Looking to get further professional development to enhance your language teaching practices in the classroom? If you are trying to secure funding from your principal or school district than it is best to plan as far in advance as you can.
Attending national, regional or state conference with other bilingual, immersion or foreign language educators will improve your practices as a teacher.
Here are a few reasons why you might want to attend a bilingual or foreign language conference this year:
1. Learn about new research and methods
2. See live demonstrations of many techniques and ask questions
3. Connect with other like-minded teachers and form relationships that last longer than the conference
4. Bring back and share everything you learned with other school and district teachers, so they can benefit from your experience as well.
Below is a list of most popular conferences for Bilingual, Dual Language and Foreign Language teachers in the United States.
1. National Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Conference
2. La Cosecha: Dual Language Conference
3. International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education
4. National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE) Conference
5. California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) Conference
6. Michigan Association for Bilingual Education (MABE) Conference
7. ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
8. Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT)
9. Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Also, you can use Google to check if there are any foreign language or bilingual education conferences in your state. Many states have their own association with annual events to encourage collaboration at a local level for teachers.
Other Professional Development
If you cannot attend one of the above bilingual or foreign language teacher conferences than you may want to check in to some professional development offered by one of these organizations.
CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)
CARLA has many offering both during the school year and during the Summer they have many “institutes” and week-long PD’s that go into great depth on a variety of topics. From personal experience, I can say all the CARLA events I have attended and the speakers I have heard were excellent. CARLA is based at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
Center for Applied Linguistics
CAL also appeared to have many professional development opportunities for foreign language teachers on their website.
Remember, if you can, register early as most conferences offer ‘early bird’ or discounted rates for attendees that register months in advance. Do you attend any other bilingual or foreign language conferences that should be on this list?
