33.1426, FYI: The State of South Caucasus Language Instruction in the U.S.: A Virtual Workshop

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-1426. Fri Apr 22 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.1426, FYI: The State of South Caucasus Language Instruction in the U.S.: A Virtual Workshop

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Billy Dickson
Managing Editor: Lauren Perkins
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Goldfinch, Nils Hjortnaes,
      Joshua Sims, Billy Dickson, Amalia Robinson, Matthew Fort
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 17:53:34
From: Talin Lindsay [programs at arisc.org]
Subject: The State of South Caucasus Language Instruction in the U.S.: A Virtual Workshop

 
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
12:30–2:30 pm EDT
Zoom Registration required: https://bit.ly/3xelsso 
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the meeting.
 
Panelists:
Fiala Abdullayeva (Azerbaijan University of Languages, Azerbaijan)
Lisa Gulesserian (Harvard University, Western Armenian)
Tereza Hovhannisyan (UCLA, Eastern Armenian)
Lauren Ninoshvili (Columbia University, Georgian)
 
Moderator:
Maureen E. Marshall (President, ARISC)
 
It has become increasingly important and necessary for researchers studying
the South Caucasus to know the languages of Armenian, Azerbaijani, and
Georgian. Not only can Russian no longer be relied upon as a lingua franca
serving as the language of scholarly publication and facilitating
communication in-country, but in order to incorporate local perspectives and
utilize original source material, students and scholars need to develop a
working knowledge of the local languages. Yet learning Armenian, Azerbaijani,
and Georgian pose several challenges for U.S. researchers, including access to
language courses (particularly in-person or synchronous instruction),
sustaining language study that is necessary to reach proficiency, and the
potential challenge of studying multiple languages needed for comparative and
transnational research. Of the three titular languages of the South Caucasus,
Armenian is taught the most regularly, at several types of institutions of
higher education (IHE) across the country, but is still limited in reach and
support compared to other Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) and is also
divided between Eastern and Western instruction, with the latter now
considered by many an endangered language. Azerbaijani and Georgian are only
offered irregularly and intermittently in the U.S. and at fewer institutions,
and in the last few years sometimes only at summer institutes. What factors
and structures might be behind these low levels of language instruction in the
U.S.? What opportunities for development are available to researchers and
institutions? Are there actionable steps that we as a community might take to
support and facilitate expertise in Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian?
 
This virtual panel brings together instructors of Armenian, Azerbaijani, and
Georgian with researchers, educators, and administrators to discuss the state
of South Caucasus language instruction in the U.S. The language instructors
will first share their experiences and perspectives and the discussion will
then be opened up to all participants to discuss the challenges,
opportunities, and future direction of language instruction. 
 
We hope the discussion will lead to identifying current trends and challenges,
and that as a group we might come up with some actionable ideas to enhance the
study of the languages of the South Caucasus in the U.S.
 
This event is free and open to all, and is co-sponsored by the American
Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Russian, East
European, and Eurasian Center’s (REEEC) at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. This event is supported with grants from the US Department
of Education Title VI AORC and NRC programs.
 
ARISC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, gender,
religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, medical condition,
ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or status as a covered
veteran.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition

Subject Language(s): Armenian (hye)
                     Azerbaijani, North (azj)
                     Azerbaijani, South (azb)
                     Georgian (kat)





 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2020 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
                   https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/the-linguist-list

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-33-1426	
----------------------------------------------------------