Highlights

  • Global Languages welcomed its new director, Per Urlaub, who issued a STATEMENT in September.
  • The Heritage Meets Heritage event  drew a spirited crowd to take part in games, discussions, and enjoy food from around the world on October 27. PHOTO GALLERY. The event was profiled in MIT NEWS.
  • Global Languages held a virtual Roundtable on Machine Translation and L2 Pedagogy in September. Per Urlaub (MIT) was the event moderator. Speakers included: Emily Hellmich and Kimberly Vinall (University of California, Berkeley) presenting “Changing Perspectives on (Machine) Translation within Language Education”; Takako Aikawa (MIT) presenting on the use of MT (DeepL and Google Translate) for Japanese language education; and Stephen Snyder  (Middlebury College) presenting “When Worlds Collide: Literary Translation in the Age of Machine Translation.” Eva Dessein (MIT) served as respondent.
  • The Global Languages Colloquium was held in October, convened by Masami Ikeda. Speakers included Javier Barroso, “Rise 360 and H5P for Language Learning: Uses and Pitfalls” and Tong Chen, “Learning Chinese and Understanding Chinese Social Changes through Chinese Songs.”
  • In December, Nilma Dominique’s students in her class 21G.821 The Beat of Brazil gave a public presentation consisting of an overview of contemporary Brazilian music and history to the MIT community. The project included music demonstrations by students and by Anna Borges and Will Ward, from the duo Receita de Samba, along with the multi-nominated Grammy winner drummer Rafael Barata. The event was held in a partnership with Lewis Music Library. See photo at bottom of page.
  • In early November, the Spanish group organized a two-part event to celebrate the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead. A traditional ofrenda, or altar, to commemorate departed loved-ones was erected in Global Languages Commons, and students enjoyed a screening in Spanish of the award-winning animated film Coco (2017, Pixar, Dir. Lee Unkrich and Adrián Molina). The film was preceded by an engaging and informative introduction by Javier Barroso. See photos at bottom of page.

In the media

  • Liana Ewald,  Ana Yáñez, and Nilma Dominique collaborated with MIT Libraries on a public reading by novelist Elizabeth Acevedo to MIT for a reading. MIT NEWS.
  • A recent “Spotlight” by PubPub featured interviews with Emma Teng, Maria Khotimsky, and Joseph Borkowski
  • Javier Barroso was interviewed by the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal
  • Takako Aikawa’s students participated in MIT-UTokyo exchange
  • German minor, Sherry Nyeo, was profiled in MIT NEWS.
  • Sara Fernandez, minor in Chinese, wins Schwarzman Scholarship to study in China MIT NEWS
  • Valeria Robayo, Minor in German, Featured in MIT News
  • Global Languages’ 21G.042 Three Kingdoms: From History to Fiction, Comic, Film, and Game, led by Professor Emma Teng, was featured in an MIT News article about innovation in the classroom.
  • Professor Emma Teng’s class with Lead Wellness Instructor Sarah Johnson was explained in this interview in MIT NEWS

Publications and projects

  • Takako Aikawa is involved in a research partnership with Immerse to investigate the impact of virtual reality (VR) on language education. She also conducted research this fall with the help of undergraduates (UROPs): Feina Niu on Automated Japanese Reading Assessment; with Stephen Wilson on Research and Development of a Story Book Generator as a Pedagogical Approach to Language Education; and with Nghi Nguyen on Project Based Learning in Japanese.
  • Tong Chen was one of the editors for “JUZI Chinese learning APP” – A Multi-Purpose Chinese Learning Platform published by The Commercial Press in Beijing in November (More about the app).
  • Nilma Dominique wrote a preface for Conexões: O Ensino de Português nos Estados Unidos [Connections. Teaching Portuguese in the United States], K. da Silva and E. da Silva (eds.).
  • Hee-Jeong Jeong joined the Academy of Korean Studies grant project team of seven scholars on a project called “Reinforcing the Status of Korean as a World Language: Theoretical and Applied Korean Linguistics” that is being carried out over the next several years.
  • Maria Khotimsky published “British Literature in World Literature Publishing House Editions,” in the article cluster issue British Literature in the Soviet Union, in the Slavic and East European Journal. She also published “Lessons of the Pandemic: Digital Tools for Online and F2F Instruction in the Russian as a Foreign Language Classroom” in the Student-Centered Approaches to Teaching Russian: Insights, Strategies, and Adaptations in December.
  • Per Urlaub and Eva Dessein published “Machine translation tools and Foreign Language Education” in Frontiers Journal in July.

