FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Clark, Longtime Foreign Language Professor, to Address Area Teachers
Margaret Clark, associate professor emerita of foreign languages at the University of Arkansas, will give the keynote address Friday, Nov. 14, at the fall conference of District III of the Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association.
The conference, which is titled “Opening Minds to the World Through Languages,” will bring together language teachers in 33 counties of District III at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale. The teachers can earn six hours of professional development credit in their content area.
Clark has been involved with foreign language education at the University of Arkansas since 1969. She earned a master’s degree in 1968 and a doctorate in education in 1978 from the university and held a joint appointment in the College of Education and Health Professions and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences until her retirement in 1998. She continued to teach one course each semester for several more years.
“Many of our district teachers have had Dr. Clark for French, ESL or Methods of Teaching Foreign Language among the many classes she has taught at the university,” said Freddie Bowles, assistant professor of foreign language education. “Dr. Clark has promoted foreign and second language education from the national to the state level by working on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency standards for students and teacher educators and the Arkansas ESL endorsement courses and Frameworks for Teaching Foreign Languages.
Clark has served on the board of directors of the University of Arkansas Alumni Association, and she was one of 10 people honored by the university with a Silas Hunt Legacy Award in 2006.
Clark will discuss the importance of teaching culture in the foreign language classroom, one of the “Five C’s” incorporated in the standards for teaching foreign languages: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities.
She will be joined by 18 other presenters covering a range of topics from making appropriate textbook choices to using discussion boards and Podcasts in the foreign language classroom. The conference ends with immersion sessions in the three most commonly taught languages: French, German and Spanish.
The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. On-site registration is $40, which includes a light breakfast and catered lunch. Students pay a reduced rate of $25. For more information, contact Bowles at fbowles@uark.edu or 575-3035.