First Annual LVAIC TESOL Conference Building Linguistic Bridges: Translanguaging as Practice

First Annual LVAIC TESOL Conference: Building Linguistic Bridges: Translanguaging as Practice
March 21, 2020 – 9am – 3pm @ Lehigh University

The LVAIC multilingual student population has continued growing; however, challenges of multilingual students in writing and research courses are often overlooked. This full-day conference will bring together LVAIC writing instructors, research librarians, and TESOL professionals to create a system of shared activities and resources that will provide holistic support to LVAIC multilingual students, as well as faculty and staff who work with them. Practice-oriented presentations will focus on the latest trends in multilingual instruction and translanguaging in composition classrooms. 

For more information and to submit your proposal, please refer to Call for Proposals.

The conference is free to attend for all LVAIC staff, faculty, and visiting scholars.
LVAIC students – $20
Non-LVAIC participants – $50 (fee includes lunch, parking, and Act 48 processing)
All presenters are expected to register for the conference with appropriate fees.

Call for Proposals 

Dear LVAIC Faculty/staff members:

The newly emerging Community of Practice of Multilingual Students Language and Culture Support would like to invite you to submit session proposals for the First Annual LVAIC TESOL Conference. This practice-oriented conference will be open to any faculty and staff members who provide instruction to multilingual students and will invite LVAIC professionals to share best practices of multilingual education. In addition to ESL specialists, the Call for Proposals is also open to writing instructors and research librarians who interact with multilingual speakers in their classrooms.

We invite proposals for 50-minute, practice-oriented sessions. Preference will be given to proposals based on current research in the following topics:

• Translanguaging:
  • practices in a writing classroom
  • multimodal writing
  • bias
• Best practices of equitable instruction in multilingual classrooms
• Linguistic rights and social justice
• Communication challenges in multilingual classrooms:
  • Student challenges
  • Instructor challenges
• Implicit bias in course content and design
• Intercultural Competence
• Research challenges of multilingual students
• Supporting multilingual students through research process across the disciplines
• Technology for fostering an equitable classroom

Please refer to the session proposal rubric for more information on selection criteria. 

Submission Information

Submission Form
Proposals must include the following information:

1. Presentation title
2. Names, affiliations, positions, and email addresses of the presenters
3. Presentation title
4. 50-word abstract
5. A 300-400 word summary of the topic presenter/s wish to present. The summary should include points presenter/s intend to make, the ways presenter/s intend to engage the audience, practical applications of the topic, and a clear connection to the conference theme. 
6. Target audience 

Proposal deadline: Monday, December 2, 2019

With questions regarding proposals please contact Elena Reiss, M.A., Language Specialist, Lehigh University, at elr312@lehigh.edu or (610)758-6117

Conference Committee

• Elena Reiss, M.A., Language Specialist, Lehigh University elr312@lehigh.edu; (610)758-6117
• Teresa Cusumano, M.A., M.S., Language Specialist, Lehigh University  tec214@lehigh.edu (610)758-5887
• Sara Kangas, Assistant Professor, College of Education, Lehigh University sak516@lehigh.edu; 610-758-3235
• Tingting Kang, Ph.D., Multi-language Learner Support Specialist, Lafayette College kangt@lafayette.edu; (610)330-3187
• Maria Ebert, M.Ed., M.A.,  Director of International Student Services, Cedar Crest College mjebert@cedarcrest.edu; (610) 606-4666 ext. 3487
• Judith Rance-Roney, Education Department, Graduate Programs Director and TESOL Advisor, DeSales University Judith.Rance-Roney@desales.edu; (610) 282-1100 x1323
• Thomas Janis, Director, Office of International Student Support, Muhlenberg College thomasjanis@muhlenberg.edu; 484-664-3448
• Mark R. Emerick, Visiting Lecturer of Education, Muhlenberg College memerick@muhlenberg.edu; 484-664-3454