The Language of Lockdown
As we continue to connect digitally for work and even with loved ones, body language has become more important than ever. Gestures have to be performed in a more exaggerated and obvious way since...
A Life and Love of Languages
People have asked me why I recently joined the U.S. Department of Education as assistant deputy secretary in the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) and what I hope to accomplish. It’s personal. The...
Race and Language Teaching
I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1988 from Los Angeles, California. Even Birmingham’s undeniable legacy of racial injustice and violence could not quell my youthful anticipation of beginning my first academic appointment at the...
Dismantling Racism: Working from the Inside Out
America is crying everyone’s tears. Crying because of all she stands for—the freedom, liberty, and opportunity that has not been genuinely extended to all. The recent senseless killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna...
Eureka!
Hands down, reading is one of the most powerful tools for facilitating acquisition of vocabulary—whether it is vocabulary from a first, second, or third language. Most educators acknowledge the power of reading to enhance...
Dyslexic Learners Inform Instruction
After 25 years as a classroom teacher of Spanish, German, and English, I decided to make reaching dyslexic students in the world language classroom the focus of my efforts. I found that two mistakes...
The Challenge of Teaching Poetry
As Franklin Roosevelt famously stated in his 1932 inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” These ringing words probably also apply to the teaching of poetry. For a whole...
Comic Relief
Comic strips or books are very useful to help the learning of French, whether they are used in class with a teacher or read at home. This type of literature is very motivating and...
Bringing a Dying Language Back to Life
It is unlikely that many of his grade-school classmates would have predicted that Sunn m’Cheaux would grow up to be a Harvard instructor.
“I remember being humiliated in elementary school, because I sounded different from...
Congress Urged to Enact Antiracist Education Policies
In light of recent demands for racial justice, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, UnidosUS, and the National Women’s Law Center along with hundreds of other civil rights and education organizations,...