Christelle Palpacuer Lee, Rutgers University

Collaborative Classroom 113

Over the past twenty years, language education in the United States has embraced community-based service-learning (CBSL) as an avenue for language and culture learning beyond the classroom (Clifford and Reisinger, 2018; Palpacuer Lee, Curtis and Curran, 2018a). In world language education, CBSL describes an academically supported, for-credit, language-focused, community-based service experience. In previous publications, my colleagues and I have complicated the discourses and assumptions related to language-focused CBSL, critically reflecting on the discourse of CBSL and its implications for practice (Palpacuer Lee, Curtis and Curran, 2018b; Palpacuer and Curtis, 2019). This workshop offers an opportunity to reflect on the operationalization of service-learning for world language programs, and to subsequently prepare for action and implementation. The workshop will address the following questions through hands-on and interactive activities:

1. Frames: What is service and what is the role of language in this framework?
   This first part of the workshop aims at identifying what is at stake when we engage with language-focused service-learning. We will first engage with an analysis of a short text in order to build our individual and collective understandings of the discourse of CBSL, including the multiple meanings associated with ‘service’. Through this reading, the following discussions, and the collaborative completion of an online graphic organizer, we will get clarity as to what is at stake when we engage our students and ourselves in language-focused service-learning.
2. Models and Practices: What is the continuum of reciprocity in CBSL and what are examples of practice on this continuum?
   The second part of this workshop aims at clarifying the goals and array of possible practices in language-focused CBSL. Our goal will be to understand the continuum of reciprocity in CBSL for WL, and on locating our practices (real and desired) on this continuum. In this section of the workshop, participants will learn about several existing models for CBSL in WL. The presenter will then share stories, vignettes and artifacts from her own collaborative practice in a language-focused CBSL program. These stories will be discussed in small and large groups in light of theoretical frameworks that supports a critical, social justice-oriented approaches to CBSL.
3. Talk back and Action Plan: How can I implement CBSL at my institution?
   The third and last part of the workshop will provide opportunities for participants to share and revisit stories, experiences and models from their institutions in small and large group formats; to ask questions and offer suggestions to overcome challenges. A final activity will ask participants to design and share plans for how they can follow-up on the theme of service after the conclusion of the symposium.

Workshop participants will leave with an understanding of the multiple discourses associated with CBSL, and with one strong model they can adapt and use in their world language programs. At the end of the session, workshop participants will be able to:

• Describe and understand what is at stake in CBSL for world languages programs and multilingual communities;
• List three program models and practices for world languages CBSL;
• Compare the language-focused CBSL programs at their institution with other schools’ programs;
• Create an action plan in response to the workshop content.

Christelle Palpacuer Lee, EdD, is an assistant teaching professor in Language Education in the Department of Learning and Teaching. Growing up in the rural south of France, Palpacuer Lee discovered that language opens up new worlds and opportunities through the study of English, German, French, and Latin. A first-generation college student, Palpacuer Lee studied North American Literatures and Civilizations at the Université Le Mirail in Toulouse, France where she focused on linguistics, literature and history. She then went on to earn her master’s degree in International Education and French as a Second Language from Université Lyon 2 in Lyon, France, and taught in England and India. Palpacuer Lee moved to the United States as the director of the French Resource Center, a position created by the Department of French at Rutgers and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy to support world language education in New Jersey. She later joined the Graduate School of Education here at Rutgers University and graduated with an EdD degree in Language Education.

6th Floor, Van Pelt Library

Check-in, pick up symposium materials, and enjoy some coffee.

Class of 1978 Pavilion Room 602

Christina Frei and Anne Pomerantz of the University of Pennsylvania will offer opening remarks.

Joan Clifford, Duke University
Deborah S. Reisinger, Duke University

Class of 1978 Pavilion Room 602

Community-based Language Learning (CBLL) occurs at the intersection of academic content, community engagement, and critical reflection. In this way, CBLL builds on foundational concepts of service learning and the 5Cs of language learning by creating connections with heritage and newcomer communities. This innovative framework incorporates transformative pedagogies that promote critical consciousness, global citizenship, and generative reciprocity.

