructional outcomes

 Diversity and inclusive teaching

 Intercultural competence

 Students’ and instructors’ perceptions

STRAND 2: LANGUAGE PROGRAM DIRECTION

Topics that fit this strand include, but are not limited to, the following:

 Training and supervision of teaching assistants and/or other instructor types

 Language teaching methods courses

 Evaluation and training of language program directors

 Program articulation

 Curriculum development and revision

 Mission, vision, and objectives of basic language programs

 Recruitment and retention

 Selection and development of instructional materials

 Course placement practices

Submission Guidelines

You may submit only one proposal as a lead presenter. You may be listed as a co-presenter on an additional proposal on a different topic.

All proposals must be in English.

The file you upload should include only the following three elements: 1) a title (15 words maximum), 2) an abstract (300 words maximum), and 3) a 50-word summary to be included in the program. Please do not include any personal information in the abstract file that you upload.

There is a separate space within EasyAbs to list author names and affiliations.

Only proposals submitted through EasyAbs by 11:59 PM on August 26, 2024 will be considered. If you do not already have an EasyAbs account, you will need to create one. Then click SOLPHE 2024 abstract submission to complete your submission.

Please note that certificates will not be provided for this symposium.

Submissions open:  June 10–August 26, 2024 [Deadline EXTENDED]

Review period: August 27–31, 2024

Notification of acceptance/rejection by:  September 2, 2024 [Extended from August 31]

Register at: SOLPHE 2024 Registration

Registration opens: June 10, 2024

Registration deadline for presenters: September 15, 2024

Registration closes: October 1, 2024

Contact: SOLPHE2024@osu.edu

AAUSC is happy to announce the results of this year’s elections. Congratulations to the following colleagues who have been elected to the Board of Directors:

Boris Yelin - Vice-President/President-Elect

Ayman Mohamed - Arabic Language Convener

Sara Mattavelli - Italian Language Convener

Rachel Floyd - French Language Convener

Helena Stech - Graduate Student Representative

It’s time to vote in the annual officer elections for AAUSC. Voting will be open until Friday April 26 at 11:59 pm PST.

To vote in this year’s elections, please access the candidate statements and bios on the AAUSC website (https://www.aausc.org/2024-Spring-Elections). You will see an overview of positions up for election and the candidate names for each position. Below this overview, you will see each candidate’s name and a drop down arrow that you can click to expand to read each candidate’s bio and statement. 

To cast your vote, please click here: Vote for 2024 AAUSC officers (https://www.aausc.org/Sys/Poll/52270) Please note that you may cast a vote in one, some, or all contests.

Thank you for your engagement in the AAUSC. We look forward to announcing new officers on April 29, 2024.

AAUSC is pleased to announce the 2023 recipients of the Innovation in Language Program Direction Award. Awardees are listed in no particular order:

• Virtual Intergenerational Service-Learning Exchanges: Advancing Language, Intercultural Learning, and Community Engagement 

Carolin Fuchs; Northeastern University, World Languages Center

• Taking Ownership of the Curriculum: The Transformation of a Language Program

Alberto Bruzos Moro, Catalina Méndez Vallejo, Mariana Bono; Princeton University, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Patricia J Kyle; University of Texas at Austin, Department of French and Italian

• Intercultural Competence & Chinese

Qingyu Yang; University of Rhode Island, Department of modern and classical languages and literatures 

Ryan Calabretta-Sajder; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Dept. of World Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

Congratulations to the 2023 winners! We look forward to highlighting these projects in an upcoming AAUSC event.

A total of 18 projects were submitted for consideration, and the awards committee wants to recognize the innovative work being done across languages and programs. Proficiency; intercultural competence; justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; technology; accessibility; engagement; and recruitment and retention were common themes across the projects that were submitted. Thank you to all who applied! 

Many thanks to the awards committee (Mahmoud Azaz, Kate Brooke, Senta Goertler, Ashlie Henery, Mandy Menke, Montserrat Mir, and Claudia Sánchez-Gutiérrez) for their time and thoughtful consideration of each project.

We will meet up for happy hour at Woven and Bound in the Marriott Marquis (across the street from the convention center) Friday, November 17 from 4-6pm . 