ACTFL conference

At the annual ACTFL conference, held in Boston in November, a number of Global Languages lecturers shared their research on a variety of topics in the areas of applied linguistics and foreign language pedagogy with peers from around the country and around the world. ACTFL is an organization of 13,000 language educators, and provides vision, leadership, and support for quality teaching and learning of languages.

  • Tong Chen presented “Teaching Prosody and Why It Matters to Learning Tones”
  • Eva Dessein and Per Urlaub presented “Machine Translation in Language Classrooms?”
  • Liana Ewald, Ana Yáñez, and Joseph Borkowski presented “Social Annotation in the Language Classroom: Using Perusall in Spanish IV”
  • Panpan Gao, Kang Zhou, and Min-Min Liang gave a panel presentation “Proficiency-oriented Language Instruction: Assessment and Technology”
  • Masami Ikeda presented “The Motivational Effect of Assignments on Novice Japanese Language Students”
  • Hee Jeong Jeong presented “Metaverse in Korean Language Teaching”
  • Min-Min Liang presented a paper, “Innovative Materials Development for Chinese Heritage Language Learners”
  • Haohsiang Liao gave a presentation entitled “Successful Learning Patterns of Novice-Level Chinese Language MOOC Students”
  • Wakana Maekawa presented “Fostering Autonomous Learning Through Shadowing Using Authentic Materials” at the ACTFL Annual Conference in Boston in November.

Also, on the even of the conference, the Chinese group invited Professor Cornelius Kubler of Williams College to give a lecture at MIT on “Reflections on the Pedagogy of Chinese as a Non-native Language,” which was attended by many Chinese language educators from the greater Boston area and beyond.

More conferences and presentations

  • Takako Aikawa presented “A dilemma in returning to fully face-to-face instruction,” 25th Japanese Language Education Symposium Europe, at Leiden University in the Netherlands in August. In September, she co-presented “Automatic Read Aloud Assessment Tool: A Preliminary Report,” at the 2022 Language Assessment Research Conference at the University of Chicago. She also presented “A Mini-lecture on the Japanese Language and Culture,” for the participants of the Innovation Discovery Japan (IDJ) at MIT in December. Also in December, she co-presented “A Story Book Generator for Language Education” at the virtual Digital Humanities Research Showcase at MIT.
  • Joseph Borkowski presented “Social Annotation of Text and Multimedia with Perusall” at the Mid-Atlantic Association for Language Learning Technology digital “Tech Slam 2!” in December. As NERALLT president, Borkowski co-hosted its virtual 2022 conference in October.
  • Tong Chen presented “Rethinking Accommodations and Inclusivity in Higher Education CSL” and “Integrating Publicly Available Video Content with Curated Content for Increased Input Exposure” at the at the New England Chinese Language Teachers’ Association (NECLTA) 2022 annual conference held at Tufts in October.
  • Nilma Dominique gave a presentation, Brazilian Gestures and their Cultural Meanings,” in July for Portuguese School, Summer Program, Middlebury College. Also in July, she presented “Peripheral Art in PLE: Justice to the Marginalized Voice of Literary Expressions,” to the 104th AATSP Annual Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico (virtual). In August she presented “What you don’t see: analyzing the invisibility of marginalized groups in Brazilian films,” to XI EMEP: Encontro Mundial sobre o Ensino de Português conference, Harvard University. And in September she presented “Intercultural Knowledge in the PLE Class Using Authentic Materials,” to Portuguese Language Education Webinar Series (PLEWS) 2022, UMass Dartmouth (virtual).
  • Panpan Gao gave a talk “Rethinking Accommodations and Inclusivity in Higher Education CSL” at the New England Chinese Language Teachers’ Association (NECLTA) 2022 annual conference in October.
  • Hee-Jeong Jeong presented “Learning Language and Culture in Metaverse” at the Pragmatics & Language Learning Conference hosted by The National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in September.
  • Maria Khotisky presented “STARTALK Grant Project: Choose to Study Russian for Professional Needs,” at the NERALLT Annual Conference in October (virtual). She was a panelist in September MIT Open Learning xTalks on “Leveraging Technology to Build and Sustain Classroom Community.” WATCH VIDEO. She also co-organized “New England Regional Russian Language Pedagogy Colloquium” in July (virtual).
  • Min-Min Liang presented “如何提升課堂的學生互動 [Improving Student’s Interaction in Class]  for 華語教學專業講座 [Teaching Chinese as A Profession] online Forum, Taiwan. In October, Liang presented “Project Designs: Assessments for Chinese Heritage Language Learners,” for the 2022 The New England Chinese Language Teachers Association Annual Conference held at Tufts University, Massachusetts. In August she presented “Learning objectives and Project Design,” for Chinese Language Teachers Association – SIG online Conference as an invited speaker.
  • Haohsiang Liao gave a keynote speech “Three Years, Six Myths and Nine Experiences of Chinese Language MOOCs” in August at the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools Eighth International Conference for Chinese Heritage Education in Orange County. In September, he gave a keynote, “Heritage Learners in Chinese Language MOOCs: MITx – Chinese Language in Culture,” to the New England Association of Chinese Schools.
  • Leanna Rezvani presented a paper entitled, “Saint Mary Magdalene and the Heptaméron’s Thirty-Second Tale,” at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October.
  • Kang Zhou presented a paper, “Assessment Methods and Feedback Strategies for Advanced Level Chinese Speaking Test” at the NECLTA 11th Annual Conference, New England Chinese Language Teachers’ Association, Tufts University, MA

