Lingua Franca

¿Qué pasa? Quoi de neuf? Novità? Department News Abounds (14.2)

Department News

• The International Business Department and the World Languages Department are preparing to offer an International Business-World Languages double-major, effective fall 2018. Students can start enrolling in the second major now.
• The department continued its collaboration with Melrose High School. Our SPN 351 was taught in place of their AP Spanish course, supervised by Dr. Nicole Sherf. The plan is to expand the offerings to French, Italian and German next year.
• The department will be represented at the MaFLA Diversity Day professional development program at Lasell College on May 6, 2017. Dr. Elizabeth Blood and Dr. Louissa Abdelghany will present a workshop on “Beyond the 3 P’s: Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Competence” and Dr. Michele C. Davila will present “Explorando la diversidad intercultural de Latinoamérica.”
• A total of 17 students, 5 faculty members (Business, IDS, Melrose High School), and 1 community member (City of Salem Mayor’s Office) were inducted in the Phi Sigma Iota Honor Society at the ceremony on April 19, 2017, at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem. Platinum Seal of Biliteracy Awards were given for the first time as part of our departmental participation in the state pilot. The inducted members were the following:
  • Faculty: Edward Desmarais, Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Jian Gu, Guorong Zhu; community faculty: Kimberly Talbot; community leader: Laura Assade; students: (graduate) (MAT-Spanish) Kristen Duhamel, Hasmik Hovanisian, Sarah Merullo, Betsaida Ramos-Pachucki, Elias Reinoso, Ellen Woods; (undergraduates) (SPN) Anita Caceda, Deborah Mariano, Joviana Morin, Brooke Sauriol, Jacqueline Toledo, Jessica Walters; (ARA) Yasmeen Srour, (FRE) Hannah Newcombe, Hana Sargent, (ITL) Cody Miller

Student News

• This is the first year we have students completing the Capstone Seminar in Translation in both French and Spanish. The six students completing the Certificate of Translation in French are Christian Lopez, Nathalie Reyes, Jeff Robinson, Hana Sargent, Samantha Trullo, and Kenson Toussaint. The students completing their work in Spanish and presenting their translation portfolios in translation (Spanish/English) at the Undergraduate Research Symposium are: Brittney Boucher, Daniel Hyde, Deborah Mariano, Javier Rodriguez Díaz, Aldelly Vasquez and Michael Veggi. These students’ portfolio presentations will be May 4^th, 10:30-11:30am in SB 204, sponsored by Drs. Elizabeth Blood and Kristine Doll. Congratulations!
• Five students are graduating from the WLC-French major this spring and will present their theses at the Undergraduate Research Symposium which will take place on May 4^th, 9am-10:15am in SB 204. The faculty sponsor is Dr. Elizabeth Blood.:
  • Christian Lopez: “Hispanophones, pourquoi le français?” – research on motivations of Spanish-speaking students who choose to study French as a third language
  • Nathalie Reyes: “Étudier à l’étranger: croissance et développement personnel” – research on the effects of study abroad on personal development among SSU French students and alumni
  • Jeff Robinson: “La beauté dans Madame Bovary de Gustave Flaubert” – study on character development and the concept of beauty in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
  • Lisa Rush: “Influences culturelles sur le gaspillage alimentaire en France et aux États-Unis” – research on how culture influences attitudes towards food waste in France and the United States
  • Hana Sargent: “La consommation en pleine conscience: les traditions gastronomiques françaises dans les films américains” – examination of portrayals of French food culture in American films
• One Spanish major will also be completing her capstone course this spring and will be presenting her thesis at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. The faculty sponsor is Dr. Jon Aske. Her presentation will be between 1:00 and 3:35pm in CC244.
  • Erika Perez: “¿Sobrevivirá la lengua mam de Guatemala en el siglo XXI bajo la influencia del español?” – research on the attrition of the Mayan language Mam in Guatemala in contact with Spanish
• Students in the MAT-Spanish program’s capstone course will present their research at the Graduate Symposium on May 4th in two panels, both in CC244, one at 1:00-2:15pm and the other at 2:20-3:35pm.
  • Martha Abeille: “Un acercamiento a la enseñanza del clásico Don Quijote de la Mancha y el film El Estudiante como recurso didáctico” (An approach to the teaching of the classic Don Quijote of La Mancha and the film El Estudiante as a didactic resource.)
  • Alyssa Barras: “La vida es más dulce si eres bilingüe y deportista: las diferentes escuelas en Massachusetts y el efecto que sus programas tienen en los resultados y éxito de los estudiantes” (Life is better if you are athletic and bilingual: different types of schools in Massachusetts and their learning outcomes.)
  • Domingo Castro: “Mexico y España, dos paises a la vanguardia del desarrollo aeroespacial en el mundo hispano” (Mexico and Spain, two countries leading the space race in the Hispanic World.)
  • Kristen Duhamel: “¡Ay caramba–vamos a leer en español! Cómo lograr el dominio en la enseñanza de la comprensión lectora” (We are going to read in Spanish! How to achieve proficiency in the teaching of reading comprehension.)
  • Carleen French: “Celebrar el éxito excesivamente en las escuelas crea una brecha entre las expectativas y los resultados obtenidos” (Celebrating success in schools unnecesarily creates a gap between expectations and outcomes.)
  • Hasmik Hovanisian: “El papel de la cultura en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en las escuelas secundarias de los Estados Unidos” (The role of culture in the teaching of foreign languages in the American high school.)
  • Sarah Merullo: “El campo de juego ha cambiado su vida: el impacto de la participación en deportes organizados en la identidad de las latinas jóvenes en los Estados Unidos” (The playing field has changed their life: the impact of participation in organized sports on the identities of young Latinas in the United States.)
  • Claude Pierre: “El impacto del voto latino en las elecciones presidenciales de los EEUU en el siglo XXI” (The impact of the Latino vote in US presidential elections in the 21^st century.)
  • Elías Reinoso: “MCAS versus estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua” (MCAS Versus English Language Learners.)
• Three German students from Salem State are traveling to Germany this summer to enroll in a four week intensive summer German program at Universität Mannheim, Salem State’s partner institution in Germany, and one SSU student will be spending the Fall semester there (see page on this German program)
• Graduating WLC-French major Lisa Rusch ‘17 was accepted into an accelerated one-year Masters of Education program at Boston College with a full scholarship offered through the Urban Scholars Program. She will graduate from Salem State in May and begin her graduate studies in June 2017!
• SSU alum Makalah Moore ‘16 (English major/French minor) is completing her year of teaching English in France through the TAPIF program sponsored by the French government. She is the 4th SSU student to win this fellowship. Check out some of her adventures on YouTube, like this video on “5 Weird Things about France” https://youtu.be/KpYGA8sAz2U
• The three language clubs on campus, the French Club, the Italian Club and the Spanish Club, have been having a very active semester with regular meetings. On Saturday, April 1st, the Italian Club at SSU sponsored a guided tour at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston and on April 18 it celebrated its Cultural Night, where SSU students of Italian shared their study abroad experiences and their findings about the contributions of Italians in Massachusetts and Italian food for vegetarians.
• Congratulations to Sean M. Burke who won the Hope Award 2017 with his essay “Understanding Each Other” that will be published in the next issue of Lingua Franca.

