SWCOLT 2025

Elevate language instruction through dynamic classroom routines! Join us for this presentation that delves into the pivotal role of classroom routines in fostering student engagement. This session explores the integration of enjoyable and purposeful routines across novice and intermediate levels that promote student agency while enhancing students’ interpersonal, interpretive, presentational, and intercultural communication skills. Discover how these routines not only create a conducive, disruption-free environment but also streamline planning for educators, leaving students enthused and prepared. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with the tools and confidence to kickstart these enriching routines in your own classroom, ensuring a promising start "on Monday."

Presenters: Ngan Ha Ta & Jennifer Stevens

While increasing in both need for and number of programs, heritage language classes remain challenging to teach because of the diversity of heritage learners, the lack of teacher training, and the lack of available resources for many educators. "Conectando con confianza" will offer teachers specific texts and activities that can be implemented right away to help heritage learners of varying abilities build both skills and a sense of efficacy, as well as generalized strategies that can be used with a variety of texts all year long.

Presenters: Melissa Bullard & Paulina Rios

In this session teachers will take their routine lessons from drab to FAB! You don't need to alter your instruction, you just need a pair of scissors and a playful mindset to gamify your instruction. This session shows you how gamification leads to engagement and engagement leads to learning. You will walk away with useful, editable templates for instruction, learning, and getting kids SPEAKING in the target language.

Interpersonal communication affects the hearts, minds, and actions of individuals as they function in the everyday social world (Braithwaite, Schrodt 2015). This workshop focuses on interpersonal communication strategies and activities that enhance instructional practices. Participants will discover and practice applications and techniques that will increase their students' engagement in developing their interpersonal speaking skills.

Teachers’ mental health and well-being are just as important as our students’, and a network of positive peers is one key to longevity and success as a teacher. Join this session to learn how to be a “marigold”, prioritize positivity in your life, and implement strategies for finding your own “marigold moments”: those key moments of uplifting joy. Outcomes: Attendees will be able to 1) define the concepts of “marigolds” and “walnut trees” from the Cult of Pedagogy blog article, 2) identify characteristics and actions of “marigolds” that support others, and 3) explore methods of mindfulness to sustain their own optimism and well-being.

In this presentation participants will be introduced to a simple, yet highly effective tool named “Oral assessment”. Its goal is to provide teachers with meaningful, relevant data regarding their students’ vocabulary and speaking abilities early on and throughout the school year. Oftentimes, parents don’t have clarity in their child’s ability in the second language or find themselves unsure of their children’s progress, and that’s where the Oral Assessment comes in: Teachers can benefit from this tool as it provides consistent, visual data that will improve students’ awareness, parents’ perception and teacher interventions. With it, teachers can pre-test (and post-test) their students individually, collect data, plan shared goals with the students, and present such data to parents and the school community effectively.

Discover strategies to maximize teacher-intern partnerships through clear expectations, constructive feedback, open-mindedness, and defined classroom roles. Enhance collaboration and effectiveness in World Language Education by ensuring teachers and interns thrive in a supportive and productive learning environment. Participants will leave with practical ideas for productive collaboration from a recent mentor-intern partnership!

Presenters: Madison Rubino & Taylor Neihoff

Your favorite no-tech gaming session is back, and it's been sipping on Yerba Mate! Get ready for a lively and engaging session full of all new no-tech language learning games, and most importantly, without any of those devices giving you and your students tech-neck! We’ll cover some strategies and no-tech gaming to keep language fun and comprehensible, infusing a memorable experience for you and your students! This is not a sit-and-get session; we will be up and moving around for more than half of the session. Be ready to make new friends!

In this session, we will explore neuroscience research on how knowledge is learned and retained, particularly in language acquisition. Participants will discover how the human brain can change and grow through neuroplasticity and gain insights into the mechanisms of memory. Additionally, we will uncover the "why" behind various language activities, enhancing understanding of their effectiveness. Most importantly, the presenter will share proven strategies for actively engaging students with the target language, along with practical tips to make language learning enjoyable and dynamic. This session aims to equip educators with valuable insights and tools to enhance their language teaching practices through the lens of euroscience.

Providing personalized feedback on world language speaking skills for every student can be challenging in traditional classrooms. Many students don’t speak enough, struggle to find the right words, and often feel less engaged as a result. AI offers a solution, preparing students for real-life conversations and building their confidence.
What will we discuss?

• The challenges of providing individualized speaking feedback in classroom settings
• How AI can encourage more frequent and natural conversational practice
• Methods for using AI to deliver personalized feedback to each student

How to incorporate AI-powered speaking practice in homework, oral testing and cultural enrichment