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The Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures at the School of Arts and Sciences on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University, invites applications for a tenure-track, open rank position at the level of assistant or associate professor in the field of classical/modern South Asian literatures beginning Fall 2010.

Native or near-native proficiency in one South Asian language is required. The ideal candidate will have a record of publications on classical and/or modern South Asian literatures. The position will involve designing and teaching courses on South Asian literatures in English and/or in translation, as well as coordinating, once in about every four years, a team-taught course on the literatures of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Experience in teaching a South Asian language would be an added advantage.

The completed application, including a CV, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample, should be mailed to:

Dr. Ousseina Alidou

Chair, South Asian Literature Search Committee

Rutgers University

Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures

54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue

Lucy Stone Hall B 309

Piscataway NJ 08854

Review of applications will begin on November 30, 2009. Rutgers is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Purpose of Program: The IRS Program provides grants to conduct research and studies to improve and strengthen instruction in modern foreign languages, area studies, and other international fields.

See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-27122.htm for details. Priority to 78 languages.

For Further Information Contact: Beth MacRae, International Education Programs Service, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6088, Washington, DC 20006-8521. Telephone: (202) 502-7596; or by e-mail: beth.macrae@ed.gov.

POSITION: LANGUAGE COORDINATOR

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The Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University (New Brunswick) invites applications for a full time, non-tenure track position of Language Coordinator. This is a renewable, three-year contractual position with full benefits. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition or a related field, with a concentration on Less Commonly Taught Languages of Africa/Middle East/South Asia, and should have a minimum of three years experience in Second/Foreign Language Coordination in an American academy. Candidates are expected to be competent in the use of instructional technology and communicative, standards-based teaching methodologies and must be conversant with the latest methods in Second/Foreign language assessment. Demonstrated success in grant-writing is an added advantage. Working in conjunction with the Language Institute, scheduling office and other relevant units, the Language Coordinator will be responsible for the general management of language instruction in the department — including training, supervision and evaluation of language instructors; scheduling of classes and placement tests; and campus-wide promotion of the study of these languages. In addition, the Language Coordinator will be expected to teach 3 courses per year in his/her primary language(s) of expertise. Applicants should submit a letter of interest and updated CV, and have three letters of recommendation sent directly to Dr. Alamin Mazrui. Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2010 and continue until the position is filled. Applications should be addressed to:

Professor Alamin Mazrui, Chair

Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures,

Rutgers University

Lucy Stone Hall B-309

54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue

Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8045

Rutgers is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Learner’s issues:

Non-heritage learners: As they write; they speak

The heritage learners: As they speak; they write

The South Asia Institute at University of Texas at Austin is organizing a two days workshop for Tamil instructors to draw common strategies in teaching Spoken Tamil. The workshop will be held on the University of Texas at Austin campus, in Austin, Texas on 12 & 13 March 2010.

Papers addressing the following topics/themes are welcomed:

Identifying problems in teaching spoken Tamil to students

Do we really need too many rules to teach students about the spoken-written?

What linguistic level or levels must be the scale for this?

Linguistic levels problems and solutions (phonological, morphological, morpho- phonemic, syntactic, semantic, and discourse)

Grammatical category-wise

Levels-wise (Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced)

Borrowed words (non-native-really we need this?). If yes, what strategies we can adapt in transliteration?

Is spoken needs sandhi?

Can we go simultaneously with written and spoken details while teaching?

Any other issues related to spoken-written you feel to discuss is welcomed

I earnestly request you send a short write-up now as an Abstract for the topic you plan for a presentation. The presentation is for 20 minutes in length with an additional 10 minutes for question answer are planned. Kindly send your Abstract on or before Dec. 05, 2009.  I am pleased to inform you that we can reimburse your travel and stay. The program is for two days, on 12 & 13 March between at 9.00 A.M.-4.30 P.M. on 12th and between 9.00 A.M.-12.30 P.M. on 13th and will be concluded by noon. Box lunches will be served for these two days with snacks and coffee during the workshop and there will be a dinner on 12th night in a restaurant with participants.

All presentations will be on 12 March, 2009 and a discussion to workout common strategies on 13 March 2009.

Kindly confirm your participation so that we can make hotel accommodation well in advance and inform you with details. A full program with details will be sent in Jan. 2010.

Please feel free to contact <radha@mail.utexas.edu> for any information regarding the workshop.

Regarding accommodation, airfare, and any other question(s), please contact Rita Omrani by email at <ritaomrani@austin.utexas.edu.>

Looking forward and welcoming you all to UT campus

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This competition is part of the sustained public awareness campaign Discover Languages..Discover the World! which is designed to bring media attention to the critical need for all students to have the opportunity to learn a second language.

http://www.actflvideocontest.org/

Contest deadline: December 20, 2009

Deadline extended until November 30, 2009

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The Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages(NCOLCTL) is soliciting articles for publication. As the official journal of the Council, the journal serves the professional interests of teachers, researchers, and administrators of less commonly taught languages in all settings and all levels of instruction. The Journal is refereed and published once a year.

