January 2012 e-bulletin - LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

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Dear colleague,  


Welcome to the LLAS e-bulletin for January 2012. Click here to see this email on the LLAS website.

We would like to apologise if you tried to contact us via email or visit our websites last week. The University of Southampton IT systems underwent maintenance which caused the email systems and most websites to go down. 

Message from the Director

The team at LLAS wishes all our friends and partners a happy and successful New Year. 2012 will not be an easy year for any of us, and we expect that it will remain a real challenge to persuade policy makers and funders that languages are a valuable asset. But we know that the only way to establish deep and enduring relationships in Europe and internationally is to understand share each other's languages and cultures. At LLAS we will do what we can through professional development and collaborative projects to help colleagues in the area of languages, linguistics and area studies to make a real difference in the year ahead.

Mike Kelly (follow Mike on Twitter at @ProfMikeKelly)
Director, LLAS Centre for languages, linguistics and area studies

This month's e-bulletin in brief

In the news

7th annual elearning symposium - 26th/27th January, 2012
Places still available! Register now at http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6395. This year’s symposium is bigger than ever with keynotes from Professor Claire Warwick, Dr Mark Stansfield and Margaret Southgate on humanities in the digital world, games-based learning and language teaching in blended contexts. With speakers from across the globe and a live demo from Newcastle’s digital kitchen project, it will be an event to remember! We also have four workshops running on day one, on topics ranging from digital literacy, innovative uses for interactive whiteboards and Moodle, and making movies for language learning. Join us - we look forward to seeing you!

The Framework for the National Curriculum - A report by the Expert Panel for the National Curriculum review
The following report has recently been published and may be of interest to you.
Full report of the Expert Panel available at http://jsavage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/FINAL-Expert-Panel-Report.pdf

The Higher Education Academy
The latest funding opportunities from the Higher Education Academy can be found at www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding

A UK Survey for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
As demonstrated in the recent LLAS report (www.llas.ac.uk/resources/paper/6481), the National Student Survey (NSS) is taking on more importance at the institutional level. However, in discussions with lecturers and students, it is apparent that many of the NSS questions are ambiguous and it is difficult to derive data which can truly provide information about the disciplinary experience. Moreover, there are no specific questions for joint honours students so students are unable to report on different experiences with language and non-language subjects or different experiences of learning different languages.

LLAS is proposing to develop a UK-wide survey of students of languages and related subjects. The survey would include discipline-specific questions on year abroad experiences (where applicable), L2 teaching, progress, and confidence, resources and technology, curriculum content. Data collection policies and the publication of results from would be under the same terms as the National Student Survey.

There will be a small charge for institutions wishing to take part in the survey. If you are interested in participating, please contact John Canning j.canning@soton.ac.uk


News from the University Council of Modern Languages :

UCML – Plenary meeting on 13 January 2012
The January Plenary meeting of UCML will take place on Friday of this week, 13 January, at the London School of Economics. Institutions and Associations who are members of UCML are welcome to send representatives to this meeting, which includes an afternoon workshop on Languages graduates and employability. For more details go to the UCML website www.ucml.ac.uk . Attendance is free of charge. To register, email ucml@soton.ac.uk. 

British Association for Applied Linguistics - BAAL
45th Annual Meeting - Multingual Theory and Practice in Applied Linguistics
6 - 8 September 2012 - University of Southampton
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN
http://www.llas.ac.uk/baal2012
 

LLAS blog 

15 ways to get ahead in your career in LLAS in 2012. John Canning, LLAS

  1. Come along to the annual e-symposium at the University of Southampton on 27-28 January.
  2. Submit a paper and attend the LLAS/ UCML/ AULC conference in Edinburgh on 5-6 July 2012.
  3. If you are new to teaching in higher education come along to our new staff workshop on 12 April 2012.
  4. Watch out for our annual Heads of Department workshop in September 2012 (date to be confirmed). 
  5. Learn to create online learning materials using our LOC tool. There is a workshop in London on 17 April. If that’s not convenient ask us about running a workshop where you are.


