Speaking of Language

Allyssa Ford, a student at Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, discusses her experience as a linguist for the United States Navy, and her time in their intensive language school as well as working with civilian language analysts in the NSA.

Cornell undergraduate Nisa Burns shares her experiences learning multiple Southeast Asian languages and how study abroad has influenced her future aspirations for language revitalization.

How does a state government affect language education on a national or global level? Candace Black joins us from the New York State Education Department’s Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages to share her experience. More information about her office and the revisions to the New York State Standards for World Languages can be found at http://nysed.gov/world-languages/. Candace can be reached at candace.black@nysed.gov or 518-473-7505. Learn more about New York's language teachers' association NYSAFLT at https://nysaflt.org.

Edvan Brito joins us to discuss what the Brazilian settlements called favelas can teach us about how language, race, and geography intersect. Dr. Brito is Assistant Professor and Director of the Portuguese Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He was on Cornell's campus as part of the monthly LRC Speaker Series, and gave a talk titled “Using Social and Cultural Issues to Promote Language Learning and Cultural Awareness: Language Variation, Race, and Migration.” Watch Dr. Brito's talk here.

This week, we take a trip to the movies as we investigate how two Cornell PhD students created an alien language for the blockbuster film Captain Marvel. LRC Media Manager Sam Lupowitz speaks with Joseph Rhyne and Ryan Hearn, two PhD candidates in Linguistics at Cornell. Joseph and Ryan created the “ConLang,” or “Constructed Language,” of the planet Torfa for this entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which stars Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Speaking of Language returns for a new academic year! Cornell LRC Director Angelika Kraemer fills us in on lessons learned during summer travels to conferences, both domestic and international. Media Development Manager Sam Lupowitz remembers by the end that he went on his honeymoon. Call for chapter submissions to the 2021 Language Center Handbook.

Cornell undergraduates Hezekiah Thompson and Justin Kang talk about what they have gained from their language learning experiences, and their advice for incoming freshmen, or any prospective language student. With this episode, our third season of Speaking of Language comes to an end. We will be back in September with new topics and guests. In the meantime, you can listen to our archived shows on our website at lrc.cornell.edu, on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. We wish all our listeners a wonderful summer.  

Charlene Polio discusses facts and myths about the challenges of language learning, and suggests strategies for framing the learning process, whether your students are motivated or anxious. Dr. Polio is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian & African Languages at Michigan State University, where she teaches in the Master’s Degree Program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and also in the Second Language Studies Program. She gave a talk last week as part of our monthly LRC Speaker Series titled “Are Some Languages Really More ‘Difficult’ to Learn?” and we will extend our conversation about language difficulty on our podcast.

Amanda Seewald of Learning Kaleidoscope grew up in a monolingual household. By the time she was in college, she was advocating for language education in Washington, D.C. Later on, she founded Maracas, a homegrown language immersion program that uses music and rhythm to teach Spanish to young learners. This week, we hear her story, and learn about what you can do to help build a global, multilingual future.

Sarah Mercer discusses the importance of teacher wellbeing for effective language teaching and offers concrete steps for preventing burnout. Sarah discusses the “Greater Good in Action” website in her interview; that can be viewed here: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/ Donations in memory of Dan Gaibel can be made to Hospicare of Ithaca, https://www.hospicare.org/. Dan also established a GoFundMe to support his young son: https://www.gofundme.com/khm42-dan