The 2015-2016 academic year once again saw Samford World Languages and Cultures faculty presenting their scholarship, innovating in the classroom and earning international honors.
Jennifer Beck, Susan Blazer, Katherine Jarnigan and Sandi Prater (English Language Learner Institute) presented Giving Them Something to Talk About—Encouraging Reluctant Speakers at the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) International Conference. Beck and Prater presented the same program at the Alabama-Mississippi Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (AMTESOL) Regional Conference. Blazer and Jarnigan presented Grammar—I’m Lovin’ It—Interactive Strategies for Teaching Grammar and Implementing E-Portfolios for Student- Directed Learning at the AMTESOL conference.
Carolyn Crocker was one of 16 U.S. consultants selected to participate in the McGraw-Hill Intermediate Spanish Digital Editions Symposium. Participants consulted on the successes and pitfalls of the current digital platform the publisher uses for student learning, and the use of short films as the basis for an Intermediate Spanish course. They also critiqued an innovative product that uses short films as the basis for an Intermediate Spanish course.
The Alabama Germany Partnership honored Angela Ferguson with its annual Barbara Fisher Education Award, recognizing Ferguson’s “exceptional devotion to teaching German Language and Culture.”
Kelly Jensen presented Echoes of Facundo: Nationalized Memory in Contemporary Argentine Television at the 62nd annual Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies. She presented “Out here, due process is a bullet”: Dialogical Concepts of Justice in the Contemporary TV Western at the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association National Conference.
Lynda Jentsch read an original translation of the short story Little Big Head by Peruvian author Carlos Orihuela at the 42nd annual conference of the Kentucky Philological Association.
Mike Ledgerwood chaired a panel on Agency, Indigenismo and Indigeneity, and presented A Reconsideration of ‘Indianismo’ and ‘Indigenismo’ in Four Novels from Peruvian and Brazilian Literature at the 62nd annual Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies.
He presented twice at the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT) meeting at Harvard University Aug. 13–14. He was part of the IALLT Management Manual panel, talking about public relations and assessment and strategic planning for Language Centers. Ledgerwood and Betty Rose Facer of Old Dominion University spoke on The U.S. Government and Languages.
Mary McCullough published the article “The Husband, the Wife and the Mother-in-Law: Power and Relationships in Yamina Benguigui’s Inch’Allah Dimanche” in L’Erudit Franco-Espagnol (Volume 7, Spring 2015).
The Alabama World Languages Association named a presentation by Andy Milstead "Best of Alabama" at its annual meeting. Milstead repeated the presentation, Dyslexia and Language Learning, and received special recognition at the 2016 meeting of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching.
Thom Thibeault and Carolyn Crocker presented Using Media as a Catalyst for Communicative Interaction at the Foreign Language Education & Technology Conference at Harvard University. Thibeault also led a pre-conference workshop on FLAn, a hypermedia editor, he created for language learning.
Heather West was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Knight of the Order of Academic Palms) by the government of France for her eminent service to French education and active contribution to the prestige of French culture. West also presented The Quest for Freedom during Quebec’s Quiet Revolution and Beyond: Resistance in Pierre Falardeau’s Speak White and Octobre at the annual conference of the College Language Association at Southern Methodist University.
This year we welcomed to our faculty assistant professor of Spanish Joanna Bradley, and visiting professor of Spanish Esther González-Blanco, from Estudio Internacional Sampere in Salamanca, Spain.