Mari Bodensteiner, lecturer in English and Languages, is serving as an Alumni Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State English Language Fellow Program. Bodensteiner was a fellow in Laos from 2015-17 and was selected for this prestigious role based on her distinguished work during her fellowship and the contribution she has made to the TESOL community, both abroad and in the United States post-fellowship. Learn more.
Professor Bodensteiner gave a presentation titled "The World Is Your Classroom: Teaching Abroad" at the Wisconsin Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages conference Nov. 16 in Oshkosh. Bodensteiner's presentation centered on her experience teaching in Southeast Asia.
Mari Bodensteiner and Ami Christensen, coordinator, Intensive English Program; and Dr. Kelly Wonder, director, McNair Program, each have served as fellows in the English Language Programs of the U.S. Department of State. The three recently received grants and were recognized as outstanding program alumni at the 50th-anniversary celebration of the program. They also participated in a public diplomacy dialogue that focused on how English language programming can address global issues emphasizing countering disinformation, workforce development, and women's and girls' equity issues.
Professor Bodensteiner gave a presentation titled “Creating Communicative Grammar Activities to Engage Your Learners” at the Minnesota English Learner Education Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Nov. 23.
Professor Bodensteiner has been elected to serve a two-year term on the Wisconsin Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WITESOL) board.
Professor Bodensteiner presented at the 45th annual Illinois Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Bilingual Education (ITBE) Conference Feb. 28-29 in Lisle, Illinois. She was invited to share her experience working with the U.S. Department of State's English Language Programs.
Professor Bodensteiner was invited by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to host a webinar titled "Teachers Working Together: A Successful Community of Practice." International English language educators from around the globe participated in the live-streamed event on March 11. The previously recorded webinar can be viewed online.
Professor Bodensteiner hosted a webinar April 28 on cultivating creativity through storytelling strategies for English language educators in the U.S. The webinar was the first of a three-part series sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Professor Bodensteiner hosted a webinar May 26 on cultivating human connections and community through meaningful dialogue for English language educators in the U.S. The webinar was the second of a three-part series sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Josh Brown, associate professor of German and linguistics, co-edited "Selected Proceedings of the Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas," published by Cascadilla Press. In addition, his paper, titled "Postvernacular Dutch in Wisconsin," co-authored with 2019 Spanish, biology and linguistics graduate Rachyl Hietpas (now a master's student at Penn State) also appeared in the publication.
Dr. Brown presented "The Diachronicity of Minneapolis's Linguistic Landscape" at the 10th Annual Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas hosted by Østfold University College Oct. 10-12 in Halden, Norway.
Dr. Brown edited a special issue (Vol. 5, Issue 2) of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics. In addition to his introduction to the issue, titled "Historical Heritage Language Ego-Documents: From Home, From Away, and From Below," he also contributed the article "Civil War Writings of the Pennsylvania Dutch."
Dr. Brown and Dr. Jessica Miller, professor of French, both in the department of languages, gave presentations in a panel titled "R & R: How to Recruit & Retain Post-Secondary Students" at the annual conference of the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers Nov. 1 in Appleton.
Dr. Brown had his article, titled "The Changing Sociolinguistic Identities of the Beachy Amish-Mennonites" published in Vol. 7, issue 1 of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies.
Dr. Brown gave an invited lecture, "Heritage Language Shift in Amish Appalachia," Dec. 16 for the faculty of languages at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Ami Christensen, Intensive English Program coordinator and lecturer in languages, conducted a U.S. Department of State American English live teacher development session titled "Making Reading Fun: Engaging Pre-Reading Activities for ELLs" twice on May 20. The combined reach of both sessions across various platforms was over 540,000. Posted videos of the sessions on Facebook have been viewed over 100,000 times with 48,309 engagements, 9,229 reactions, 10,769 comments and 534 shares. Countries with top viewership were the Philippines, Nepal, Peru and Mexico.
Dr. Marcela Depiante, associate professor of Spanish in the department of languages, presented a paper titled "An analysis of Orphan Prepositions in Spanish" at the 2019 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium Oct. 26 at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Dr. Depiante gave an invited presentation titled "Null VPs in Spanish/English Bilinguals" Nov. 7 at the Centre for Research in Language Development throughout the Lifespan (LaDeLi) in the department of language and linguistics at the University of Essex, United Kingdom. Depiante currently is on sabbatical from UW-Eau Claire and is serving as a visiting fellow at the University of Essex for the month of November.
Dr. Depiante gave an invited talk, "Stressed Prepositions in Spanish," Dec. 12 at the Gogo Elebiduna/The Bilingual Mind Research Group in the department of linguistics and Basque studies at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, where she currently is a visiting scholar.
On July 3, Dr. Depiante presented a paper titled “On silent PLACE in a variety of Spanish” at the 50th Linguistics Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 50) organized by the University of Texas at Austin. LSRL 50 originally was scheduled to take place April 9-11 in Austin, Texas, but was canceled due to COVID-19 and was rescheduled and moved online to July 1-3 and July 6-8.
Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz, associate professor of Ojibwe in the department of languages, was among the guests on Wisconsin Public Radio's "The West Side" Dec. 2 to discuss Native American heritage and local efforts to preserve and expand understanding of First Nations people. Learn more and listen.
Dr. Anne Cummings Hlas, professor of Spanish in the department of languages, gave the plenary presentation at the Iowa World Language Association Conference Oct. 5 in Iowa City, Iowa. The title of her talk was "Creativity in the World Language Classroom."