Click here for the full post

The LLAS brochure

Please find a brochure detailing LLAS events for the coming academic year 2011-2012 here. This brochure contains details of all of our events for 2011/12 which include:

  • Practical workshops providing skills development and training in a range of fields such as the use of new technologies, pedagogic research, language teaching, relating theory to practice
  • Conferences on a range of themes including languages in higher education, e-learning and languages of the wider world
  • Professional development events aimed at early career lecturers, senior managers, subject specialists in LLAS disciplines, postgraduate students and language teachers
  • Bespoke events for departments on any of the themes covered in this brochure

We are also attaching a flyer about LLAS activity, which you might like to forward to colleagues.

Call for papers

Language Futures: Languages in Higher Education conference 2012 - DEADLINE EXTENDED to 23 January 2012
5-6 July 2012 -  Edinburgh
www.llas.ac.uk/events/6404

LLAS Why study languages? calendar

FREE calendar download: This calendar, for the month of January 2011, in Icelandic, was produced by LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies. It was created with help from teachers working on the JISC-funded Community Cafe project. Look out for another language next month Quiz questions and answers are also included. This is the fifth of a 16-month series lasting until Dec 2012. Please visit : http://languagebox.ac.uk/2021/. You can find all months so far at http://languagebox.ac.uk/1991/. 

Hard copies available to purchase: This is the fourth year that the popular ‘Why Study Languages?’ calendar has been produced. The January-December 2012 calendar features 12 languages, one per month. Languages featured this year include: Icelandic, Gaelic, Urdu, Spanish, Persian, French, Punjabi, Estonian, Malay, Hungarian, Welsh and German.

The calendar is available for FREE, with a charge of £3.50 for postage and packing.  Funding from JISC has made this possible. For more information, please go to http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/calendar

Forthcoming events 


JANUARY 2012

Theory and Practice in Vocabulary Learning and Teaching Last few places available
20 January 2012 – University of Reading
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6416

Blended learning for languages.  How to successfully integrate technology into everyday teaching JANUARY OFFER- £20 off this workshop - BOOK NOW!
23 January 2012 – University of Bristol
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6449

E-Learning Symposium 2012
26-27 January 2012 - University of Southampton
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6395

FEBRUARY 2012

Maximising the use of your VLE for language learning and teaching
8 February 2012 – Coventry University
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6423

Using facebook for (language) teaching
14 February 2012 – University College London
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6414

Teach for Success : supporting international students in the classroom
15 February 2012 - Bath Spa University
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6522

MARCH 2012

Effective language teaching in the virtual classroom
1 March 2012 – The Open University and 9 March 2012 – online 
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6418

Revolution and Revolt : Understanding the Forms and Causes of Change – BRISMES Annual Conference 2012
26–28 March 2012 – London School of Economics and Political Science
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6487

Sustaining a Global Society : Languages of the Wider World
29-30 March 2012 – School of Oriental and African Studies, London
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6408

APRIL 2012

Life and work in academia : event for new and aspiring lecturers in languages, linguistics and area studies
12 April 2011 - Aston University Conference Centre, Birmingham
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6398

The LOC tool for teachers : authoring your own online learning materials
17 April 2012 - University College London
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6495

MAY 2012

Essential e-Learning Skills for Teachers of Non-Latin Languages
8 May 2012 - Manchester Metropolitan University
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6518

JULY 2012

The LOC tool for teachers : authoring your own online learning materials
4 July  - University of Southampton
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6500

Language Futures: Languages in Higher Education conference 2012 - CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE EXTENDED to 23 January 2012
5-6 July 2012 -  University of Edinburgh
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6404

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LLAS Centre for languages, linguistics and area studies 
University of Southampton | Avenue Campus | Southampton | SO17 1BJ 
p: +44 (0) 23 8059 4814 | f: +44 (0) 23 8059 4815 | llas@soton.ac.uk
www.llas.ac.uk

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