During the week of Oct. 19-203, World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio Director Curtis Maughan and Spanish Instructor Elkin Javier Perrez Arroyo traveled to Montería, Cordoba, in Colombia to present at the fourth International Conference on Innovative Practices and Research in Foreign Language Teaching, whose theme was "on the path to diversity and social justice."  

This version of the conference was a space for discussion and reflection on how the teaching and learning of world languages contribute to promoting diversity and ensure social justice. The fourth conference was held at Universidad de Cordóba in Montería, Cordoba, in Colombia, and the Centro Cultural Guillermo Valencia Salgado, a center of talent, art, and entrepreneurship established in honor of Guillermo Valencia Salgado, a Colombian musician, writer and folklorist from Montería.

Professor Maughan gave a keynote speech titled "From Mixed Realities to Serious Games: Playful and Inclusive Approaches to Integrating Technology in the Teaching of World Languages and Cultures" to kick off the conference on Thursday. The talk demonstrated how digital media — from videogames to online archives — can expand our capacity to include and empower a diverse spectrum of students in their pursuit of world languages and cultures. The keynote explored digital humanities tools, such as Voyant and Serious Video Games, and presented multimodal approaches for fostering learning communities at a departmental level.

Professor Maughan leading his workshop on “Digital Tools for the L2 Classroom” at the 4th annual ICTEFOL conference in Montería, Colombia.

Maughan's workshop, "Digital Tools for the L2 Classroom," guided participants through an entire learning unit based on computational text analysis, online learning, and interactive fiction. Maughan also hosted a "Meet the Author" Q&A about his publications in Digital Humanities with graduate students and faculty from the Universidad de Cordoba.

Professor Perez Arroyo gave a presentation on "Intercultural Communication: The Use of Literatures and Cultures to Encourage Inclusion and Social Justice in a Second Language Acquisition Class," which was one of the five discussions panels in which there were professors from the University of Arkansas and the University of Arizona.

Perez Arroyo commented, "The idea of the presentation was how, in our language classes and through literature and cultures, we discuss topics regarding inclusions and social justice using the target language."

Maughan recounted his experience at the conference, saying, "It was a thrill and an honor to participate in the ICTEFOL conference at the Universidad de Cordoba. I'm deeply impressed by the caliber of undergraduate and graduate students who participated in hosting the conference, and I'm especially grateful to the head conference organizer, Danilza Lorduy, for putting on such a memorable and productive event. Elkin and I are greatly looking forward to continuing our collaboration with the highly innovative faculty in the department of Foreign Languages."

For more information on the International Conference on Innovative Practices and Research in Foreign Language Teaching conference, please visit the 2023 conference's website.