The seminar focuses on the use of insights from cognitive linguistics and other cognitive sciences (psycholinguistics, psychology, etc.) to language teaching and learning research. This includes, but is not limited to, the cognitive processes involved when using technology.
The aim of the seminar is to provide MA and PhD students with a stronger theoretical and methodological background on language pedagogy research. To this end, the seminar includes both invited talks and students' presentations from their own research. The invited talks will report on the most innovative research in the field and the students' presentations provide the opportunity to receive specialized feedback, showcase best practice examples and actively engage in discussion. This seminar may also be of interest to instructors who want to be well informed about the application of insights from pedagogy research to teaching practice. Thus, the seminar contributes to bridging the gap between teaching practice and research, establishing stronger links between teachers and researchers and, in turn, giving rise to more efficient knowledge transfer in both directions.
The seminar is co-organized by an academic team from UC Davis (Prof. Carlee Arnett) and UCL (Prof. Ferran Suñer) and will be attended simultaneously by participants at both universities via videoconference. The sessions for the first term of the academic year 17/18 will take place on October 19 and November 30 both from 9-12 am (6-9 pm in Belgium).
Two further sessions will be organized during the second term. The dates will be announced in due time. Participation is free of charge but registration is required due to limited capacity of the videoconference room (please send an email to ferran.suner@uclouvain.be).
Although the main focus is on German as a foreign language, participants can also work on other foreign languages. The working languages will be German and English. For PhD students at UCL, the participation in the seminar (incl. presentation) is awarded with a maximum of 5 ECTS credits.