CBLL offers a path to integrating social justice pedagogies into the language classroom by decentering constructs of knowledge and examining systems of power and privilege. As Henry Giroux writes (2011), "the force of [language's] importance has to be tied to its relevance as an empowering, emancipatory, and democratic function" (179). Giroux reminds us that we cannot treat language learning as simply a "technical issue" — studying linguistic patterns and memorizing vocabulary — but rather, we should see it as a way to engage in critical pedagogies in our classrooms and communities.

Joan Clifford, PhD, is Assistant Professor of the Practice in Spanish in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University and regularly offers Spanish service-learning courses that focus on education, global health, and identity. As Director of the Community-Based Language Initiative in Duke Service-Learning, she consults with faculty across disciplines and supports community-based learning in world language courses. Her research centers on community engaged pedagogies and intercultural competence. In 2019 she co-authored Community-based Language Learning: A Framework for Educators.

Deborah S. Reisinger, PhD, is Associate Professor of the Practice in French in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University. As Director of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum program, she oversees advanced language courses in global health, public policy, and environmental studies. Deb teaches service-learning courses on refugee resettlement and social entrepreneurship, and has authored articles on language pedagogy, intercultural competence, and French for Specific Purposes. She is co-author of Community-based Language Learning: A Framework for Educators (Georgetown Press 2019).

Joowon Suh, Columbia University

Meyerson Conference Room 223

The Senior and Youths (SAY) is a community-based language learning (CBLL) project, which enables learners of Korean in the US to practice conversational Korean with seniors residing in Korea through weekly one-on-one Skype calls. Community-based service activities, in general, emphasize learning processes that involve students in a wide range of experiences closely connected with communities and ultimately benefit community members as well as students. Through community-based service learning, students are to gain a deeper understanding and broader appreciation of the content and discipline and to achieve a heightened sense of civic responsibility. In this sense, the SAY not only enhances learners’ fluency and cultural competence in Korean but also allows participants to engage in enriching conversations by connecting people across cultural and generational divides.

The workshop focuses on the development of the project (i.e., background, structures, guidelines), its pedagogical implications, and potential applications of the project module to other foreign languages. Participants will obtain (1) insights into different ways CBLL projects can be implemented, (2) discuss the outcomes of such projects and their pedagogical implications, and (3) learn step-by-step guidelines and modules for designing a CBLL project for their own language classes and incorporating it into an existing language curriculum. In order to more effectively share the data and information with the audience, the project manuals, conversational excerpts, and sample video clips will be presented and supplemented by handouts. 

Joowon Suh (EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University) is a Senior Lecturer in Korean and the Director of the Korean Language Program in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Prior to joining Columbia in 2017, she taught at Princeton University as Senior Lecturer and Director of the Korean Language Program. She is presently working in collaboration to revise the KLEAR Integrated Korean Textbook Series and to create the third edition of the accompanying workbook series. She is currently serving as President of the American Association of Teachers of Korean. Her research interests include Korean linguistics and language pedagogy, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and interlanguage pragmatics.

Anne Pomerantz, University of Pennsylvania

Collaborative Classroom 113

Although many teachers are interested in working with communities, most have not formally studied experiential pedagogy… As a result, we teach from our gut, but also from our personal experience” (Clifford & Reisinger, 2019, p. 116).

In this workshop, I describe an academically based service-learning course that draws on theories and methods from linguistic ethnography and intercultural language teaching to engage pre-service language educators in a community-based tutoring project. Specifically, I describe how the course is designed to help language educators to identify, interpret, connect to, and reflect on the perspectives, products, and interactional practices they encounter in their community work. Workshop participants will be introduced to the principles guiding the design of the course and have an opportunity to experience typical course activities. In addition, workshop participants will discuss how language educators might draw on these same principals to design their own community-based, service-learning courses for language learners.

Anne Pomerantz is Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, where she works closely with language educators and intercultural specialists. Her research focuses on the role of humor in classroom discourse, pedagogical interactions, and language teaching. She is the co-author (with Nancy Bell) of Humor in the Classroom: A Guide for Language Teachers and Educational Researchers.