Events

  • Takako Aikawa collaborated with MISTI-Japan to host the Japan@MITevent in October, attended by about 60-70 students.
  • Nilma Dominique worked in collaboration with others to present the Solta a língua monthly Portuguese Language roundtables at which a number of featured guests shared their experiences. In October Juliana Mitkiewicz, Insper College Professor and Research Affiliate at MIT-DLAB, discussed projects on women in tech and climate justice in Brazil. In November Booker Schelhaas, a master’s degree student in Mechanical Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, discussed his experiences spending six months at the University of São Paulo in São Carlos as a Fulbright scholar. In December: Alessandra Jungs de Almeida, a Ph.D. visiting student at the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) at MIT and a research assistant in the Data Against Feminicide project at the Data+Feminism Lab, MIT talked about her research.
  • Dagmar Jaeger organized the Fall 2022 German Film Series as part of cultural enrichment for all students in current German classes, with almost 40 students coming to some of the screening.
  • The Pedagogy Lecture Series of Global Languages hosted a lecture with Jonathan Perkins (October 4).
  • Global France Seminar hosted a number of speakers this fall: Renan Larue (September 21, Junko Takeda (October 12), and Zrinka Stahuljak (October 24)
  • Global Languages celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in September. READ MORE

Class activities

  • Takako Aikawa‘s students participated in an MIT-UTokyo exchange in October and November.
  • Nilma Dominique took a group of students from her Beat of Brazil class to a  concert by the legendary Brazilian artist Milton Nascimento in October.

    Nilma Dominique (second from left) with MIT students and singer Zé Ibarra (center-left in white) who performed as part of the concert.

  • Dagmar Jaeger’s class 21G.409 visited the Busch Reisinger Museum at Harvard in November. READ MORE  Her students’ own artistic work created in 21G.409 is displayed in a mini-exhibition “Dada ist immer da” on the second floor of 14N.  This exhibit was solely curated by the students and will be up until February. Next time you are in 14N, you don’t want to miss it!
  • Leanna Rezvani took a group of students to see the Canadian singer-songwriter, Coeur de Pirate, in concert at the Berklee Performance Center.

    Rezvani (at right) with her students at outing

  • Kang Zhou On November 6, Kang Zhou took Chinese III (Streamlined) students to the Cambridge Center for Chinese Culture, where they had the chance to interact with local Chinese American youth and exchange their experiences of learning Chinese language and culture. During their visit, the students discussed how their knowledge of Chinese language and culture had enriched their lives and widened their views on different cultures. This visit provided a great opportunity for the MIT students to give back to local community and engage with the Chinese community in Cambridge

Kang Zhou’s student, Angela Li, is sharing her experience of learning Chinese with students from the Cambridge Center for Chinese Culture.

  • The Korean language program hosted its annual Hangeul Day celebration October 27 sponsored by MISTI-Korea and Global Languages. Students enjoyed Korean food and games.

Cheol-Rin Park (left) and students.

Nilma Dominique welcomes attendees to Beat of Brazil presentations in December.

A traditional ofrenda (altar) to commemorate departed loved ones was created as part off the Day of the Dead celebration

Javier Barroso introduced the film Coco screened as part of the Day of the Dead celebration.

Maria Khotimsky (right) talks to students at Academic Expo in August.

Back to News ›