It's time to choose new leadership! The 2019 AAUSC Election is open for voting. Please cast your online vote for Vice-President/President-elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and five Language Section Conveners):
Candidate bios and statements on aausc.org
Voting closes on 1 May 2019 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
It's time to choose new leadership! The 2018 AAUSC Election is open for voting. Please cast your online vote for two offices: Arabic and French Section Conveners.
Online ballot
Voting closes on 24 October 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
AAUSC @ ACTFL 2018 New Orleans
Travel/Professional Development Grant: Call for Submissions
The goals of the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC) are to:
In keeping with this mission, the AAUSC offers a limited number of travel/professional development grants to members who wish to attend the annual ACTFL convention each November. The grant covers up to $500 and can be used to pay the conference fee to attend ACTFL, and travel or lodging expenses.
Although any current AAUSC member may apply for a grant, priority will be given to members who:
Grant recipients are required to attend all AAUSC-sponsored sessions at the ACTFL convention and to post a summary of their experiences on the AAUSC website (aausc.org) and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/aausc.lpd).
Applications letters (1 page maximum, single-spaced, 12 pt font) should state:
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 1 June 2018
AWARDS ANNOUNCED BY: 15 July 2018
MLA 2019: Call for Proposals Session sponsored by the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC)
Pathways to Paradigm Change: Critical Examinations of Prevailing Discourses and Ideologies in Second Language Education
This panel explores L2 education discourses that support or hinder pedagogies promoting language learning as situated communication practices. We understand situated practices as learning how to become an effective member of a community by gaining familiarity and some degree of control over its relevant social processes and practices--including oral and written textual production and interpretation--with recognition of the social, cultural, and historical embeddedness of texts. Calls for teaching language and culture as integrated and situated practices have recurred for over two decades, however, while curricular responses to such appeals for change have been successful in specific, localized instructional contexts, large-scale paradigm change has not yet occurred, and traditional ideologies and practices continue to pervade the field of L2 education. Furthermore, methods course materials and practices continue to foreground historical perspectives and eclecticism, rather than guide future teachers in systematic, in-depth exploration of a single, principled approach that aligns with notions of language learning and use as situated communication practices. Proposals are invited that examine the current discursive landscape around L2 teaching and learning. Of particular interest are papers that propose ways of moving the dominant discursive needle forward toward effective paradigm change in L2 education.
Please send abstracts (maximum 200 words) to Beatrice Dupuy (bdupuy@email.arizona.edu) and Kristen Michelson (Kristen.Michelson@ttu.edu) by March 15, 2018.
ACTFL 2017 was my first convention, and I was so grateful to have the intellectual and financial support of AAUSC. As an early-career course coordinator, I benefited greatly from attending the AAUSC meetings in Nashville. Specifically, I appreciated the honesty with which language program directors discussed the (exciting!) challenges of program-wide assessment; hearing the perspectives of colleagues from various types of institutions helped me contextualize the strengths and weaknesses of the language program at my own institution. Additionally, as a literature Ph.D., I sought out sessions that would enhance my ability to conduct and publish classroom-based research. I learned of various journals that publish the work of emerging scholars, and I was able to get some feedback on a peer review study that I’m conducting. In other sessions that concentrated on classroom practice, I was able to trouble shoot some of the challenges of the courses that I teach; I plan to consult the Routledge frequency dictionaries to revise my Intermediate Spanish vocabulary lists, and I’m going to modify my Advanced Grammar class so that students have more opportunities to engage with authentic texts and formally reflect on their language learning. Thanks to the high-quality sessions, welcoming colleagues from AAUSC, and meaningful one-on-one interactions, I left the conference feeling inspired and connected. Looking forward to next year!
Kristen M. Turpin, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Romance Languages and Literatures Villanova University
It's time to choose our leadership! Vice-President Lara Lomicka becomes President on January 1, 2018, and we must elect a new officer to take her place.
(1) Read the candidates' biographies and statements.
(2) Go to the online ballot to choose the next Vice-President-Elect.
Voting will be open until 12:00 a.m. December 25, 2017.
Thanks to out-going President Colleen Ryan! She becomes Past-President on January 1. We appreciate her service and leadership.
AAUSC @ MLA 2018
Session 384: Understanding Vocabulary Learning and Teaching: Implications for Language Program Development
Colleen M. Ryan, Presider Friday, January 5, 2017 3:30-4:45 p.m. Hilton, Concourse A
1. The Case for Collaborative Dialogues to Learn Vocabulary in Upper-division Courses Celine Rose, U Iowa
2. The Effectiveness of Second-language Vocabulary Teaching and Learning Strategies: Perceptions versus Reality Joseph Price, U Arizona-Tuscon
3. Listening Tasks: A Longitudinal Study on Language-learning Vocabulary in L2 Spanish Cristina Pardo Ballester, Iowa State U
Thanks to Stacey for all her years of service to the organization, and best of luck to Kate and Johanna!
The ACTFL convention 2016 was the second time I attended the conference, and the first time as an AAUSC member. During these three days in Boston, I participated in many sessions within my research and teaching interests, learned about new tools and strategies for planning and conducting lessons, and could get many impressions and ideas from other language programs. I found it particularly valuable that I could exchange ideas with language educators from all kinds of different contexts, for instance Saturday schools, community colleges, or exchange programs. I could consider and integrate new perspectives and learn from others’ experiences. I also attended the AAUSC German Sector Business Meeting, and the AAUSC Business Meeting and Reception. Both of these events stood out to me because of my colleagues’ thought-provoking presentations, the productive and engaging discussions we had, and the supportive AAUSC community that welcomed me and that I could be part of. I’m looking forward to attending many more ACTFL conventions and AAUSC events in the future.
On the 2016 ACTFL Convention: I am incredibly grateful for the support that the AAUSC provided me to travel to my first ACTFL Convention and first national conference. For me, the entire conference experience centered on building relationships within the AAUSC. First, attending the AAUSC French Section Meeting and the AAUSC editorial board meeting allowed me to network with a number of future colleagues whose names I had heard and whose work I had read. Because I am currently transitioning from completing my doctoral coursework to working on my dissertation, it was a great professional experience for me to be able to put faces to names and start to see other AAUSC members as my colleagues. Second, I was able to attend presentations given by other AAUSC members, which sparked ideas for me as a teacher and a researcher. As a teacher, I was profoundly inspired by one presentation on how current events might be incorporated into the language classroom, specifically in the wake of national traumas such as the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo. As a researcher, I continued to grapple with Systemic Functional Linguistics, aided by the presentation of two of the most prominent researchers in the field of genre-based learning. Third, I was grateful to have many of the AAUSC members I met in the audience during my own ACTCL presentation. Having the support and feedback of these colleagues at my first national conference presentation was invaluable! I look forward to continuing to build relationships with my AAUSC colleagues.
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