New England Language Conferences, ho!

I just got back from my first MaFLA (Massachusetts Foreign Language Association) conference. Perhaps like you, I had once thought that MaFLA wasn’t worth going to. The annual CANE conference, after all, has the highest concentration of Classics and Latin-centered workshops, papers, and presentations, and who has the money or the time to go to multiple conferences a year? Plus, wasn’t MaFLA mostly about the modern languages with maybe a scattered sprinkling of Latin offerings, hardly worth the $150+ price tag?
I was wrong, and I’ll tell you why. It turns out there’s a growing movement within Latin circles to have a bigger presence at foreign language conferences, and as a consequence, MaFLA now has a Latin strand extensive enough that there was always something to do in every session! NECTFL (North East Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages), this year held in Boston, promises a similarly packed schedule. Latin teachers across the country are also collaborating to make sure there’s plenty of Latin going on at the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) conference in Orlando next year as well.
I only went to Friday’s events, but here’s a sample of what I saw. James Dobreff from UMASS Boston began the day by showing some techniques he uses to teach the Orberg method, and spoke for over an hour in Latin with audience participation. Then a crew talented UMASS Boston graduate students, all training to become Latin teachers, shared some great active techniques for teaching vocabulary (using a military theme, paper soldier, and asking participants to draw costume parts and then dress their soldier), two clever ways to teach the ablative of respect (one using participants comparing each other statura et natu, and another involving a matching of famous figures to virues (i.e. Venus praestans est pulchritudine)), and finally a demonstration of high-level active methods in which participants wrote letters to Catullus, imagining they were one of the senes severiores from carmen V. Chris Buczek gave a great talk on how he includes art, both ancient and modern, in his assignments to help students connect the ancient and modern worlds. Some of my favorite pieces were paper maiche derivative trees and paintings using ancient art styles to commemmorate modern events like Red Sox championships or the rescue of Chilean miners a few years back.
CANEns’ own Lydia Fassett gave a talk about STEM, and how to make connections to math, science, and tech in a Latin class. Since I had already seen it when she had given it at last year’s CANE conference, however, I instead went to an ACTFL presentation on how they think language teachers should assess their new language standards. They even have a reading assessment test for Latin they call ALIRA. While I’m personally hesitant to contribute to the growing trend of outside companies charging students / districts for evaluative tools, I found their conversation about what kinds of evidence constitutes each level of proficiency to be fascinating and compelling. This seminar alone did more to convince me that Latin teachers at all levels need to be more aware of and begin using tools and techniques our modern language colleagues are using, even if our goals are somewhat different.
In the late afternoon, I saw Shirley and Skye give a great presentation on how they’ve structured an etymology/mythology course for students and their respective schools. Solid scholarship and great activities abounded – from the “make-up your own word using stems, prefixes, and suffixes” game to a research project asking students to discover the meanings behind their own names, I went home overflowing with ideas.
And that is just what I went to – there were seminars on using ipads, whiteboards, and other technologies in a foreign language class. Other seminars included ways to sell foreign language programs (who couldn’t use a few more tips in this day and age?) to help them grow, how to talk about art or get the most from a museum visit, and more.
I hope that you will consider broadening your New England conference circuits. Great Latin pedagogy is popping up everywhere, not just at CANE and ACL conferences, so do yourself a favor and check out something new. Maybe we’ll see each other soon!

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