UM Undergraduates Meet Online with Students at Sakhnin Teachers' College, Israel
Students taking the undergraduate class, Ling 342 'Perspectives on Bilingualism,' met with students at Sakhnin Teachers' College, Israel, in an online exchange on March 29. Facilitated by Philomena Meechan from the UM Language Resource Center, and Professors Manal Azbak Abu Ahmad (Sakhnin) and Carmel O'Shannessy (UM Linguistics), the students discussed their own experiences of multilingualism, and theoretical issues of multilingual identity. Both groups of students found the exchange very satisfying and recommend that it be incorporated into the course regularly. An interesting aspect for the UM students was that English is frequently the fourth language of the students in Israel. They were also interested in the types of social and political issues that influence language choice and language learning. The small-group online interactions provided a rich context for learning about multilingualism - students said that it introduced perspectives that they hadn't really thought about previously.