SLIC Presentations

Dr. Katy Arnett

Keynote title: The changing faces in Canadian classrooms: Lessons learned about and for linguistic and cultural inclusion

Speaker Name: Katy Arnett

Speaker Bio:

Katy Arnett, Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor & Chair of Educational Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland, USA. During the 2012-2013 year, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Second Language Research Institute of Canada (L2RIC) at the University of New Brunswick. Prior to her career in teacher education, she was a teacher of French at the secondary level in the U.S. For over a decade, she has been exploring the issue of how to facilitate inclusion in second language learning contexts, with a particular focus on French Second Language (FSL) classrooms in Canada. In recent years, she has expanded this focus to include the experience of English learners in K-12 content/second language classrooms.

Katy has pursued multiple paths for sharing her work in this field, including research articles, practitioner-focused articles, professional development workshops, and conference presentations. In 2012, her first book, Languages for all: How to support and challenge students in a second language classroom was published by Pearson Education Canada. With her colleague, Callie Mady of Nipissing University, she has co-edited a volume published in September 2013 by Multilingual Matters, entitled Minority populations in Canadian second language education.

Katy's M.A. and Ph.D. are in Second Language Education, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Since she completed her graduate work in Canada, she has traveled back to the country over 50 times and has presented her work in all of the provinces and the Yukon Territories.

Keynote description:

In this keynote, Katy will explore how the arrival of students to Canada from other points on the globe are changing the way we need to think about language teaching, cultural connections, and inclusion in the modern classroom. She’ll reference her recent work in New Brunswick, with late adolescent newcomers trying to find a foothold in the Canadian education system, her work as a French teacher outside Baltimore, Maryland, where she taught many students for whom French was at least a third language, and her work as a teacher educator, helping pre-service and in-service teachers better understand the realities and needs of students in the process of adding English to their repertoire. The keynote will synthesize relevant research with personal anecdotes that consider this challenge from multiple perspectives.

Workshop title: Languages for All for the content and FSL classroom

Speaker Name: Katy Arnett

Speaker Bio:

Katy Arnett, Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor & Chair of Educational Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland, USA. During the 2012-2013 year, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Second Language Research Institute of Canada (L2RIC) at the University of New Brunswick. Prior to her career in teacher education, she was a teacher of French at the secondary level in the U.S. Her current research considers the inclusion of students with disabilities and/or newcomers in classroom contexts.

Session description:

This session will use Katy’s book, Languages for All, as a touchstone to explore challenges experienced by newcomers and students with language-related difficulties and meaningful ways to provide them support in the classroom. Best practices for inclusive teaching and differentiation will be explored, and the featured strategies have been selected for their applicability to a variety of teaching contexts and learner populations. Hands-on activities and animated discussions will be woven throughout the session.