Penn Language Center

9th Language Educator Symposium Sponsored by Penn Language Center (PLC) and the Educational Linguistics Division at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (GSE)

As language educators, we spend a significant amount of time, energy, and resources preparing students for authentic, immersive language learning experiences in foreign contexts. Yet there are opportunities to connect language learning and teaching with the lives and experiences of local language communities and organizations. As community-based service learning gains traction throughout the university curriculum, language educators are asking:

• How do I design, integrate and lead community-based service learning initiatives at my institution?
• How can I identify and ensure that these initiatives are responsive to the needs and desires of both language learners and community members?
• What kinds of pedagogical activities can I incorporate into my instructional design to support both my students’ language development and their abilities to think critically and conscientiously about the community-based work they are participating in?

This symposium aims to address these questions on as well as implications for integrating community-based service learning into the language classroom. Theoretical and practical models will frame discussions developing modules and courses in your own classrooms and programs. In the end, participants will have clear takeaways of how to engage local language communities in ethical and pedagogically sound ways.

Please join us for a day of lectures, workshops, and conversation on these and other big questions on the theme of service-learning in world language education.

ACT 48 credit available (earn up to 7 hours).

Continue to the symposium website for program details.