NECTFL: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

The Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

2004 NECTFL Summary

The 2004 Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages was held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway in New York City from April 15-18. The theme of this year�s conference was �Listening to Learners.� Attendees observed this theme reflected in the sessions, workshops and other activities hosted by the conference, taking advantage of the opportunity to hear student perspectives that were by turns encouraging, dismaying, surprising and reassuring. An overriding theme in learner comments was the importance of culture, and NECTFL is excited that our 2005 theme will be �Opening Cultural Windows in the Year of Languages.�

The conference began early Thursday morning with half- and full-day preconference workshops. Participants were offered workshops on significant topics such as standards and assessment, AP French, student-centered approaches to instruction, FLES activities, and multiple intelligences. The friendly NECTFL staff in the registration area and the tireless Local Committee members helped everyone get oriented and off to activities and events. [Click on each image for a larger view]
Conference attendees engaged in a session.	Attendees flock to the registration booths Friday morning.	The 2004 Local Committee, chaired by Steve Levy (far left) and co-chaired by Francesco Fratto (far right, back row).

State association leaders met during the day, as did NECTFL�s 2004 Mead Leadership Fellows. Thursday�s schedule closed with an optional night �Out on the Town� with native New Yorkers who led small groups to restaurants, films, and shows.
Sharing ideas at the Meeting of the States.	2004 Mead Fellows and their mentors (from left: Dana Pilla, Nancy Gadbois, M. Teresa Wilson, Laura Franklin, Tiesa Graf, Kenneth Hughes, Yu-Lan Lin, Leslie Port, Scott McGinnis).

The conference got into full swing Friday morning with the grand opening of the exhibit areas (complete with a continental breakfast!)
Conference attendees evaluate books in the exhibit areas.	Helpful, friendly exhibitors are a trademark of our exhibit areas.
Conference attendees were able to spend some time in the exhibit areas before the first sessions began. Throughout the day, educators of countless languages at all levels attended 75-minute sessions or 3-hour workshops, returning to the exhibit areas for specially-scheduled visit times. Again, the presentations focused on �Listening to Learners;� session topics included reading strategies, learners� use of technology, heritage learners, educational travel, think-aloud interviews, and test adaptation, among hundreds of others.

After the first session slot, everyone was invited to the Opening General Session, presided by Frank Mulhern, PSMLA, Conference Chair. It featured a Readers� Theater performance reflecting our move to Broadway! Seven students from eight to 21 years of age, led by NECTFL Board member Diane Whitmore, dramatized the responses of hundreds of language learners to the question: �What do you wish your language teacher knew?�

The Readers� Theater group performs during the Opening General Session (from left, Board member and stage manager, Diane Whitmore; student actors: Daishawn and Tysean DeCruz; Rhiannon and Ian Ledgerwood; Tatiana Garcia; Jaechoon Ahn; Edward Bonilla).

During the Opening General Session, four exceptional individuals were recognized for their contributions to our field:

Brenda Lilienthal Welburn, Executive Director, National Association of State Boards of Education, was presented with the 2004 James W. Dodge Memorial Foreign Language Advocate Award, given outside the profession in recognition of work on behalf of languages.

Dodge Award winner Brenda Lilienthal Welburn joins Conference Chair Frank Mulhern.

A graduate of Howard University with graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Welburn has extensive experience in state education policy and board development. She is the author of The American Tapestry: Educating a Nation, a guide to infusing multiculturalism in education. She has written many articles and made numerous public appearances addressing issues that affect the nation�s students, speaking on education issues including cultural diversity and its impact on education, the need for safe and supporting environments for all students, lay leadership in education governance, and school reform. Under Ms. Welburn�s leadership, the National Association of State Boards of Education produced a landmark report, The Complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America�s Schools. To quote this report, �Learning a second language not only increases an individual�s ability to adapt to different environments and modes of acting and thinking, but it provides insights into America�s values and an appreciation of national responsibilities in the world community�� In NASBE�s press release, Brenda Welburn recommends urgently that �[foreign language] be considered as fundamental to a child�s education as the three �R�s�.� Ms. Welburn�s efforts distinguish her and honor us. She truly represents the ideal envisioned by the Northeast Conference in establishing an award for individuals who promote our field from outside its customary borders.

Joining Ms. Welburn as an award winner was Martha Abbott. Marty, who holds a B.A. degree in Spanish with a minor in Latin from Mary Washington College and a Master�s degree in Spanish linguistics from Georgetown University, is the Director of High School Instruction and K-12 Curriculum Services in Fairfax County, Virginia. Prior to this position she served as Coordinator of Foreign Languages for ten years and taught Spanish and Latin at the high school level for 14 years.

Marty Abbott (Brooks Award winner) with Frank Mulhern.

Ms. Abbott is immediate past president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and has served on a variety of Task Forces at the national level including the National Foreign Language Standards, the ACTFL K-12 Performance Guidelines, and INTASC standards for beginning teachers. She is also on the Steering Committee for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Foreign Language Exam. Since 2002, she has served as Chief Advisor for the WGBH/Annenberg Video Library for Foreign Languages. Ms. Abbott has held a variety of leadership positions including President of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA), Chair of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Director of the Virginia Governor�s Latin Academy, and Treasurer of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL). In 1998, Ms. Abbott was awarded the ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in K-12 Foreign Language Education. She has also received the Robert Ludwig National Distinguished Leadership Award from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers and most recently, the Ovatio Award from the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. Marty served the Northeast Conference as its chair in 1999. She was warmly applauded at the Opening General Sessions by her many friends and colleagues in the profession.

