Spanish Symposium
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023
Location: Windgate Art and Design at UAFS
Time: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Continental breakfast and lunch included
- Call for presenters and registration details coming soon
- Hosted by the UAFS Department of World Languages
- 3:30 p.m. UAFS Jazz Band and Jazz Catz, Concert on the Green
- 5:00 p.m. Fort Smith Symphony on the Green
For more information please contact Dr. Lynda McClellan.
Poster Presentations
The theme for the 2023 Spanish Teacher, ESL and World Languages Symposium is “Sin Límites/Without Limits.” Submitted workshop proposals should be in keeping with this theme.
We invite anyone who would like to present a workshop on effective strategies related to second language acquisition to submit a proposal for a 50-minute poster session where all presenters will converse with attendees regarding their lessons. Please include an interactive, hands-on component to your workshop.
All proposals are due by March 3, 2023.
Call For Presenters
The theme of the Sin Límites Spanish and L2 Teachers Symposium this year is literacy. Literacy can be defined as the ability, willingness, and confidence to engage with language for the purpose of acquiring, constructing and communicating meaning in all aspects of daily living. Language is explained as a socially and culturally constructed system of communication.
With this theme in mind, we are now accepting proposals for presentations and "snapshots." Deadline for proposals is March 3, 2023. For more information please contact Mary.Sobhani@uafs.edu.
Presentation: 45 minutes. This traditional format is composed of a 30-minute presentation or workshop, followed by 15 minutes for Q&A. Past presentations have included "Auditory Learning: Maria Luisa Bombal and the Music of Chopin," "Food, Cooking, and Art: Advancements in Cultural Literacy," "Using Snapchat Groups in the Second Language Classroom" and "The French Riviera is My Classroom."
Snapshot: 15 minutes. This bite-sized presentation affords practical examples of effective L2 instruction. Past "snapshots" have included "Bad Bunny and the Present Perfect," "Using Pinterest to Teach Cultural Literacy," "Building Vocab through Legends: La llorona y el Cucuy."
Keynote Speaker, Dr. Elena Foulis
Dr. Elena Foulis is an Assistant Professor and Director of Spanish for Heritage Language at Texas A&M, San Antonio and has been directing the oral history project, Oral Narratives of Latin@s in Ohio (ONLO) since 2014, some of these stories can be found in her bilingual and interactive iBook titled, Latin@ Stories Across Ohio.
Foulis’s research explores Latina/o/e voices through oral history and performance,
identity and place, ethnography, and family history. She is also host and producer
for the Latin@ Stories podcast, an extension of her oral history project. This podcast invites audiences
to connect and learn more about the Latina/o/x experiences locally, while amplifying
the voices of the community everywhere. Foulis is an engaged scholar and is committed
to reaching non-academic and academic audiences through her writing, presentations,
and public humanities projects.
Presentation Title
Intimate, Lived and Liberatory: The Epistemic Value of Local Literacies in the Language
Classroom
Summary
As educators invested in developing culturally relevant and responsive curricula—including the cultural practices, traditions, and linguistic particularities of the community and our students— we have an opportunity to adopt a Critical Language Awareness framework to motivate and support students to engage in critical discussions around language learning. In this way, teaching Spanish as a language of the US, encourages us and our students to center the historical, linguistic, and cultural background, experiences, and contributions of this diverse Spanish-speaking community.