Moelis Reading Terrace, 6th Floor

Menu TBA

Marcy Schwartz, Rutgers University

Collaborative Classroom 113

This interactive workshop will offer participants tools for bridging “town” and “gown” in urban environments through world languages courses. First, the workshop will offer an overview of the evolution of service-learning and community engagement curricula in the U.S. since the early 1990s. Next, examples of dynamic service-learning opportunities in Spanish will explore how to use syllabi and assignment design to boost oral and cultural proficiency and generate creative and multimedia student projects. A discussion of how to guide reflection exercises, strategies for connecting assignments to community activities, and the challenges of community placement will demystify these key components of successful service-learning. Most of our time will be devoted to small group brain storming sessions to generate exciting concepts for linking language learning and the surrounding community in relation to each instructor’s local environment. The workshop will conclude with strategy sharing and collaborative design oriented to move from community-placed toward community-based learning and exchange.

Marcy Schwartz (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Rutgers University. She specializes in 20th century Latin American literature and culture, with particular emphasis on urban studies, exile, and photography.  Her current research concerns contemporary public reading programs in Latin American cities that rely on public space and urban infrastructure, the topic of her forthcoming book.

Lauriane Guihard, University of Pennsylvania 
Andrea Lloyd, University of Pennsylvania 
Fiona Moreno, University of Pennsylvania 
Sam Trossman, University of Pennsylvania 
Faustine Sun, University of Pennsylvania  

Class of 1955 Conference Room 241

This workshop will allow presenters and participants to collaboratively address what it can or should mean to engage in democratically developed, mutually transformative community partnership, using a Penn-based program as a case study.

The Francophone Community Partnership is a student-founded, student-run bilingual afterschool program that brings together French language learners at Penn and children from the Francophone diaspora attending West Philadelphia public schools for hour-long language practice and cultural exchange sessions. Since 2014, the program has provided 1st and 2nd-generation immigrant youth from French-speaking West Africa and college students learning French with a uniquely empowering learning space, enabling students to nurture each other’s language skills, confidence, and cultural awareness.

The workshop will provide an overview of the program’s short history, focusing on its original vision and mission, then move to discuss its implementation and “rocky”, yet successful, development. Presenters (former student volunteers and assistant leaders) will offer a tentative roadmap that participants could use to help jumpstart service-learning with their own classrooms.  They will share experience-based recommendations and open questions to illustrate the proposed framework as well as to raise awareness of obstacles and opportunities likely to emerge.

Jami Fisher, University of Pennylvania

Meyerson Conference Room 223

As world language instructors, we strive to expose our students to authentic, real-world language experiences and contexts to increase their cultural and linguistic competencies. Many students get these experiences through study abroad. But not everyone has the ability to study abroad nor does every program have a faraway place to send their language-learning students. In fact, most, if not all, of us have are able to give our students these real-world language experiences by engaging local language communities in Philadelphia.

This presentation and workshop will explore the foundations of integrating community-based learning into language classrooms that engage marginalized and oppressed language community members.  It will discuss the necessary pedagogical components and community-based resources to meaningfully engage community members with reciprocity and mutually beneficial ends. Two American Sign Language (ASL) Academically Based Community Service courses will be used as a model for discussion. In the end, workshop participants will develop ideas and first-step plans on integrating community-based learning and local community engagement into their own language courses.

Jami Fisher is the Director of the American Sign Language and Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, a position she has held since 2005.  She is a native ASL user and CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), born and raised in Philadelphia.  She has a BA in English and Education from Colby College, an MS Ed in Education, Culture, and Society and an EdD in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Her current academic interests include finding ways to integrate meaningful, collaborative, community-based activities and partnerships into ASL and Deaf Studies coursework as well as documenting and analyzing the Philadelphia variety of American Sign Language.

Class of 1978 Pavilion Room 602

The symposium will close with a panel discussion that brings all workshop leaders together with the participants and offers an opportunity to engage in a formal discussion.