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Please find the Zoom link for our annual Business Meeting that will take place in conjunction with the SOLPHE conference this Friday afternoon (October 6) from 4:30-5:45 (Central). (It is not necessary to be registered for SOLPHE to participate in the Business Meeting. We look forward to seeing you!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://kansas.zoom.us/j/5291836684

Meeting ID: 529 183 6684

No password (waiting room enabled)

CERCLL is offering a free professional development webinar series with CE certificates. The event in October will be the second in a series of three webinars: Maximizing Learners’ Career Readiness in Language Programs. Educators can enroll in any combination of these events, and continuing education and digital badges are available. Complete information about the series is here: 

https://cercll.arizona.edu/blog/careerreadinessfall23/ .
Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL)
Web: http://cercll.arizona.edu

October 5 at 10 am:

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Integrating Career Readiness into Already-Existing 1st and 2nd Year Language Programs, presented by 

Darcy Lear, Ph.D, University of Chicago.

https://cercll.arizona.edu/event/lear/

November 29 at 10 am:

Shaping the Future of Education: Integrating World Languages for Specific Purposes (WLSP) in Language and Culture Programs, presented by 

Diana Ruggiero, Ph.D, University of Memphis.

https://cercll.arizona.edu/event/ruggiero/

Questions? Contact us at: cercll@email.arizona.edu 

_______________
Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL)

University of ArizonaWeb: http://cercll.arizona.edu

AAUSC is pleased to solicit applications for the Innovation in Language Program Direction Award to recognize outstanding examples of curricular and pedagogical innovation in the field of foreign/second languages education within institutions of higher education.In addition to receiving a monetary award, winners will be publicly recognized and given the opportunity to share their project with colleagues.

All AAUSC members (tenure-track faculty, non-tenure track faculty, adjunct faculty and graduate students not currently serving on the Executive Board or as SLRP editors) currently employed in an institution of higher education are eligible to apply. 

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Innovation

Does the project leverage innovative theories, technologies and/or practices? How does the project advance language teaching and learning and/or the work of language program directors and coordinators?

Impact

What is the impact on the local program and what is the potential impact on the wider field of post-secondary language education? How was student learning impacted or the work of LPDs/coordinators transformed?  Can the project be replicated by other language programs in the US? How relevant is the project to language program direction and L2 education?

In addressing impact, applicants should detail how student learning was transformed, using evidence from student feedback, assessment data, program metrics, press reports, social media hits, etc., making a direct link between available data/metrics and a particular outcome.

Applicants are encouraged to include sufficient detail in their narrative so that reviewers have a clear sense of the curricular innovations made, the motivations for the innovations, and the impact of the innovations on the local program. Finally, applicants should consider how their process and practices could be a model for other post-secondary language programs.

Applicants must submit a de-identified Word file or PDF (approximately 750 words) with a description of their programmatic innovation by October 23, 2023 via this Google form.Applications will be evaluated in a blind, peer-review process.  Winners will be announced in early December.

Please direct any questions to Mandy Menke (menkem@umn.edu), AAUSC Vice-President.

AAUSC is happy to announce the results of this year’s elections. Congratulations to the following colleagues who have been elected to the Board of Directors:

Flavio Valdarachi - Italian Language Convener

Yi Wang - Asian Language Convener

Jeanne Schueller - German Language Convener

Luis Gonçalves - Portuguese Language Convener

Montserrat Mir, Claudia Sánchez-Gutierrez, and Germán Zarate - Spanish Language Conveners (tie)

Kristin Michelson - Secretary

Kelle Marshall - Treasurer

Thank you to all who stood for election to the AAUSC Board this year.

It's that time of year for our annual elections. We have a great lineup of nominees to fill the vacant board positions. You can access information about the nominees and cast your vote via this link. The ballot will be open through Friday, May 19. Please note that you can vote for each position, even those that are outside of your language section. A special thank you to all who made nominations and to all who are standing for election. 

Also a big thank you to the AAUSC board members who are concluding their terms: Kelle Marshall (Secretary-Treasurer), Yang Xiao-Desai (Asian Languages Section Convener), Christina Frei (German Section Convener), Chiara Fabbian (Italian Section Convener), Vania Castro (Portuguese Section Convener), Muriel Gallego (Spanish Section Convener), and Christina Isabelli (Spanish Section Convener). Thank you for your service to AAUSC and the field!