Reading Materials Development
Two 3-day Reading Materials Development Workshops
One 2-day Reading Materials Development Symposium
Where: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (in-person format); UW-Madison, Wisconsin (in-person format); UCLA (hybrid format)
When: Chulalongkorn: March 9-11, 2023; UW-Madison: April 13-15, 2023; UCLA: September 22-23, 2023
What: Building on the understanding gained at the Reading Assessment test workshops in the spring of 2022, SEALC offered two training workshops in spring of 2023 with the goal of designing reading lessons that improve reading proficiency at the intermediate and advanced levels. The two identical workshops, one in Bangkok and one in Madison, offered principles of lesson development and a design template for developing reading lessons. In addition to improving curricular materials, the workshops fostered collaborative relationships among the US-based and SE Asian-based language instructors.
The in-person workshop in SE Asia was held at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand (March 9-11) and was co-hosted by the Center for Thai as a Foreign Language. The 26 SE Asian participants represented 4 SE Asian languages (Filipino, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese) and came from 10 institutions (including National U. Singapore, State U. Malang, Central Luzon U., Keio U, Chulalongkorn U, U Sains Malaysia, Vietnam National U, U of Hong Kong).
An identical in-person workshop was held at UW-Madison (April 13-15) with 28 instructors, representing 8 languages (Burmese, Filipino, Hmong, Khmer, Indonesian, Lao, Thai, & Vietnamese) and 13 US institutions: (ASU, UCLA, UCSD, Columbia, Clarkson, Cornell, Hawaii, U., Johns Hopkins, U. Michigan, National U. Laos, NIU, Ohio U. U. Wisconsin-Madison).
The workshops were led by trainer Stephen L. Tschudi of the University of Hawai‘i,. formerly a Specialist for Language Education Technology at the Center for Language & Technology (CLT). Stephen has taught Chinese language at UH and was a past recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Hawaiʻi Association of Language Teachers (HALT). He has designed and delivered teacher development courses and workshops focusing on various aspects of online teaching and learning. Recently, Stephen has made significant contributions to two national programs in relation to intercultural communication and project-based language learning at the U Hawaii, National Foreign Language Resource Center.
From April until September 2023, small groups of instructors will complete the development of reading lessons at the intermediate and advanced proficiency levels with review from the trainer, Stephen Tschudi, and project leader and mentor, Dr. Erlin Barnard. The follow-up symposium is scheduled to be hosted by UCLA, September 22-23, 2023; at this event the reading lessons will be presented and critiqued by the trainers and peer instructors. This is an important step in professionalizing the process of materials development and in developing a community of practice in which collegial support and feedback is promoted. Following this symposium, the reading lessons will be revised and then submitted to SEALC for posting on the SEALC website.
