The 2021 South Asia Language Teachers Association’s annual conference is only a few days away! This year’s virtual format brings together scores of teachers and scholars from across the globe with skills an interests in over eighteen South Asian languages. From Assamese to Urdu, we are pleased to bring together this dynamic group of language professionals for three days of presentations, discussions, and community building from Friday, June 25^th to Sunday June 27^th. The schedule of panels can be found on the SALTA website at https://mysalta.org/2021-conference/.

Topic: SALTA Conference 2021

Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime

Join Zoom Meetinghttps://vanderbilt.zoom.us/j/92512796836?pwd=NjdlQUNJNzdYSk1QamMwcTlpMDNqQT09

I just learned about Rajasthani Bhasha Academy. It’s exciting to see institutes for less commonly taught South Asian languages. Check them out and think about them for your students who may want to do work in Rajasthani some day! https://www.rajasthanibhashaacademy.org/about/

Join us for more focused writing time, Wednesdays from 10-12 Hawaii Standard Time (4:00-6:00 p.m. Eastern)!

https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/93604468265

via Rebecca Manring and Sara Hansen, edited

The Virtual NSLI-Y program, a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, that introduces U.S. high school students to languages critical to U.S. national security, is a 10-week,  beginner-level foreign language and culture experience, in line with the ACTFL World Readiness Standards, that will also introduce participants to the people and culture of places where the target language is spoken.

Virtual NSLI-Y 2021-22 programs will take place this cycle in Fall 2021 (Sept – Nov) and Winter 2022 (Jan – Mar), and we will be hiring teachers of Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Turkish.

Though we have many teacher applicants for certain languages, we are in need of additional teacher applicants for Hindi in particular, and to a lesser extent Korean, Turkish, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese as well. The application for the 2021-22 Virtual NSLI-Y Language Teacher position can be found here.

You can find additional information about the program in the flyer attached, at our website (linked above), and I am very happy to answer any questions that may come up as well.

Best regards,

Sarah Hansen

Program Officer, Enrichment

National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)

1828 L Street N.W., Suite 1200

Washington, D.C. 20036

202.833.7522 ext. 125

www.americancouncils.org

www.nsliforyouth.org

News from UCSC via ACTFL:

“Language is absolutely important for a people."
UC collaboration launches first online course in the #Punjabi language via @ucsc #langchathttps://t.co/XHiX4eaXm5

— ACTFL (@actfl) May 26, 2021

via Divya Chaudhry, Research Director

• New this week!! The Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Reading Group led by Dr. Rajiv Ranjan. It will meet every alternate Friday. Its first meeting is this Friday, 5-28. A tentative schedule of readings is provided in the table below. Please reach out to Rajiv ji with suggestions for additional/alternate readings. 
• If you would like to lead a reading group on another topic , schedule a co-writing hour on another day/time, or initiate another learning community, please reach out to me. This group is in service of you and your professional development, and I would love to hear from you on how we can best accomplish that. 

Schedule for the week of May 24, 2021: 

Tuesday, 5-25 1100-1300 CST 1200-1400 EST	Weekly Co-Writing Hour (led by Elliott McCarter; Thank you, Elliott ji!!)	Zoom Meeting Link	Co-writing hour : Guidelines & Structure
Friday, 5-28 1000 -1100 CST 1100-1200 EST	Fortnightly SLA Reading Group (led by Rajiv Ranjan)	Zoom Meeting Link	Schedule and Selection of Readings
Friday, 5-28 1100 -1200 CST 1200-1300 EST	Weekly Urdu learning community (led by Ritu Jayakar)	Google Meet  Link	Urdu Resources Google Drive Folder
Saturday, 5-29 1700-1900 CST 1800-2000 EST	Weekly Co-Writing Hour (led by Divya Chaudhry)	(same as Tuesday)	(same as Tuesday)

via Divya Chaudhry, SALTA Research Coordinator

In an attempt to support each other and create more opportunities for collaboration, the research group will be hosting the following in the month of May. 

• weekly co-writing/working sessions on Tuesdays (11am-1 pm CST) and Saturdays (5 pm-7 pm CST). Here‘s the meeting link for both sessions for the months of May and June. The first session will take place on May 18, Tuesday. 

