SALRC Workshop
Action Research in the South Asia Language Classroom

National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) Annual Conference
Madison, WI

Madison Concourse Hotel, Room 638


Introduction

This workshop is intended for South Asian language teachers who want to develop new ways of teaching or improve current methods. The workshop will introduce participants to the concept of action research: how to test out and document teaching innovation for improving teaching or eventual publication. It will include: ways to identify what needs to be studied; how to involve students in research process; how to ask institutions for formal approval to do classroom research; how to track and organize the steps of the study; and key issues to address when writing the findings up for publication. Discussion will engage participants in brainstorming about possible action research projects, with suggestions on how to get started on them.

Sally Sieloff Magnan will lead this workshop.

Dr. Sally Sieloff Magnan is Professor of French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A leader in foreign language education and second language acquisition, Dr. Magnan is Director of the UW-Madison Language Institute, Co-Director of the UW-Madison Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition, and past editor of The Modern Language Journal (1996-2007). She is a co-developer of an online methods course for teaching LCTLs and author of a first-year college textbook (Paroles, Wiley). She is the recipient of excellence in teaching awards, including the 2005 ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Excellence in Post-Secondary Education.


Schedule

Saturday, April 26

8 AM Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM Topics: What is action research?
Human Subjects approval
Activities around researchable questions: surveys
12:30 PM Lunch (Brought In)
1:30 PM Activities around researchable questions: online instruction, chat
Dissemination and the Publication process
Writing Grants
Participants suggest personal projects
4 PM Participants rejoin NCOLCTL

Participants

Syed Ali, University of Michigan
Anand Dwivedi, Syracuse University
Vijay Gambhir, University of Pennsylvania
Bimla Gour, University of Virginia
Shahnaz Hassan, UT Austin
Gabriela Ilieva, New York University
Qamar Jalil, UW Madison
Seema Khurana, Yale University
Rajesh Kumar, UT Austin
Tahira Naqvi, New York University
Rubab Qureshi, University of Pennsylvania
Rakesh Ranjan, Emory University
Brajesh Samarth, UW Madison
Dwight Stephens, NC Center for SA Studies
Jishnu Shankar, UT Austin
Kashika Singh, UW Madison
Vijay Thakur, University of Michigan
Steven Poulos, South Asia Language Resource Center
Sean Pue, South Asia Language Resource Center
Sharon Dickson, UW Madison


Powerpoint

Click here for the Powerpoint of this workshop.