Words on chalkboard

Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series Presents Professor Susanne Rott

Professor Susanne Rott is our guest for WUSTL's Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series

Please join us on April 7th and 8th for the Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series with Associate Professor of Germanic Studies Susanne Rott from the University of Illinois, Chicago.  

  • April 7th from 4-5:00 pm Foreign Language Learning Lecture at WUSTL in McDonnell 162
  • April 8th from 9-10:00 am Foreign Language Learning Workshop at WUSTL in EADS 215

Lecture:      Thursday, April 7, 2022 from 4-5 pm in McDonnell 162

Designing an Evidence-Based Curriculum Promoting Vocabulary Development

Language learners have only a couple of years to master thousands of words to develop superior language proficiency (ACTFL 2012) in the classroom setting. Consequently, an effective curriculum needs to be grounded in evidence-based instructional interventions. In this talk I will outline relevant research findings on language-learning task design.  The talk will highlight task designs that have shown to increase the quantity and quality of word learning and, more importantly, word retention. I will provide specific insights from a study on the repeated retrieval of words and the use of self-tests.

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Workshop:     Friday, April 8, 2022 from 9-10 am in Eads 215

Language is Metaphorical, Formulaic, and Conventionalized. What are the Implications for Language Teaching?  

Most language learners associate the learning of vocabulary with the learning of individual words.  They know thousands of words after only a couple of years of instruction.  Nevertheless, they still don’t know which word combinations are possible in the target language, an ability that is a marker of advanced language proficiency. In this workshop we will identify examples of metaphorical, formulaic, and conventionalized language. We will then look at multiple activities that raise learners’ awareness of such multi-word expressions and that will help learners work effectively with input sources. 

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*The Washington University Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series is sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures; Applied Linguistics; the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. 

**NOTE: Visitors must complete self-screening before coming to campus for this event at the following website: https://visitorscreening.wustl.edu/symptom-screener