AAUSC 2016 Volume - Issues in Language Program Direction: The Interconnected Language Curriculum: Critical Transitions and Interfaces in Articulated K-16 Contexts [Paperback] Urlaub, Per; Watzinger-Tharp, Johanna and Bourns, Stacey Katz

Many foreign language departments have developed innovative curricula with the goal of overcoming two-tiered structures that often separate language instruction at the lower levels from upper division content coursework. However, language departments rarely extend their articulation efforts to include pre-collegiate experiences even though recent educational reforms have significantly altered not only the skill sets, but also needs and expectations of students entering college. In addition to attending to vertical interfaces, successful language curricula integrate horizontally with academic and professional units outside the language department. This volume furthers the existing knowledge base on the collegiate foreign language curriculum by providing a K-20 perspective on the achievement of curricular coherence. It is intended for a broad audience, but in particular language program directors, to help them address the critical transitions that language learners face during their progression from public schools through undergraduate programs and into graduate education.

Per Urlaub is an Associate Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a PhD in German Studies from Stanford University. His contributions to the areas of reading research, curriculum development, and instructional technology have been published in various venues such as the Foreign Language Annals, System, Unterrichtspraxis, the ADFL Bulletin, and Profession. He also has contributed to past AAUSC volumes. The book "Transforming Postsecondary Foreign Language Teaching in the United States," co-edited with Janet Swaffar, appeared in 2014. He is the guest co-editor of "Teaching Brecht," a special-interest edition of the Brecht Yearbook, and is developing a monograph on literary reading in the second language. For the academic year 2014-15, Per Urlaub joined Vanderbilt University's Center for Second Language Studies as the Scholar-In-Residence.

Johanna Watzinger-Tharp is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah. She earned her MA and PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on dual language immersion, L2 methodology and teacher education, and language variation, and has been published in scholarly venues such as Foreign Language Annals, the Modern Language Journal and Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German. Her publications also include co-edited volumes and German language textbooks. In 2010, the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) awarded her the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education. She has served in leadership positions of national professional organizations and serves as the co-chair of Utah�s World Language Council, which produced the Utah Language Roadmap for the 21st Century that helped establish Utah�s Dual Language Immersion Program.

Stacey Katz received her Ph.D from the University of Texas, Austin, in French Linguistics. Stacey Katz is currently the Director of Language Programs in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She has published several pedagogical texts and presented her research at major conferences. Stacey's research interests include Applied French Linguistics, French syntax and French pragmatics.