Postgraduate Success for Language Learning: Framing Questions and Undergraduate Student Perspectives

This session kicks off our Fall series on the link between collegiate language study and post-graduate success. In this session, we will discuss our vision for this series and some framing questions, and share research on undergraduate student perspectives on the link between language study and their career aspirations.

Claire Frances became the Director of the CLCLin 2019 (then called the Language Media Center). In the past three years, she has updated the space to be flexible, adaptive, and student-centered; created a VR learning space, and a Computer Assisted Language Lab. She also founded a peer tutoring program in the twelve languages taught in the Division of World Languages, and launched a multilingual community based oral history project and is working on developing a Humanities Lab and a Global Kitchen. She oversees a team of three instructional technologists, and about 20 students who have all contributed to making the CLCL an amazing and welcoming hub, with Instagram and Spotify accounts that are “fire.”

Dianna Murphy directs the Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a center for collaborative initiatives in research, education, advising and outreach related to the study of human languages. In this role, she oversees the institute’s mission and activities, and leads special projects. Current special projects include the yearlong Committed to Change seminar focused on diversity and inclusion in language teaching and learning; collaborative work to raise awareness of language ideologies and linguistic discrimination; survey-based research on student perspectives on undergraduate language education; and the federally funded study on the speaking proficiency gains and outcomes of intensive summer programs in less commonly taught languages. Murphy is also co-director of the UW-Madison Russian Flagship Program, a core member of the UW-Madison Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition, and co-director of the Wisconsin Language Roadmap Initiative. Information on Murphy’s research is here.