Presenters & Abstracts

Focused Panel1: Lightning Showcases

OER in Action: Practical Applications and Strategies for Language Educators

  • LCTLs and OERs: Collaboration and Innovation 

In this short panel presentation, the focus will be on three central questions: Why are OERs important, especially for LCTLs? What work has been done on LCTL OERs in recent years on projects/centers at MSU? How can you start in your journey to use and make OERs? The presentation will highlight specific examples from the LCTL and Indigenous Languages Partnership, the National LCTL Resource Center, and other centers at Michigan State University. Finally, audience members will be reminded of the values of open pedagogy and basic principles to keep in mind when seeking out, using, and creating OERs.  

Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel is an Academic Specialist at the Center for Language Teaching Advancement and the Associate Executive Director of the National LCTL Resource Center at Michigan State University. Her research interests include foreign language proficiency, educational technology and online instruction, curriculum design, LCTL education, and education abroad topics.(Website )

  • Initiative of Heritage Language OER Teaching and Learning Module Repository (Yale Team of HLs)

This presentation showcases an initiative to develop an Open Educational Resource (OER) repository for heritage language (HL) teaching and learning lesson modules.  A collaborative effort by colleagues from the Yale Heritage Language Community, —Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and Korean programs, this project aims to create comprehensive modules focused on critical heritage themes. Each module is designed with language-specific examples, yet designed for easy adaptation and applicability across languages, focusing on universal learning design (UDL). HL teachers can seamlessly adapt and apply these modules in their language teaching contexts. Further, each module appropriately integrates AI assistance to increase teaching and learning efficiency.

(*In alphabetical order of the languages they teach.)

Sarab Al Ani is Yale’s Arabic Language Program director, teaching there since 2009. She is an author, pedagogy blogger, and ACTFL-certified tester/rater for OPI, ILR, and AAPPL Arabic proficiency tests.

Ninghui Liang has taught Chinese at Yale since 2002, served as the Chinese Program coordinator, and is currently a board director of CLTA and a certified ACTFL OPI Tester.

Peisong Xu, a senior lector II, has taught at Yale since 2002, served as Chinese program coordinator, and currently coordinates advanced heritage courses, reads AP exams, and conducts teacher training.

Mansi Bajaj (she/ her) is working on strengthening the Hindi program at the MacMillan Center, Yale University. She is one of the two winners of 2024 MAFLT LCTL Innovation Award.

Angela Lee-Smith is Senior Lector II and Coordinator of the Korean Program at Yale University. Her practice includes curriculum design, materials development, and proficiency assessments (Certified ACTFL OPI, WPT, AAPPL tester/rater).

  • Designing Effective OER: A Case of the You Speak Korean OER Textbook Series

Open Educational Resources (OER) have revolutionized language education by making quality materials accessible, disseminable, and adaptable. This presentation introduces a collaborative project focused on developing an open-source Korean language textbook series for novice and intermediate learners. This four-year project will provide participants with essential OER creation principles, practical development and dissemination guidelines, and strategies for fostering open educational practices. Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) in OER materials is also addressed, thus highlighting the project’s comprehensive approach to modern language resource development.

Haewon Cho is a Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages and Korean Language Program Director at the University of Pennsylvania, specializes in languages for specific purposes, interculturality, and Korean language pedagogy.

Mijeong Kim, Ed.D. is a Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Washington University in St. Louis.

Angela Lee-Smith is Senior Lector II and Coordinator of the Korean Program at Yale University. She serves on the MLA Program Committee and as an officer of the AATK.

  •  Columbia Team of LCTLs: (*In alphabetical order of the languages they teach.)

1) Open Hindi Educational Resources 

 Hindi is the third largest spoken language in the world and is the most popular South Asian Language in America. Currently, there are more Hindi heritage learners than foreign language learners here. The tapestry of Hindi Heritage learners is rich and diverse. We have identified three categories-Ancestral Heritage Learners, Cognate Heritage Learners, and Non-cognate Heritage Learners. Learners’ needs and proficiencies vary. Thus, it is challenging for teachers to teach in a mix-class. More than hundred newly created Hindi and Urdu modules (http://hindistartalk.lrc.columbia.edu/), (http://urduaiis.lrc.columbia.edu/), and (https://indiafestivals.lrc.columbia.edu/) serve as  innovative open educational  resources (OER) for all types of Hindi learners. Modules are short, unscripted, unrehearsed, and offer samples of spontaneous and authentic Hindi speeches. My presentation will show how to use them in classrooms for hand on sessions.

