World Languages Evenings 2004-05

Upcoming

2008-09 Language Institute Lecture Series Culture, Literature and Language: Power and Pedagogies

Lecture: Between the Lines: When Poetry, Language, and Culture Meet in the Classroom
Charlotte Melin, University of Minnesota
4:00 pm, Tuesday, March 4, 2009
254 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive

Widely regarded as the most “literary” of genres, poetry is often excluded from the language classroom. Its marginalized status brings into focus the multiple difficulties that teachers and learners encounter when negotiating language and culture through literature—difficulties that range from basic problems of surface comprehension to obstacles to deeper interpretation. This talk reflects on the experience of teaching poetry in language classrooms and asks what theoretical basis is needed to articulate a more adequate pedagogy of literature. Learn more >

Lecture: Transforming Pedagogies: Identity Formation in the Age of Cultural Globalization
B. Kumaravadivelu, San Jose State
4:00 pm, Thursday, February 5
254 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive

It is evident that the on-going process of globalization with its incessant and increased flow of peoples, goods and ideas across the world is creating a novel ‘web of interlocution’ that is effectively challenging the traditional notions of identity formation of an individual or of a nation. In this talk, the speaker briefly outline the two meta-narratives of identity formation – modernism and postmodernism – and argue that a third – globalism – is fast emerging as a crucial factor in identity formation. Learn more >