ebulletin: December 2008
The monthly Subject Centre e-bulletin gives information on events, news items and newly available resources. Register if you would like to receive notification of future e-bulletins via email.
General interest
Date: 29 January, 2009 - 30 January, 2009
Location: Avenue Campus, University of Southampton
Event type: Symposium
Languages
Date: 9 January, 2009
Location: Room 1.20, Engineering Building, Malet Place, University College London
Event type: Workshop
Date: 14 January, 2009
Location: The Octagon Centre, Frenchay Campus, University of the West of England
Event type: Workshop
Date: 20 February, 2009
Location: Western Infirmary Seminar Rooms, Dumbarton Road, University of Glasgow, G11 6NT
Event type: Workshop
Date: 9 December, 2008
Location: British Library, Euston Road, London
Event type: Workshop
This is the 2nd National Modern Languages Training Day for research postgraduates, organised by the British Library's Higher Education Team in collaboration with the AHRC Research Training Network in Modern Languages based at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London. The day will include workshops on French, German, Hispanic, Italian and Slavonic and Eastern European bibliographic resources and collections. The full programme and booking form are available on the HE web pages of the British Library website.
Date: 12 June, 2009
Location: University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
Event type: Other
This is yearly competition organised by the School of Languages and Area Studies of the University of Portsmouth that enables foreign language students, and teaching staff, to submit creative type of work that is written in a language other than their mother-tongue. Whether a short story in French, a poem in Chinese or a song in Portuguese, the competition accepts entries in various creative writing genres and languages. Works can be produced both individually or in groups. The deadline for submissions is Friday, 12th June 2009. Submissions must be sent electronically before or on that date. The application form is available from the above website. Winners will receive money prizes and the best works will also be published in both a dedicated website, and in "Tonguefreed", the yearly publication of the Creative Writing in a Foreign Language project and competition. Judges judging the entries are made up of foreign language lecturers, tutors and teachers from both the FE and HE sectors. For more information, please see the conference website.
This European Commission funded project built on the concept of café culture to provide informal, social settings for people to get together, practise languages and share cultural interests. We developed a multilingual website which includes downloadable materials offering advice on setting up and joining a Language Cafe, publicity and sponsorship, and ideas for activities (www.languagecafe.eu).
Papers are invited for a forthcoming special issue of the Language Learning Journal, the official journal of the Association for Language Learning (ALL), on Languages of the Wider World: Valuing Diversity.
Date: 16 April, 2009 - 17 April, 2009
Location: Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG
Event type: Conference
This international conference is organised jointly by the UK SOAS-UCL Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Languages of the Wider World (LWW CETL) and the MERCATOR European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning of the Fryske Akademy, The Netherlands.
All people have the right to learn and use their mother-tongue, and to learn a second and third language. This formal right is often absent and its use in practice is often less well guaranteed and less developed than should be the case, especially for speakers of smaller languages variously labelled as ‘regional’, ‘minority’, ‘immigrant’, ‘community’ (including sign languages), ‘heritage’ languages, etc. The conference will focus on theoretical and empirical work in research and implementation of teaching and learning models and strategies for language learning. This conference will bring together researchers and practitioners from these various fields to define, analyse and explore new directions and paradigms for ‘Languages of the Wider World’. It will also provide opportunities for further research and future collaborations.
For further information, please visit the conference website or contact James Grindrod at j.grindrod@soas.ac.uk
Other news
This workshop introduces, on a theoretical and practical level, an innovative model of language teaching and learning using creative writing practice : http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/3093
The Diploma in Languages is an exciting new qualification for students aged 14 to 19, which is due to be launched in schools from 2011. Six regional events are taking place to consult on the draft Line of Learning Statements for the Diploma in Languages – alongside Statements for the other Phase 4 Diplomas in Science and Humanities. These events follow on from previous consultation events in September and October and give a final opportunity for those in business, schools, higher education, further education and other stakeholders to feed back on the proposed Line of Learning Statement for the Diploma in Languages.
Events are listed at www.qca.org.uk/qca_19767.aspx and are taking place at:
Leeds (15 January)
Newcastle (19 January)
Manchester (20 January)
Birmingham (23 January)
Bristol (27 January)
London (30 January)
In order to receive an invitation to consultation events for the Diploma in Languages, you need to register at the QCA website www.qca.org.uk/diplomaphase4. For more information on the Diploma in Languages, visit www.diploma-in-languages.co.uk
Bristol City Council collaboration with LLAS leads to European Award shortlist
The City of Bristol was shortlisted for the European Regional Champions Awards 2008 in the category of Intercultural Dialogue. The two-day conference 'Intercultural Dialogue: The Way Forward'
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/archive/2914 was a collaboration between the Subject Centre, the University of the West of England and Bristol City Council.
A Changing World: the internationalisation experiences of staff and students (home and international) in UK Higher Education The Higher Education Academy funded project conducted by ESCalate and LLAS investigated how staff and students viewed internationalisation and to explore how an internationalised curriculum might look from the perspective of different disciplines. Fifteen focus groups were run with staff and with students, both home and international, to listen to their views on what internationalisation meant to them, how it had influenced teaching and learning, and what challenges and successes they had experienced. Participants came from a range of disciplines and from across he UK. The report is available at :
16 January 2008, University College London
Please note the details of the next plenary meeting of UCML. The meeting is open to all colleagues whose institutions are members of UCML.
11.30 – 13.30
This will be a meeting where issues of concern to the HE languages community will be discussed.
14.00 – 16.00
Debate: Language study and Internationalisation
Keynote speakers:
Kate Board, CEO, CILT, the National Centre for Languages
Professor Michael Worton, Vice Provost, University College London
A full agenda for the morning’s meeting will be posted on the UCML website in the New Year.
For more information, email: ucml@soton.ac.uk