Faculty News

Dr. Kristine Doll was awarded an Erasmus Plus Program fellowship and will be teaching a series of graduate-level workshops on translation at the John Paul II University in Lublin, Poland this May, 2017. She has also published her poetry and translations into English of Catalan poetry in Loch Raven Review (Baltimore), Shabdaguccha International (New York) and The Seventh Quarry (Wales, UK).

Dr. Fátima Serra attended the XI Coloquio Nacional sobre las Mujeres at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, April 4-6, 2017 in Mayagüez. She presented the paper “Interseccionalidad e identidad: Legado en los Huesos de Dolores Redondo.” Her article “El corazón helado de Almudena Grandes, algo más que una novela sentimental” will appear in a volume dedicated to the writer Almudena Grandes in July.

Dr. Anna Rocca published “Tunisian Women’s Reflections upon Solidarity: Yesterday and Today” in the journal Women in French Studies, volume 24 (2016). She also presented “Pleasure and the Pleasurable in Africa and the African Diaspora,” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 13-15 April 2017, and participated at a special panel on Algerian writer Assia Djebar with “Assia Djebar: The Pleasure of Discerning.”

Dr. Fátima Serra, Elizabeth Blood, Dr. Michele C. Dávila and Kenneth Reeds were nominated this semester for the Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Kenneth Reeds was also nominated for the Outstanding First Year Advocate Award.

Dr. Elizabeth Blood was awarded a LEAP for Education 2017 Educator Award in April 2017 for her mentorship of WLC-French major Nathalie Reyes, who will graduate in May 2017.

Dr. Nicole Sherf presented MaFLA’s Core Practices Seminar “Teaching Grammar as a Concept” on April 8, 2017, as a part of a six seminar series offered through the organization. She published an article on the same topic, “Putting Grammar in its Place to Foster Proficiency Development,” in ACTFL’s Mar/Apr 2017 edition of The Language Educator.

Dr. Ken Reeds, who is currently on sabbatical, was awarded a Scholarship Support Grant to conduct research this May in the Latin American and Caribbean Collection at the University of Florida.

Dr. Jon Aske is working on a blog to disseminate his work on Spanish-English cognates and on the study of linguistics, history, and culture through the comparison of cognate vocabulary in these two languages. (See the related mention in this issue of Lingua Franca.)