The 2004 Stephen A. Freeman Award for Best Published Article on Language Teaching Techniques to Appear in a Professional Journal during the Previous Academic Year was presented to Bonnie Adair-Hauck and Richard Donato for �The Pace model: A story-based approach to meaning and form for standards-based language learning.� The French Review, 76.
Bonnie Adair-Hauck, Ph.D., is a research professor for the University of Pittsburgh�s European Union Center and Center for West European Studies, and she teaches graduate courses in foreign language theory and methodology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her articles appear in publications such as Foreign Language Annals, Language Awareness, The Canadian Modern Language Review, The French Review, PSMLA Language Forum, and Teachers� Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction. Adair-Hauck has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the U.S. Department of Education. Adair-Hauck served as the President of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association (1998-2000), as the President of AATF�s Western Pennsylvania Chapter (1990-1993), and as an executive board member for numerous professional organizations. In 1998, she received the AATF Outstanding Educator of the Year Award (university level), and was a co-recipient of the Edouard Morot-Sir Pedagogical Prize for a 2002 article in The French Review.

Sister Mary Helen Kashuba (Awards Committee Chair, far right) joins Frank Mulhern (2004 Conference Chair, far left) to congratulate Freeman Award winners Bonnie Adair-Hauck and Rick Donato for their outstanding article.

Richard Donato is Associate Professor of Foreign Language Education at the University of Pittsburgh where he directs and teaches courses in the masters and doctoral graduate programs in foreign language education and TESOL. Among other prior positions, he taught French for ten years in a private secondary school. He has written numerous successful grants and has been funded by entities as diverse as the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Hewlett International Small Grants. Donato�s work has appeared in a broad range of prestigious journals. With his co-authors Tucker and Antonek, he is the recipient of the MLJ/ ACTFL Paul Pimsleur Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Learning Research (1997). He is the editor of Foreign Language Learning, Journey of a Lifetime and he developed the volume Stories Teachers Tell for the 1998 Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which he also served as conference chair. He has worked internationally on language education issues and teacher action research and has directed the Action Research Institute at the K-12 National Foreign Language Resource Center. Attendees at the Opening General Session were enthusiastic in their response to Rick and Bonnie�s selection as Freeman Award winners!

Throughout the day, participants perused materials, networked with other professionals, collected freebies and much more at the exhibit areas. One attendee described the exhibit areas as seeming �like a fair!� Friday�s events concluded with the chair�s reception, wherein this year�s conference chair, past conference chairs, members of the board of directors, and attendees joined together to celebrate NECTFL�s 51 years. The gala featured music by �Cubanana! and the Marriott�s delicious hors d�oeuvres. Many attendees took advantage of our location in the heart of New York�s theater district to enjoy either Friday or Saturday evening at a play, while others sought out museums, foreign films, shopping, and musical performances. Throughout the day and evening, various foreign embassy and consular officers welcomed people to events or provided prizes and scholarships.

Entertainment by �Cubanana! at the 2004 Chair�s Reception.

Martina Moetz accepts the summer study scholarship from Gustavo Martinez of the Embassy of Spain

Saturday offered attendees more sessions and workshops to attend, more opportunities to network, and more time to visit the exhibit areas.
A presenter captures her audience�s attention.	NECTFL�s new Exhibits Manager, Cindy Murphy, lends a hand.

NADSFL members participated in a breakfast and business meeting, and NECTFL�s Advisory Council held discussions and later conducted the annual election of new board members during its luncheon
A presentation by Marcia Rosenbusch of the National K-12 NFLRC at the NADSFL breakfast	Advisory Council members enjoy lunch before the Board election.

Poster sessions were highlighted during the afternoon.

Former NECTFL intern Shannon Oatey with her poster display.

Come conference end, attendees left the Marriott Marquis with bags packed with materials, notebooks filled with notes, and heads overflowing with names, tips, ideas, theories and the enthusiasm necessary to finish the academic year in style! They were also able to accumulate professional development credits or receive attendance certificates, as well as copies of handouts for sessions. As attendees told us in their evaluations:

�I loved every minute of the conference and the many people I met.�

�I especially liked the opening session where the kids were involved. Also I loved the hotel.�

�I was very impressed that the head of tech services at the hotel came by to check to make sure that we were happy!�

�You guys are STARS!�

�Thank you so much for the high quality preconference workshops.�

�Quality sessions�no duds! Valuable conference.�

�On the exhibit halls: very fun�

The 2004 Northeast Conference was, in short, exemplary! Participants came from over 30 states and 12 foreign countries, including Israel, Thailand and Croatia. Every level of instruction was well-represented and, as is always the case at NECTFL, both public and private institutions sent faculty and administrators.

Languages taught by our participants included Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Latin, but also ESL, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Arabic, ASL, Hebrew, Gaelic, and Korean. 62% had attended the conference in the past, while 38% were first-timers, many of them new, young teachers. 520 professionals staffed the booths and tables in the exhibit areas, adding their own expertise and enthusiasm to the experience.

The Conference Chair's leadership, the Board's and Advisory Council's governance, the staff's impeccable organization, the presenters' remarkable talents, and finally, the attendees' energy and commitment, made for an outstanding experience. 2005 will be even better--but only if YOU are with us! See you in New York!