Rakesh Ranjan, by training a linguist, has been teaching courses in Hindi language, literature, and pedagogy for more than 25 years at all levels to American graduate and undergraduate students.

2) Teaching Tibetan as a Foreign Language: Challenges and Opportunities in OER

This presentation explores the challenges of teaching Tibetan as a foreign language in higher education, focusing on the barriers and opportunities in Open Educational Resources (OER). Key issues include technological limitations and the scarcity of effective textbooks. Despite advances like Google Translate for Tibetan and Monlam AI, gaps remain in developing multimedia teaching tools. To address these challenges, I have developed textbooks and curated YouTube videos with Tibetan subtitles, aligned with ACTFL guidelines, and made them publicly available on platforms like YouTube and Quizlet. I will also discuss future prospects for expanding OER and invite collaboration to enhance resources for Tibetan language instruction.

Sonam Tsering is the Director of the Tibetan Language Program at Columbia University. His pedagogical research interests include curriculum design and development, cultural competency, interdisciplinary language learning, and the creation and integration of Open Educational Resources.

3) Development of an OER textbook for intermediate Vietnamese learners using a task-based approach          Created by four Vietnamese lecturers from Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, UC San Diego, and Columbia University. This collaborative project addresses the diverse needs of their students and the lack of OER materials available for teaching and learning Vietnamese. The presentation will share the outcomes from piloting the materials, showcasing the practical applications of OER and task-based methods in Vietnamese language education.

Chung Nguyen is the Director of the Vietnamese Language Program at Columbia University. Her research focuses on curriculum development, language materials, and the use of innovative teaching strategies to support diverse learners and enhance student engagement and learning.

  • Developing OER for teaching and assessment: The case of Vietnamese

In this presentation, I will discuss three projects to develop OER for Vietnamese language teachers. The first, sponsored by the Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC), involved creating reading and listening assessment materials with SEA language teachers. The second SEALC-funded project focused on developing task-based language teaching (TBLT) materials for Vietnamese. Both sets of materials will be released under a Creative Commons license. Finally, I’ll share my contribution to the TBLT Language Learning Task Bank, an open-access repository for task-based materials funded by the International Association for Task-based Language Teaching and Learning.

Hoa Le is Senior Preceptor of Vietnamese and Director of the Vietnamese language program at Harvard University. Her research focuses on technology-mediated TBLT, SLA, teacher education, and heritage language learners.

  • O.E.R. as a common ground: Mapping the landscape for collaboration across languages, levels and institutions   

Despite the focus in creating OER materials to respond to the specific needs of a class or context, we further need to promote transformational uses of OER. The presentation argues for both top-down and a bottom-up strategies to maximize OER practices that go beyond the classroom and across languages, levels, and institutions. An example for each will be provided, and the background of the initiatives will be analyzed as means for identifying and extracting relevant strategies that may lead to similar initiatives. The Open Pedagogy framework will also be discussed as a point of reference to the overall presentation.

Emilia Illana is a Spanish Lecturer at Cornell University. Her pedagogical projects combine her specialty in Second Language Acquisition and her interests in OER, Task-based language teaching, and Social Justice. 

Focused Panel 2: Language Centers and Consortium/Inter-Institutional Support

(*In alphabetical order of their institution)

  • Catherine Baumann, Director, Chicago Language Center, University of Chicago
  • Stephane Charitos, Director, Language Resource Center, Columbia University
  • Angelika Kraemer, Director, Language Resource Center, Cornell University and President of the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning
  • Jamie Rankin, Director, Center for Language Study, Princeton University
  • Mary Jo Lubrano, Associate Director, Center for Language Study, Yale University