President's Message, Fall 2018

Dear FLANC Members,

Happy school year to everyone in the language teaching community!  I hope this summer break provided you with many chances to relax and re-energize for the new year.  I am honored to be serving as FLANC president and, together with the always supporting members of our Executive Board, I want to thank all language educators, exhibitors, affiliates, and presenters who made our last fall conference a great success!  

Just like last year, this October conference combines a diversity of sessions on theoretical concepts and practical ideas offered by passionate, knowledgeable, and inspiring speakers and presenters.  We are excited to have our conference in the City of Moraga and are deeply grateful and proud for Saint Mary’s College hosting the event. In this regard, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Frances Sweeney, Vice President for Mission and Professor of Spanish at Saint Mary’s College, for her professionalism, caring, and respect for FLANC as we organize this fall conference. 

We strive to offer our members a professional event that places as much emphasis on classroom techniques as on online learning opportunities.  Thus, we are delighted to have Dr. Julie Sykes, professor at the University of Oregon, as our Keynote Speaker. Needless to say her presentation, titled L2 Pragmatics and Digitally-Mediated Communication: Innovation in World Language Education, will be the highlight of the conference and a fantastic opportunity to learn about the current issues in language learning.

Finally, I would like to also remind our members to consider the various grants and awards offered by FLANC and, especially, to congratulate the winners of the 2018 Alexandra C. Wallace Essay Contest:
First Place: Leon Chou, from Albany High School - Pam Lim-McAlister (teacher)

Second Place: Jay Francisco, from Salesian College Preparatory - William Heidenfeldt (teacher)
Congratulations to Leon and to Jay, and to the many students from diverse schools who also participated with interesting and creative essays!  All participating students were honored with the Alexandra C. Wallace Essay Contest Certificate. Consider encouraging your students to take part in an activity that can enhance motivation and linguistic competence.  

If you do not want to wait till spring. . . You can have your students send a video clip to the FLANC Digital Art Contest.  The deadline is October 15. Please, find more details in this fall Newsletter and keep in mind that entries will be broadcasted through the day during the conference. 

I hope you join us this October!  
Looking forward to meeting you at our conference,

Sandra García Sanborn 

FLANC President