• In a usual co-writing session, individuals will work on their projects in small increments of time (~25 mins) with their videos turned off. At the 25 min mark, they have the choice to take a 5-min break or continue working. You do not have to stay for the entire time. 
• Dr. Simone McCarter, an expert in language, pedagogy, and critical writing and the current Academic Support Coordinator at Vanderbilt’s Writing Studio,  has graciously agreed to guide us through goal setting for these writing hours and making the best use of our time. She will join us at 11 am CST for the first session.  
• If you would like to join the Writing Group’s WhatsApp group , please use this link on your phone. Use it to ask any writing or writing -group- related questions. 
• If you would like to lead a session on another day/time, please reach out to me so I can help with its organization.
• Weekly Urdu learning community held on Fridays 11 am-noon CST
• Join us to get some dedicated practice on reading Urdu. 
• Ritu Jayakar is organizing this group, please contact her if you would like to join.
• SALTA Material Development Resources folder – This folder will house any personally vetted resources shared by our SALTA colleagues. You will find speaking proficiency rubrics shared during yesterday’s s meeting in this folder. 

If you would like to suggest any additional professional development activities that you would like to lead as part of SALTA, please do not hesitate to contact Divya.

via Gautami Shah (UTexas); Paul Sandrock (ACTFL)

ACTFL is offering a program to start teachers on the pathway to certification.  Our STARTALK Multistate Pathways to Teaching program is completely virtual and free, which allows for participants to manage their time through the asynchronous and synchronous sessions. This is fully available to people in any state (we are collaborating with four states, but are not limited to participation from those four states).  All the details are available on our website:  https://www.actfl.org/learn/actfl-startalk-multi-state-pathways-teaching

The program operates in three phases to develop teachers’ skills and identify specifically a route to state teacher certification:

• Phase One (June 16 – July 14: 1.5 hour virtual session each week)
• Phase Two (July 19 – August 9: synchronous sessions Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 14 hours each week)
• Phase Three (August through February: once each month, 1.5 hour virtual session)

Attached are materials to help you spread the word (our media toolkit).  You can pull the social media messages and images to send out via Twitter, Instagram, and to put a web banner on your website, or include the flyer in your newsletter or other ways of communicating with teachers in your network.

Thank you in advance for helping us reach your teachers with this valuable opportunity.  Please share any questions, requests, or suggestions with me.  ACTFL greatly appreciates this collaboration in support of teachers of Hindi and Urdu

SALTA has a new website! We will continue to generate content, provide South Asian Language pedagogy resources, and link to other organizations as our web presence grows. You are invited to add the website and contact for your language program on our site. You can use the website’s contact form, email president@salta.org, or respond to this post. Vanakkam, Swagatam, Wel-a-come!

UWisconsin-Madison SALTA Conference; June, 25-27, 2021 (Fri-Sun)

Call For Proposals (Panels and Individual Presentations)
Proposal Submission Deadline: Monday, May 10, 2021

The South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA) is pleased to announce a three-day conference to be held online in partnership with the University of Wisconsin at Madison on June 25-27, Friday-Sunday, 2021. Sessions will be split with one session occurring in the morning and another session occurring in the evening on each of the conference days. The theme of this year’s conference is South Asian Language Teaching: Adaptation and the Future.

The conference aims to bring together teachers of South Asian languages of all experience levels and all backgrounds to share and discuss how we can use innovative methods of instruction and collaboration to expand the horizon of South Asian language teaching. We hope to explore an array of topics including language pedagogy, building resources, emerging platforms for language teaching, and opportunities for collaboration that can potentially allow colleagues to work together on joint projects and programs.

We solicit proposals for panels on relevant topics, as suggested by the themes mentioned above, but proposals for individual presentations will also be considered. Each panel will be 90 minutes long with 3-4 panelists/presenters; and individual presentations will be 20 minutes long. A proposal should include name(s) of presenters/panelists and a short description (250-500 words) of your proposed panel/presentation. Please send your proposals to e.c.mccarter@vanderbilt.edu by Monday, May 10, 2021. Selected panels and presentations will be announced by May 14.

Conference registration is free. To register, please click the following link:

https://forms.gle/tBm3JF4U6Zs2fu4KA