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The 2003 Northeast Conference, held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC last April and chaired by John Webb of Princeton University, marked the 50th such annual event in the organization's history. It was gratifying to see that 46% of our attendees were "first-timers"!
Highlighted by the participation of educators and policy-makers outside the profession, the conference explored five themes through a series of special sessions:
accountability research inclusion curriculum teacher beliefs
In addition, the 50th anniversary conference was the occasion for a general meeting on the profession's future, attended by the leaders of some twenty associations ranging from NNELL to the MLA, and from the state associations to JNCL-NCLIS.
The keynote address, by Sam Intrator of Smith College, helped us to focus on ourselves as teachers and on the place of our work in the overall educational mission. There was also a "birthday party" to which everyone was invited on Friday evening with old photos, lots of reminiscing, and wheels of Brie topped by birthday candles!
The exhibit areas were once again full, and visitors seemed to enjoy especially the samples of gelato and other "freebies," the chance to meet Justo Lamas, the many new and friendly exhibitors, and the foreign language "villages." Companies devoted to materials and services of interest to Italian teachers increased from one in 2002 to eleven in 2003!
Sessions and workshops were highly praised: many chose to participate in off-site workshops that allowed them to visit the FSI and CAL. The French Embassy sponsored a theatrical production and reception, while the Spanish Embassy once again provided an exciting concert on Friday night. For the first time, the conference held poster sessions, which were an especially attractive format for graduate students. Offerings in Arabic expanded geometrically and were capped by a day-long Sunday workshop sponsored by the Georgetown University Press. Networking sessions allowed attendees to explore topics from "French-bashing" to the role of the cooperating teacher in a professional semester.
A new group of Mead Fellows was introduced at the conference and will spend this year working on leadership projects supervised by mentors from the field. Several groups of high school and college students took advantage of special opportunities and reduced rates to join us.
Finally, rather than the traditional yearly volume devoted to the conference theme, a searchable CD of all past reports (1954-2002) was created and presented free to each conference registrant. It is a remarkable "birthday present" to the profession, cataloguing our thinking over the last half-century.
Entering our 51st year, we return to New York City, but in a new and exciting location: the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway near Times Square! Surprises and innovations are planned, but the characteristic quality of all Northeast Conferences is guaranteed. As one person put it, "You may go to some conferences because you have to, but the Northeast Conference is like coming home!" See you there!
2003 James W. Dodge Memorial Foreign Language Advocate Award, given outside the profession in recognition of work on behalf of languages: Ann Marie Copland, Senior Executive and Legislative Assistant, Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
A member of Senator Thad Cochran's staff since his election in 1978, Ann Copland has extensive administrative and legislative Senate experience. As Senior Executive and Legislative Assistant, she is an advisor, manages the Senator's correspondence, and serves as his Legislative Assistant for Education, Arts, Humanities, Indian Affairs, Historic Preservation and other issues. Ms. Copland is Senator Cochran's staff liaison for the duties and legislative issues relating to his role as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution.
Ms. Copland has been particularly effective in creating new legislation for federal programs supporting technology in education, arts education, public television for children, foreign language education, the National Reading Panel, the National Writing Project, and civic education. The Northeast Conference takes immense pride and pleasure in honoring Ann Copland with the Dodge Award. Representing Senator Thad Cochran's legendary and effective commitment to foreign language learning, she has made the issue her own and has inspired hundreds of neophyte advocates for language through her presentations, her insights and her generous sharing of expertise and experience. Ann brings to her work the ability to reach the heart of a problem instantly, yet her patience and willingness to take the necessary time are unparalleled. Her understanding of our field is illustrated by her enthusiasm for early language learning, as reflected in her work to help make materials from the international versions of Sesame Street available to America's elementary school language teachers. Her prodigious talents and her mastery of so many areas could be intimidating, but Ann's relaxed manner and easy laughter prompt all who meet her to feel they have made a friend.
