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 co-led by Stephen L. Tschudi of the University of Hawaii and Dr. Erlin Barnard of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stephen L. Tschudi was 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.
Dr. Erlin Barnard, Pedagogy Coordinator for Less Commonly Taught Languages at UW-Madison, supervises instructors and supports their pedagogy development. She has led workshops on language pedagogy and materials development across the U.S., Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Singapore. Her expertise extends to program and curriculum reviews and materials development projects across Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. With experience at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and the National University of Singapore, she has contributed to language instruction, program administration, and teacher training. She’s been honored with The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service, highlighting her dedication to professionalizing language instruction in less commonly taught languages, closely aligned with US Department of Education priorities, and enhancing the national profile of UW-Madison.
Participants in the above workshops continued development of the lesson designs they had begun at the workshops, and a follow-up symposium was hosted at UCLA, September 22-23, 2023, bringing participants together on site as well as from Southeast Asia via Zoom for presentation and critique by the trainers and by peer instructors. Mutual presentation and constructive critique was an important indicator of the development of a community of practice in which collegial support and feedback is promoted.
Following presentation of their lesson designs at the September 2023 symposium, and peer critique moderated by a designated discussant, participants engaged in further revision of their lesson designs. Now these revised reading lessons at the Intermediate and Advanced levels have been published for free use by teachers and learners of each language. First of all, each lesson should serve as a working model of reading-lesson development based on authentic materials. Secondly, the lessons may be valuable as curricular resources in a variety of instructional settings. Clicking on a language in the following list will open a new browser tab showing the “Reading Proficiency Lessons” sub-page on the SEALC “For Educators” page of that language:
Readers unfamiliar with the lesson design principles used in this workshop may wish to examine the design checklist document. This checklist document shows, in checklist form, the required and optional design elements expected in participants’ final versions. The document also contains links to an example reading lesson in English in both teacher-facing and student-facing versions.
