Penn State Talk Series

Penn State’s Institute for Korean Studies (IKS) is hosting 2022 Fall speaker series. Please join us for a talk by Dr. Jin Sook Lee.

Time: November 10, Thursday, 4:30-5:50pm (EST)

Topic: Developing critical consciousness: Applying lessons learned from a community-university partnership program to Korean language classrooms 

Zoom registration link:https://psu.zoom.us/j/95601264457

Talk abstract:

Research shows that language teaching is most effective when it is situated in meaningful learning experiences, especially ones that are personally relevant to the learners and integrate a level of criticality that involves the understanding of different perspectives and problem-solving. In this presentation, I will introduce a community-university partnership entitled School Kids Investigating Language in Life and Society (SKILLS), which is a sociolinguistic justice-centered outreach program that guides students, particularly those from linguistically minoritized backgrounds, to conduct original linguistic research and community-action projects on language-related issues in their families, peer groups, and local communities. Through student-led inquiries, learners are able to develop their academic skills, language proficiency, and multilingual/multicultural identities. Using instructional examples and models of student projects from this program, I will discuss how features of SKILLS may be applicable to Korean language classrooms as a means to move foreign and heritage language curricula beyond solely communicative goals to one that includes the development of critical consciousness. Thus, by connecting Korean language learning to such educational goals, language education is located in a more authentic learning context, enabling students to develop their proficiency via engagement with purposeful and relevant extensions of their horizons as well as aims of social justice and action. Time will be reserved to interact with session participants to brainstorm pedagogical ideas for how elements of SKILLS can be applied to different Korean language learning settings.