PASSION. LANGUAGE. INSPIRATION.
Three TED-style talks.
Rada Mihalcea
Director of the Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab
Words and People: What Language Tells Us About Ourselves
Discover how research in artificial intelligence can provide insights into connections between language and human nature, and how those connections differ across cultures.
Rada Mihalcea searches for patterns in language data collected from around the world – gaining a deeper understanding of linguistic phenomena and the opinions, beliefs, and values of the people behind the language.
Lourdes Ortega
Professor of Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University
Why Language Teachers Should Think Multilingually
A case for learning how to embrace multilingualism as a value and a tool in our foreign language classrooms to nurture (rather than undermine) success in the target language among our students.
Lourdes Ortega is committed to encouraging connections between research and teaching and to supporting harmonious bilingualism and the well-being of all multilinguals.
Andrew Brown
Founder and Executive Director of The Global Language Network
How to Use Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our world
We each have the ability to harness the powerful tool of language to improve ourselves, our families, our communities, our countries, and our world.
Andrew Brown helps others use language learning to break down cultural barriers and build better relationships.
Marty Abbott
World Language Advocate
November 23, 2019
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Marriott Marquis Hotel
Independence Ballroom
Salon D
ConnecTalks 2019 Presentations
In addition to the insightful presentations, Ted-Ed lessons have been developed with the presenters. A button leading to the Ted-Ed lesson can be found below each video.
LOURDES ORTEGA is a professor of applied linguistics at Georgetown University. She is best known for an award-winning meta-analysis of second language instruction published in 2000, a best-seller graduate-level textbook Understanding Second Language Acquisition (Routledge 2009, translated into Mandarin in 2016), and since 2010 for championing a bilingual and social justice turn in the study of adults’ language learning. Her latest book is The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism (co-edited with child bilingualism researcher Annick De Houwer). Lourdes was born, raised, and college-educated in southern Spain, spent a year abroad at the University of Munich in the early 1980s, worked as a teacher of Spanish in Greece for almost a decade, and obtained her doctorate in the United States, the country where she has lived for over 25 years now. She is committed to encouraging connections between research and teaching and to supporting harmonious bilingualism and the well-being of all multilinguals.
RADA MIHALCEA is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan and the Director of the Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab. Her research interests are in computational linguistics, with a focus on lexical semantics, multilingual natural language processing, and computational social sciences. She serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journals of Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluations, Natural Language Engineering, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, and Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics. She was a program co-chair for EMNLP 2009 and ACL 2011, and a general chair for NAACL 2015 and *SEM 2019. She currently serves as the ACL Vice-President Elect. She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award (2008) and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers awarded by President Obama (2009). In 2013, she was made an honorary citizen of her hometown of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
ANDREW BROWN holds a Baccalauréat in Philosophy and French Literature from Académie de Rennes (France), as well as a B.A. in International Affairs and a Master in Public Administration from The George Washington University. Andrew is from a small mountain town in Colorado and, while raised speaking only English, has learned various degrees of 26 languages, and, since 2001 has taught seven of those languages in various schools. In 2005, Andrew founded The Global Language Network (GLN), a DC-based 501c3 non-profit with the mission of “Using Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World.” He has won over a dozen awards for his work, including Pepsi’s “Power in Numbers” Award for Community Service, the Intuit Small Business Award, and the Humanities Council of DC Award. GLN serves over 2,000 satisfied language learners per year with in-person classes, and is consistently ranked as DC’s top language provider by Yelp and others. Nevertheless, Andrew’s proudest accomplishment is helping others use language learning to break down cultural barriers and build better relationships.
MARTY ABBOTT will introduce ConnecTalks speakers. Marty’s career began in Fairfax County Public Schools (VA) where she was a language teacher, foreign language coordinator, and Director of High School Instruction. She has served on national committees to develop student standards, beginning teacher standards, and performance assessments in world languages. She was President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 2003 and became its Director of Education in 2004 and Executive Director in 2011 serving in that capacity until 2018. Under her leadership, ACTFL created the Center for Assessment, Research and Development and launched the public awareness campaign, Lead with Languages. She recently served as a commissioner for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences national report America’s Languages: Investing in Language Education in the 21 st Century and in 2016 was appointed by President Obama to serve a four-year term on the National Security Education Board. Marty was appointed to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam where she is serving a four-year term until 2022. She holds her B.A. degree in Spanish with a minor in Latin from the University of Mary Washington and a Master’s Degree in Spanish Linguistics from Georgetown University.
Andrew Brown holds a Baccalauréat in Philosophy and French Literature from Académie de Rennes (France), as well as a B.A. in International Affairs and a Master in Public Administration from The George Washington University. Andrew is from a small mountain town in Colorado and, while raised speaking only English, has learned various degrees of 26 languages, and, since 2001 has taught seven of those languages in various schools. In 2005, Andrew founded The Global Language Network (GLN), a DC-based 501c3 non-profit with the mission of “Using Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World.” He has won over a dozen awards for his work, including Pepsi’s “Power in Numbers” Award for Community Service, the Intuit Small Business Award, and the Humanities Council of DC Award. GLN serves over 2,000 satisfied language learners per year with in-person classes, and is consistently ranked as DC’s top language provider by Yelp and others. Nevertheless, Andrew’s proudest accomplishment is helping others use language learning to break down cultural barriers and build better relationships.
MARTY ABBOTT will introduce ConnecTalks speakers. Marty’s career began in Fairfax County Public Schools (VA) where she was a language teacher, foreign language coordinator, and Director of High School Instruction. She has served on national committees to develop student standards, beginning teacher standards, and performance assessments in world languages. She was President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 2003 and became its Director of Education in 2004 and Executive Director in 2011 serving in that capacity until 2018. Under her leadership, ACTFL created the Center for Assessment, Research and Development and launched the public awareness campaign, Lead with Languages. She recently served as a commissioner for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences national report America’s Languages: Investing in Language Education in the 21 st Century and in 2016 was appointed by President Obama to serve a four-year term on the National Security Education Board. Marty was appointed to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam where she is serving a four-year term until 2022. She holds her B.A. degree in Spanish with a minor in Latin from the University of Mary Washington and a Master’s Degree in Spanish Linguistics from Georgetown University.
Upcoming ConnecTalks
2019
Washington, D.C.
2020
San Antonio, TX
2021
San Diego, CA
2022
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