Experts in the field of bilingual education and bilingual teacher development will gather on Saturday, Feb. 3, at Loyola Marymount University to offer training and support for educators who teach in dual-language immersion schools.
Hosted by LMU SOE’s Center for Equity for English Learners, the 25th annual International Multilingual Education Conference – Jornada Pedagógica Internacional para la Educación Multilingüe – is expected to draw attendees from across the country, Mexico and Spain, to one of the longest-standing, and one of the few, events of its kind held in Spanish.
It comes at a time when bilingual teacher preparation is in greater demand in California; with the recent passage of Proposition 58, voters repealed a provision of state law that restricted schools from teaching English language learners in their native languages. That, coupled with the increased demand for dual-language programs across the state and nation, is opening the door for more teachers to earn their bilingual credentials.
The event, co-sponsored by the LMU School of Education, California Association for Bilingual Education and Los Angeles Unified School District, will feature a keynote address by Ofelia Garcia, Ph.D., a professor at City University of New York and an expert in the theory of translanguaging – the process where multilingual speakers utilize their languages as an integrated communication system.
Other speakers are: Alma Flor Ada, Ph.D., an award-winning Cuban-American author of children’s books, University of San Francisco professor emerita, and expert in bilingual and multicultural education; and Isabel Campoy, Ph.D., a specialist in linguistics and author of numerous children’s books in the areas of poetry, theatre, stories, biographies and art.
In honor of her contributions and her 80th birthday, the LMU School of Education will also inaugurate the Alma Flor Ada Bilingual Social Justice Educator Award.
The conference is from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the university’s Ahmanson Auditorium. More information is available here.
