Cornell, the only institution offering regular multilevel instruction in all six of the major Southeast Asian languages – Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai and Vietnamese – will host a conference on the teaching of these languages on Sept. 19-21.
“Cornell is bucking national trends and expanding our language programs in various ways, especially in support of less commonly taught languages,” said Abby Cohn, conference co-organizer, professor of linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP). “All the Southeast Asian languages are considered ‘less commonly taught,’ and this conference really highlights Cornell’s leadership in the field in less commonly taught languages.”
The conference, titled “Southeast Asian Language Instruction: Sustainability through Collaboration,” is being hosted by the Southeast Asia Program, a part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Asian Studies and the Language Resource Center (A&S). Cornell is a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) in Southeast Asian studies and works collaboratively with other Title VI centers across the U.S. to sustain and promote instruction in these languages to train future scholars and diplomats. The conference is funded partly through Title VI NRC funds.
The conference will serve as a capstone to a five-year pedagogy project led by the Southeast Asia Language Council (SEALC) with major funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, which is also supporting the conference. The project, “Professional and Materials Development to Strengthen Southeast Asian Language Instruction,” was aimed at improving both the quality and accessibility of language instruction. Through the course of the project language specific groups collaboratively developed assessment tools, pedagogical strategies and teaching materials.
The first day of the conference, “celebrating success” will showcase the achievements and impact of the project. The second day, “planning for national collaboration,” will be forward looking, laying out a framework for future collaborations in expanding access, strengthening resources, and advancing professionalization in Southeast Asian language instruction nationally.
The opening address, "Collaborative Curriculum Design in LCTLs: Student-Centered Multimodal Approaches Using Authentic Media," will be given by Dr. Oya Topçuoğlu Judd, associate professor of instruction in Turkish at Northwestern University. The talk will be held in Kauffman Auditorium followed by a reception at the Language Resource Center (A&S), Cornell’s hub for language instruction.
“Bringing together practitioners and scholars of less commonly taught languages is crucial in order to support and sustain language programs across the US,” said Angelika Kraemer, director of the Language Resource Center. “Topçuoğlu Judd contributed to our recent co-edited volume ‘Sharing Less Commonly Taught Languages in Higher Education: Collaboration and Innovation’ and her experiences with collaborating across languages will be invaluable to conference attendees.”
Cornell’s leading role in the instruction and development of pedagogical materials for less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) has a long history, starting with the founding of the Division of Modern Languages in 1946. Cornell’s roughly 45 languages are offered through eight departments/programs within A&S – the Africana Studies and Research Center and the Departments of Asian Studies, Classics, Comparative Literature, German Studies, Linguistics, Near Eastern Studies, and Romance Studies.
An additional 13 languages are received from Columbia and Yale Universities as part of the Shared Course Initiative (SCI), a collaboration between Cornell, Columbia and Yale to share instruction in some less commonly taught languages using high-definition videoconferencing. For example, Cornell shares its Bengali, Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Nepali, Sinhala and Yoruba classes with Columbia and Yale and receives classes in Czech, Dutch, Cherokee and Wolof, among others.
In the last few years, the College of Arts and Sciences has added American Sign Language, Cayuga, Turkish and Ukrainian language instruction to its curriculum.
“The Southeast Asian Language Instruction: Sustainability through Collaboration conference will mark a major milestone in advancing the field of Southeast Asian language education and reinforce Cornell’s commitment to global linguistic diversity and cross-cultural collaboration,” said SEAP director Marina Welker, professor of anthropology (A&S).
Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.
