The Coalition for Language Teaching & Learning

History & Mission

The Coalition for Language Teaching & Learning consists of a group of language teaching faculty working in collaboration with the Center for Teaching & Learning to support, celebrate, and strengthen language teaching at WashU. The Coalition arises from the work done under the banner of the Language Teaching Fair since 2019.

In Spring of 2019, Mimi Kim (EALC, Korean Language) and Iva Youkilis (formerly of RLL, Italian Language) brought to Meg Gregory (formerly of the CTL, currently in the College Writing Program) their ideas for putting together an event for and by language faculty from across WashU language departments. As there are faculty teaching language in more than 10 different departments and programs across WashU, they saw this as an important opportunity to gather everyone at the same table, to share the wealth of language pedagogy knowledge across departments and across campus. Mimi, Iva, and Meg made up the board for the Coalition for Language Teaching and Learning from 2019-2024.

Following Iva’s departure from WashU, in Fall 2024, Vincent Jouane (RLL, French Language) stepped in to join the Coalition’s board. Additionally, Elina Salminen (CTL) joined the CTL and the board in 2024.

The Annual Language Teaching Fair

Since the inaugural event in Fall 2019, The Language Teaching Fair has provided an occasion for language faculty to meet before each fall semester to discuss concerns and successful strategies for teaching in the languages at WashU. This one-day event took place in person in Fall 2019 and, due to the shift to online instruction, was offered via a digital environment in Zoom in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, and Fall 2022. The event was offered in a hybrid format for 2023, and returned as an in-person event starting in Fall 2024. The inaugural in-person event was sponsored by The Center for Teaching & Learning, and the Departments of Classics; East Asian Language & Cultures; Germanic Languages and Literatures; Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies; and Romance Languages and Literatures. Since then, many departments on campus have continued their support and funding.

Each fall, the Language Teaching Fair centers on cross-departmental, informal collegial conversation and brings together both new and returning, novice and expert language instructors. Faculty, as well as some graduate students and postdocs, have presented their ideas and participated in panels focusing on topics ranging from Language Teaching for Special Purposes and Assessment Strategies to Supporting Heritage Language Speakers and Using Educational Technology in the Language Classroom.

At each event, the CTL has also offered a special pedagogy workshop or introductory session geared towards language teaching. CTL sessions have centered on topics like supporting group learning in the language classroom, planning for the first day of language class via Zoom, and upon the return to the physical classroom in the Fall of 2021, addressing anxieties related to language teaching in the “new normal.”

A call for discussant proposals for the Annual Language Teaching Fair goes out each spring/summer. Feel free to reach out to Elina Salminen (elinasalminen@wustl.edu) if you’d like to get involved.

Language Teaching Spring Showcase

In addition to the Language Teaching Fair, the Coalition for Language Teaching & Learning also offers the Spring Showcase, an event originally focused on continuing the discussion from some aspect of the Language Teaching Fair in the fall. For example, in Spring of 2020, just before the start of the pandemic, the Spring event was a coffee hour called “Extending Class Time with Canvas,” which featured three faculty members discussing at further length the ways that they’d been using educational technologies and Canvas in their classes. These conversations proved to be extremely timely.

The spring event has since then evolved into a Showcase, highlighting even more faculty voices. Since 2021, the format has consisted of rotating small groups, wherein language faculty describe examples of activities, exercises, and teaching tools that they have found helpful in their practice. Participants get to share their expertise and also leave with a host of new ideas to bring back to their own classrooms. The event concludes with a happy hour to celebrate the great work that language faculty do all school year. A call for participants for this event goes out each spring.