Dr. Hlas presented a session titled "Designing Tasks for Interaction" at the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers conference Nov. 2 in Appleton. UW-Eau Claire alumna Cammy Rathsack ’16 received the prestigious Frank M. Grittner Award at the same conference. This award is presented to new members of the language teaching profession who demonstrate excellence in teaching and leadership. In addition, alumna Cheynne Bonincontri ’19 received the Future Language Teacher Award.
The department of languages was well represented at this year's convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, held Nov. 22-24 in Washington, D.C. Following are the UW-Eau Claire faculty participants and their presentation titles: Dr. Anne Hlas, professor of Spanish, presented “Teacher's Toolbox: Designing Tasks for Interaction” and co-led the ACTFL Teacher Development SIG Social Gathering and Business Meeting. Dr. Martina Lindseth, professor of German, co-presented a session titled “Before the Wall Fell, Part I: Stories on Life and Youth Culture in the GDR” along with Bettina Hoeninger (Courtland High School) and Anja Moore (Hickory High School). Dr. Kaishan Kong, assistant professor of Chinese, presented “Using Extempore and FlipGrid to Create Speaking Projects in Chinese Class” and co-led the ACTFL Teaching and Learning of Culture Special Interest Group Business Meeting.
Dr. Paul J. Hoff, professor of Spanish and language education in the department of languages, is a contributing writer to the annotated teacher’s editions of the following textbooks: ¡Qué chévere! 1, ¡Qué chévere! 2 and ¡Qué chévere! 3, second edition. The textbooks were published by Carnegie Learning, EMC World Languages, Pittsburgh, 2020.
Dr. Hoff gave the presentation "Caprichos and Caprichosos in the Age of Trump: The Continuing Relevance of Francisco de Goya's Social Commentary" at the fall conference of the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures, held Oct. 25-26 in Plymouth, Minnesota.
Dr. Hoff presented the session "The UW System World Language Placement Tests" at the fall conference of the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers, held Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in Appleton. The session co-presenters were Sonya Sedivy (UW Center for Placement Testing), Laura Anderson (UW-Platteville) and Tobias Barske (UW-Stevens Point).
Dr. Kaishan Kong, assistant professor of Chinese, co-authored a paper titled "A case study of engaging and reflective teaching practices in a Chinese bilingual summer camp," which appeared in Vol. 25, No. 1 of Learning Languages, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Network for Early Language Learning.
Dr. Kong has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to teach in China. Learn more about Dr. Kong’s achievement.
Dr. Kong co-presented with two other Chinese language educators, Mohan Shang, Lakes International Academy, Minnesota, and Hongjuan Zhou, Breck School, Minnesota, at the Chinese Language Teachers Association of North Carolina annual conference on Sept. 5. The presentation, titled “Translanguaging pedagogy used in online Chinese-based summer camp,” was pre-recorded for the virtual conference.
Dr. Jessica Sertling Miller, professor of French in the department of languages, had her review of the textbook "Grammaire Progressive du Français" published in The French Review, 93(2), 240-241.
Dr. Miller gave an invited presentation on her experience using H5P, a teaching and learning HTML5 platform, for the monthly webinar of the International Association for Language Learning Technology on Dec. 12.
Dr. Miller passed the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) tester certification process, a rigorous training and certification program offered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). ACTFL OPI certification is a highly valued professional credential that is recognized nationally and internationally. It demonstrates an understanding of the principles and concepts of oral proficiency testing, including the ability to apply theory to practice and to elicit and rate oral proficiency interviews with a high degree of reliability.
Congratulations to Dr. Miller for completing the EDI Tier 3 professional development program. Dr. Miller completed 10 or more Tier 2 sessions and a project, “Decolonizing the French Curriculum,” within her scope of duties to help improve EDI on campus.
UW-Eau Claire’s French program recently was designated as an Exemplary Program with Honors by the American Association of Teachers of French. The program is one of 10 in the nation to receive the award in 2020. UW-Eau Claire also received the award in 2017. “Thanks to its excellent program, UW-Eau Claire, which offers language learning from beginning to advanced courses, has increased its enrollment in French throughout the past four years,” wrote the AATF in its award notification letter. “The program makes use of innovative and creative methods in teaching language and culture, and gives standards-based assessments to meet university and national outcomes. Its faculty members show excellent preparation and enthusiastic dedication to their work.” Learn more.
Dr. Emilia Oswalt, senior lecturer in languages, had her review of Dr. V. Khairoulline's book "Analysis of Novels by F.M. Dostoyevsky and their Translations into English: Basic Parameters of Reality" (Moscow, URSS/Lenand, 2019. 136 PP. ISBN 978-5-9710-6154-0) published in the Professional Discourse & Communication, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2019.
Dr. José Valero, professor of languages, had his review of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos' "El Pelayo. Tragedia" — edited by Elena de Lorenzo. Gijón: Ediciones Trea — published in Dieciocho, 42.2, fall 2019, pages 438-440.
Dr. Valero gave a presentation titled "Una visión humanista cívica de la pintura: La 'Epístola a un pintor insigne' de Manuel José Quintana (1790)" ("A civic humanist view of painting: Manuel José Quintana's 'Epistle to a renowned painter' (1790)") at the XXV Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos, March 4-6, 2020, in Lima, Peru.
Dr. Matt Waters, professor and chair of languages and professor of history, gave an invited lecture, “By All Means Auramazda: Help, Support, and Protect the King,” Feb. 18 at the 14th Melammu Symposium at UCLA. He also gave an invited seminar, “One King to Rule Them All: Achaemenid Visions of Universal Empire,” March 4 at UW-Madison’s history department.
