| 
|
Making Connections through Texts in Language Teaching
Richard Kern
University of California, Berkeley
4:00pm
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
254 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive
Comments from Lauren Martin-Berg, Department of French and Italian
Download the PowerPoint slideshow from the lecture
Abstract
Language is not just a tool for communication. It is also a resource for creative thought, a framework for understanding the world, a key to new knowledge and human history, and a source of pleasure and inspiration. The Connections Standard is about linking language and literature study to other disciplines (for example, art, music, film, history, among others) and about getting students to experience unique viewpoints available only through a particular language and its cultures. This presentation will argue for the importance of analyzing texts (written, oral, visual, audio-visual) in language teaching. The goal is to give students the chance to position themselves in relation to distinct viewpoints and distinct cultures and to make connections between language and other symbolic ways of making meaning, connections between language and other disciplines, and connections between language and culture. These connections are not easy to make, but they are essential if we are to prepare our students for the broadest range of language use and allow them to achieve their full communicative potential.
All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Language Institute, with funding from the College of Letters and Science Anonymous Fund and the Schoenleber Foundation. |