Our general editorial focus is on policy, education, programs, advocacy, and research in the field of less commonly taught languages (all foreign languages except English, French, German, and Spanish). The envisaged segmentation of the Journal is as follows:

a. Methodology and Technology,

b. Academia,

c. Beyond Academia,

d. Social Embeddedness

The first section shall include papers focusing on broader theoretical and technological issues in all fields of less commonly taught languages. The second section will encompass reports about research and teaching in academia, at both K-12 and collegiate levels. The third section shall comprise papers addressing research and teaching in government and industry. Finally, the fourth section will address the issues of a broader social environment, ranging from heritage communities to advancing LCTLs in federal initiatives and legislation.

In preparing the manuscript, please use the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), see http://www.apa.org/journals/authors/guide.pdf. Manuscripts should be a maximum of 25 pages (excluding references, charts, notes, etc.) and preferably submitted electronically via email attachment. Double-space the manuscript throughout, including notes, references, and tables, using 12-point font with a 1.5 inch left margin. The manuscript should be accompanied by a 150 word (or less) abstract and a cover sheet containing the manuscript title, name, address, office and home telephone numbers, fax number, email address, and full names and institutions of each author. Because the manuscript will be blind reviewed, identifying information should be on the cover sheet only, and not appear in the manuscript.

While submissions are welcome at any point, only papers received by November 30, 2009 will be considered for the 2010 issue of the Journal.

ncolctl@mailplus.wisc.edu

NCOLCTL

4231 Humanities Building

455 N. Park Street

Madison, WI 53706

Tel: 608-265-7903; FAX 608 265 7904.

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Merit-based scholarships are available to study overseas for summer, semester and academic year programs in Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Farsi), Russian and Turkish. In addition, your school, school system and/or local university can apply for a sub-grantee award to organize and implement six- to eight-week overseas intensive language programs to take place in summer 2010.

Interested students should visit www.nsliforyouth. org, where they can complete the online application. The deadline is December 4, 2009. Organizations interested in Summer 2010 sub-grant opportunities can view the Request for Proposal (RFP) by clicking here. The submission deadline for proposals is November 16, 2009. If after reading the RFP you have questions, please contact American Councils at 1-866-790-2086.

Modern South Asian Studies 2010

26. – 29.07.2010

University of Bonn, Germany

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Scholars and students from any field of research related to the South Asian region are invited to participate in the 21. European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (ECMSAS) in Bonn (Germany).

For many years, the ECMSAS has been an important platform and indicator of contemporary trends in South Asian studies worldwide. The 21.ECMSAS will host 44 panels, covering a broad range of research subjects. Contributions to one of the panels during Europe’s primary event in South Asian research next year are appreciated!

Anyone interested to present her or his research to an academic public should contact one of the panel conveners as soon as possible. We are planning to put the complete list of presentations and abstracts on the net towards the end of the year. Please check the list of panels on www.ecmsas.org to find out, where your specialization might fit into. Young researchers are particularly invited to join the conference and present their findings to the academic public. Panels are completely independent, and organizers and the steering committee members don’t intervene on this level.

Bonn, formerly seat of Germany’s government, is a small town on the banks of the river Rhine, easily accessible through rail, car and airplane. Hosting agency of the 21. ECMSAS is the Institute for Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Bonn. The university’s chair of indology, the first of its kind in Germany, was established in the year of the foundation of the university, in 1818.

Early bird register special offer is available through online registration and advance card payment.

For the following languages: Arabic * Azerbaijani * Bangla/Bengali * Chinese * Hindi * Indonesian * Japanese * Korean * Persian * Punjabi * Russian * Turkish * Urdu

See the following page for more details:  https://clscholarship.org/home.php

2010 ACTFL ANNUAL CONVENTION AND WORLD LANGUAGES EXPO

November 19-21 (Pre-convention workshops on Thursday, November 18)

Boston, Massachusetts

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Languages: Gateway to Global Communities

The Annual Convention and World Languages Expo of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) will be Friday, November 19 (Pre-Convention Workshops scheduled on Thursday, November 18) through Sunday, November 21, 2009 in Boston, MA. The ACTFL Convention features over 500 educational sessions covering the whole spectrum of the foreign language profession. The entire selection of sessions is designed to provide attendees with an exciting array of sessions and events to further their knowledge and help them be better teachers or administrators. We welcome you to submit a proposal for consideration. When you login, it is very important that you read carefully the Submission Guidelines before proceeding to complete your online submission.

The convention draws approximately 6,000 attendees and is the only national event bringing together all languages, levels and assignments within the profession. Please note: Presenters whose proposals are selected for presentation MUST be available to present any day during the Convention.

Proposals may be submitted here.   For further information regarding the convention, see the main ACTFL website at: http://www.actfl.org.