March 22-25, 2007 - University of Florida-Gainsville
African Language Pedagogy & Media
"Striving for a successful learning experience"
Call for Proposals
The use of media [i.e. newspapers, magazines, cinema films, radio, television, the WWW, the Internet, billboards, books, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, audiocassettes, computer and video games, etc.] has for long time been recognized to have positive effect on the learning and teaching of foreign languages. The significance of media in the field of foreign language education has become even more recognizable and remarkable in this era of advanced information technology innovations that are continuing to sweep the globe and posing more challenges. The field of foreign language education, like other fields, has itself also witnessed significant changes in the past two decades or so especially with the emergence of innovative learning and teaching approaches. The most notable include increased emphasis on communicative skills, learner-centered, and the recognition of foreign language education as encompassing five goal areas (the 5 Cs) that are inextricably intertwined: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. How such innovations in information technology affect the increasingly changing foreign language pedagogy in various settings is one of critical issues that have attracted the attention of a number of scholars and practitioners in the field.
With particular focus on African language pedagogy, the 11 th annual meeting of the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) will address the development of African language media and its potentials to enhance the learning and teaching of African languages in terms of theoretical and practical perspectives. Abstracts (of not more than 250 words) are invited addressing theoretical and/or practical issues pertaining to
- the nature of the information conveyed by the media,
- the channels of information,
- the phases in the process of learning, teaching and testing (e.g. used for presentation, repetition, testing, etc?)
- the didactic functions (e.g. used to motivate learners, convey information, stimulate real life communicative situations, etc?),
- the degree of availability, accessibility and adaptability,
- the possibilities for supporting, supplementing, or replacing the teacher,
- Curriculum and material development, etc. etc.
Other traditional topics in phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics and pragmatics as they relate to second language acquisition and particularly to African language pedagogy are also very welcome.
Abstracts should be submitted electronically through the Conference Website no later than December 1, 2006. Please click here to submit an abstract now.
For more information, please visit the UF CAS website at www.africa.ufl.edu.
Note : Language-specific panels are planned to take place during the conference for at least three languages: Swahili , Zulu (and other Nguni languages), and Yoruba. Concerned panel committees will post separate call for papers for their panels.
Click here to see the Swahili Panel call.
Click here to see the Yoruba Panel call. (PDF)
Click here to see the Zulu/Nguni Panel call. (PDF)
Other Versions of the Call for Proposals
Click here for a Microsoft Word (.doc) version of the call for proposals.
Click here for a PDF version of the call for proposals.