Earlier this month, faculty and staff members from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) language departments joined forces with professionals from the College of Continuing Education鈥檚 (CCE) English as a Second Language (ESL) program and the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) to hold the first AV俱乐部 Language Instructors Retreat.
Magali Dam-Mazzi, instructor in the department of Spanish and Latin American Studies, came up with the idea to organize this type of retreat.
鈥淚t seemed to be a great opportunity to learn from each other鈥檚 teaching experiences, methodologies, and to gain insight into different approaches for common issues in teaching a language,鈥� said Prof. Dam-Mazzi. 鈥淚 also wanted to have a stronger relationship with all language departments and make a connection with ESL. It didn鈥檛 make sense to me that after nine years of being at Dal, I still didn鈥檛 know all the language instructors and what they do in each of the departments.鈥�
In addition to Prof. Dam-Mazzi., the Dal Language Instructors Retreat organizing committee included Brigid Garvey (German language instructor, FASS), Taghrid Abou-Hassan (French language instructor, FASS), Jennifer MacDonald (Head Teacher, ESL Programs, CCE) and Anna Maier (Instructor, ESL Programs, CCE).
Engagement across the university
Approximately 30 language instructors from across the university attended the retreat, with programming that included ice breakers, professional development, networking, lectures and workshops focused on various styles and principles of teaching and learning vocabulary.
Guest lecturers included Jill McSweeney, educational developer at Dal鈥檚 Centre for Learning and Teaching where she teaches and supports graduate students, instructors, and future faculty in their teaching development. Her session was entitled: Shoptalk: Sharing reflections and strategies from your teaching. The visiting presenter was Scott Douglas, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education on the University of British Columbia鈥檚 Okanagan campus. His research focuses on the teaching and learning of English as an additional language, which was highlighted in his presentation on Additional Language Vocabulary Teaching and Learning: Thresholds, Principles, and Strategies.
Jennifer MacDonald from CCE said one of the retreat鈥檚 goals was to collaborate and forge connections across the university.
鈥淲e all have the same goal 鈥� teaching a second/additional/foreign language to those who speak another language as their mother tongue. It鈥檚 not just a great professional development event, but also a nice networking event for us language instructors to overcome our silos and get to know each other.鈥�
MacDonald added that the retreat was a huge success and that participants provided positive feedback expressing their appreciations of various aspects of the retreat. Some of their comments acknowledging what they took away from the retreat included: 鈥淪haring ideas, meeting people, discussing different approaches,鈥� 鈥渢he presenter鈥檚 enthusiasm was contagious,鈥� 鈥渞einvigorating鈥� and 鈥済ave us new awareness of our common grounds and differences.鈥� Some participants also gave suggestions for future topics.
Turning it into an annual event
The organizing committee hopes to make this sort of retreat an annual event.
鈥淚 really enjoyed working in the organization of this retreat with amazing instructors from different departments and ESL,鈥� said Prof. Dam-Mazzi. 鈥淚t was a very gratifying experience working together. I learned a lot about ESL. Before, I didn鈥檛 think of all the similarities we could鈥檝e shared. They seemed far from us 鈥� but they are not. We all teach a language, we all deal with students, we all work at Dal, we all are interested in improving our teaching and having Dal excel in teaching languages.鈥�
Prof.聽Dam-Mazzi added that another important reason why she wanted to organize this retreat was because of the limited time some of the language instructors have during the academic year for their professional development. Bringing in guest speakers is a way to explore new trends in language teaching and workshops, as well as to improve relationships with the student experience.
鈥淚 believe these types of retreats could make us stronger as instructors and as departments. They can inspire us to come up with innovative and creative ideas for Dal and our departments, and solutions for common problems we face when we teach a language.鈥