The Northeast Conference salutes Ann Copland, the foreign language advocate whom we have chosen in this 50th anniversary year, as a model for all Dodge Award recipients to come.
2003 Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Annual Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Profession, in memory of Nelson H. Brooks: Frank W. Medley, Jr.
Frank W. Medley, Jr., is Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages at West Virginia University. He served as Chair of the department for ten years. Prior to his arrival at WVU, Frank taught and chaired the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of South Carolina. He has also taught English and Spanish in high schools in his native Texas. His Ph.D. from Purdue is in Foreign Language Education, while his M.A. and B.A. from Texas Tech are in Spanish and English.
Currently the Chair of New Visions in Action's Task Force on Teacher Preparation, Frank has served an inordinate number of associations and organizations, often on executive councils or as chair or president. A measure of his influence may be seen in his selection not only for the NECTFL Brooks Award, but also for SCOLT's Founders Award and NYSAFLT's Robert J. Ludwig National Distinguished Language Leadership Award. More importantly, perhaps, all who have worked with him will acknowledge with admiration that he is an indefatigable worker: his assumption of concrete and challenging responsibilities in committees and on task forces or boards is exemplary.
The testimony on Frank's behalf as a mentor and friend makes his record of publication, professional presentations, textbook authorship, external review and consultation activities, and participation in grant-funded activities seem almost impossible. And yet, this record speaks for itself: from OPI workshops to 50-hour seminars at the National Institute of Higher Education Research, Science, and Technology of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; from an NEH seminar on García Lorca to a session on selecting the appropriate textbook; from contributions to the Standards for Learning Spanish to authorship of a volume of readings; Frank has simply done it all. Given this lifetime of contribution and achievement, we at the Northeast Conference are forever indebted to Frank for his time, energy, vision, dedication and work for us. To reprise the theme of NECTFL 2000, the conference over which Frank presided, he has been, for us, an agent of change.
It is thus altogether fitting that our next fifty years should begin with his selection for the Brooks Award. His name on the list of Brooks Award winners will ensure that future recipients recognize the award's unique significance in our profession.
2003 Stephen A. Freeman Award for Best Published Article on Language Teaching Techniques to Appear in a Professional Journal during the Prior Academic Year: Terry A. Osborn, "Making Connections and Comparisons: Integrating Foreign Language with Other Core Curricula” (NECTFL Review #49, Fall 2001)
Terry A. Osborn, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Educational Studies and Second Language Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut. Dr. Osborn taught public school German for six years at the high school level, including one year also at the middle school level. He received an M.A. in German from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He was on the faculty of Queens College, City University of New York, for three years before returning to Storrs.
Dr. Osborn is co-editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), series editor of the Praeger Publishers Contemporary Language Studies series, and former editor of the Bergin & Garvey Contemporary Language Education series. He co-authored The Foreign Language Educator in Society: Toward a Critical Pedagogy, and edited The Future of Foreign Language Education in the United States. He also authored Critical Reflection and the Foreign Language Classroom, winner of the 2001 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award. Dr. Osborn serves on the Executive Board of the International Society for Language Studies, and his work has appeared in Educational Foundations, Educational Studies, Foreign Language Annals, Language Problems and Language Planning, Multicultural Education, SchoolArts, and NECTFL Review. Dr. Osborn's research interests include culture and literature in the foreign language classroom, critical pedagogy, and interdisciplinary pedagogy.
The Northeast Conference is honored to present Dr. Terry Osborn with the Freeman Award for his article, which provides both a theoretical basis and practical applications for the integration of foreign language learning with study in other core disciplines. As Dr. Osborn notes, the "values offered by the framers of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning" are reflected in the work of researchers and curriculum planners who subscribe to a "pro-interdisciplinary" approach. Osborn writes, "… foreign language courses which do not explore the nature of the 'home' perspective as culturally mediated, run the very real risk of transmitting a tacit or explicit characterization of superiority related to the home perspective." And, "… the emic, or insider's perspective is critical for comparative integrity." His article is especially pertinent in the current era of uncertainty and turmoil in the face of the very concept of "foreignness." We congratulate Terry A. Osborn on the selection of his article and look forward to his ongoing exploration of this complex topic.
| The Northeast Conference expresses its deep gratitude to the Visiting International Faculty Program, the sponsor of our VIF/Mead Leadership Fellows. Each year, five fellows are selected to engage in leadership development activities during the conference and throughout the subsequent year. We thank our fourteen state associations for the dedication and insights they bring to the task of selecting candidates for this important program. | The
VIF/Mead Fellows for 2003 are: Andy Armstrong Henrico County Schools, Richmond VA Rocio Dominguez Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA |
Bill Heller Perry High School, Perry NY Andrea Morris Laurel High School, Laurel MD Lizette Porter Greenwich Public Schools, Greenwich CT |
Mead Fellows”: Scott McGinnis (far left) and Nancy Gadbois (far right) of the Professional Development Committee join (from left to right) Andy Armstrong (VA), Rocio Dominguez (PA), Lizette Porter (CT), Bill Heller (NY) and Andrea Morris (MD
by Theresa Cormier, Haddam-Killingworth Middle School, Higganum CT
Congratulations to Theresa Cormier, whose “Best of CT C.O.L.T.” session on key-pals was chosen to represent the Northeast Conference at the upcoming ACTFL convention in Philadelphia! In her presentation, Cormier reviewed the procedures for finding key-pals for a class, but looked also at how her middle schoolers’ experiences with their counterparts in Argentina affected their proficiency levels, instruction in her classroom and the curriculum. Praised for its presenter’s energy and good organization, the session included examples in both Spanish and French. It targeted both middle and high school instructional levels.The board of directors of NECTFL wishes Theresa Cormier the very best as she moves on to the national sphere!
 Chantal Manès presents Dawn Kilpatrick with the French Embassy Scholarship |
 Uwe Rau of the Goethe Institut Inter Nationes congratulates Michael Hager |
 Esther Zacagnini and Jesus Cruz confer the Spanish Embassy scholarship on Jean Modig |
| The 2003 French Embassy scholarship was given to Dawn Kilpatrick, a teacher of grades 1-5 at the Cedar Hill Elementary School in Basking Ridge NJ. Ms. Kilpatrick has the BA in early childhood education and French from Montclair State University and expects to receive the MA in French this coming May. She received a "Bourse Jeunesse et Sports" in the summers of both 2000 and 2001. Although she has been in her current job for a short time, her principal writes that "she is enthusiastic, patient, and quite adept at developing lessons which promote student interest in French and elicit a high degree of active participation." | The winner of this year's Goethe Institut/AATG fellowship for summer study is Michael Hager, who teaches at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Hager has his Doktor der Philosophie in German from the Freie Universität Berlin, where he studied linguistics. He is the author of a popular textbook for business German, a topic he has been instrumental in promoting at Penn State. He has accompanied American students to Germany for internships and has extensive work experience with German companies. Dr. Hager coordinates language instruction in Penn State's German Department and is currently involved in a project to better integrate intercultural communication into the elementary language teaching program. In recommending him, his department head writes that he "is well poised to analyze and explain cultural differences between [our] two countries." | Jean Modig, a teacher at Wayne Hills High School in New Jersey, was awarded the Premio Nordeste Spanish Embassy scholarship to study in Salamanca during summer 2003. With an M.A. in Spanish Literary Analysis and 27 years of teaching experience, Ms. Modig has enjoyed grants to further her professional development from the NEH, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Council for Basic Education, and the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, among others. She is a frequent presenter at conferences and has received the FLENJ Professional Award. As her principal writes, "Mrs. Modig has shown a sincere and genuine desire to improve her skills and increase her knowledge, which has richly benefited the students in her class and the teachers under her supervision." |
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