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Foreign language acquisition, pedagogy, intercultural communication
Grant funding
2007 VCU Humanities and Sciences Student Engagement Grant $5,500
(Use of Global Language Portfolios in French classes at the
second-year level and above)
2006 VCU Humanities and Sciences Student Engagement Grant $5,500
(Integrated LinguaFolio in pilot third-semester language courses)
2004 Ford Foundation / Council of Graduate Schools Planning Grant $5,500
(Seed money to explore a Master of Language and International Affairs)
2003-04 Contract with the French Ministry of Education for a VCU workshop on
American language, culture and civilization in July 2004 50 004 €
(Targeted middle school teachers of English from France)
2003-04 Contract with the French Ministry of Education for a VCU workshop on
American language, culture and civilization in July 2004 64 835 €
(Targeted high school teachers of English from France)
2001 Legends of China Foundation Subsidies for Students Travel in China
(Subsidized travel for 10 VCU students to China)
1988-90 U.S. Dept. of Education Critical Languages Grant $45,784
(Provided summer workshops for secondary language teachers)
1987-89 U.S. Dept. of Education Critical Languages Grant $28,616
(Provided summer workshops for secondary language teachers)
1987 Fulbright Grant (funded German scholar as a visiting professor) $60,000
1985-86 U.S. Department of Education Critical Languages Grant $57,600
(Provided summer & weekend workshops for secondary language
teachers)
Professional organization activity relative to language and pedagogy
American Association of Teachers of French
Chair, Commission on Universities 2004-06
Annual Meeting Program Committee 1996 and 1998
Steering Committee of the Commission on French for Business 1992-99 and
Chair 1994-96
National Vice-President 1986-91
Chair of the Commission on Pedagogy 1986-91
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
ACTFL / NCSSFL Linguafolio America Project 2004-05
Committee on Articulation 1988-89
Editor-in-chief, Foreign Language Annals 1983-1985
Reviewer, Foreign Language Annals 1977-82
Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (on arts and sciences education)
Executive Board, 1995-97
Chair of the Committee on Comprehensive Institutions, 1994-96
Chair of the Committee on Metropolitan and Urban Institutions, 1996-98
Member of Long-Range Planning Committee 1995-96
Modern Language Association --Delegate Assembly 1979-81.
Academic Alliance of Northern Arizona, co-founder 1984, member 1984-89.
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Committee, Arizona administrator 1985-87.
Textbook
Commercial French. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982. (Includes a grammar review in addition to introduction to business practices and economic geography.)
Edited volume on graduate education
Editor, Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference of the Council of Southern Graduate Schools. CSGS, 1982.
Journal Editorship for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Editor, Foreign Language Annals, 1983-85
Select articles on language pedagogy and the status of the profession
“LinguaFolio and Electronic Language Portfolios in Teacher Training,” in Margaret A. Kassen et al., eds. Preparing and Developing Technology-Proficient L2 Teachers. (CALICO Monograph Series, 6) San Marcos, TX: Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO), 2007, pp. 321-44.
“LinguaFolio: American Model for the European Language Portfolio,” Modern Language Journal, 91 (2007), 117-121.
“Professional Masters Degrees in Language Disciplines,” French Review 79 (2005), 314-29.
“Report of the AATF Commission on Colleges and Universities on Promotion of Professional Masters Degrees for Language Majors,” AATF National Bulletin. 30, No.2 (2004), pp. 5-6.
“Teaching France and the European Union in French and in English,” in European Union Studies Association Review 15, No. 4 (2002), pp. 10-11.
“The Changing Role of the Foreign Language Teacher,” in The Cardinal, 38,3 (2000), 8-13.
"Video and the French Teacher," French Review, 61 (1989), 411-26.
"CAI and the French Teacher," French Review, 62 (1989), 385-410
"School-College Articulation and Proficiency Standards: A Status Report," ADFL Bulletin, 19 (1987), No. 1, 8-15.
"Paris Chamber of Commerce Exams and ACTFL/ETS Proficiency Levels," French Review, 61 (1987), 1-11.
Gaudiani, Claire, Patricia W. Cummins, and Humphrey Tonkin, " 'Nurturing the Ties that Bind': Links between Foreign Language Departments and the Rest of the Post-secondary Educational Enterprise." In Foreign Languages: Key Links in the Chain of Learning. Ed. Robert G. Mead, Jr. Middlebury, VT: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (Northeast Conference Reports), 1983, pp. 54-94.
"French Literature and the PSI (Personalized System of Instruction) Method," French Review, 54 (1981), 655-60. (Gilbert Chinard Prize winning article.)
Summary of research and teaching interests
Dr. Cummins has had a lifelong interest in foreign language pedagogy, and in more recent times she has become involved in cross-cultural communication for both English as a Second Language teachers and foreign language teachers. She is a certified
teacher, and during her six-year tenure as a national vice president for the American Association of Teachers of French (1986-91,) she chaired the AATF Commission on Pedagogy and spearheaded efforts to integrate technology and teaching by
launching a new Commission on Telematics. In the 1980’s she served as editor of Foreign Language Annals, the journal of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s she obtained three federal grants to host secondary teachers on the Northern Arizona University campus each summer. She also started a foreign language collaborative that brought together language teachers K-16, and she was recognized with the 1989 Arizona Foreign Language Association service award. Her a survey on the status of school-college articulation, state by state, appeared in the Modern Language Association’s ADFL Bulletin. She also published articles on the use of technology in the foreign language classroom, with articles both on computer assisted instruction and on use of videos. The articles appeared in the American Association of Teachers of French journal French Review. The Institut Français de Washington awarded her a Gilbert Chinard prize for her article in French Review on teaching French literature using the Personalized System of Instruction method. In the late 1990’s and in 2000, she published articles on the changing role of the language teacher with the expanded roles of the European Union and on the importance of interdisciplinary instruction, particularly in the areas of political science and international business. Through a planning grant made available by the Council of Graduate Schools, she undertook a national survey of professional foreign language masters degrees that will be reported on in the December 2005 issue of French Review and in other outlets still under discussion with the Modern Language Association and with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
In Summer 2004 Dr. Cummins hosted two summer workshops on American Language and Civilization through contracts she negotiated with the French Ministry of Education. She brought together faculty from three VCU schools as well as representatives from the artistic community and the business community for two groups of English teachers from France. She provided experiences that built on both their language expertise and their cultural competence. In Spring 2005 she is teaching a graduate course in cross-cultural communication to ESL teachers in the greater Richmond area as a part of a program funded by a grant to the VCU School of Education. Dr. Cummins publishes on language, culture and identity and incorporates elements of her teaching experiences in cross-cultural communication into those publications.
Dr. Cummins combined her interest in European language and culture policy with her interest in foreign language portfolios for assessment purposes at the college level and with her interest in foreign language articulation between high school and college levels. From 2004-07 Dr. Cummins participated in the Linguafolio Virginia pilot project with the Virginia State Department of Education. She hosted a workshop specially designed for teachers in five states who used the same LinguaFolio pilot materials as were used at VCU. The Global Language Portfolio project begun in 2007 and developed through the AATF Commission on Colleges and Universities provides a new tool for colleagues at the university level nationally who share an interest in American applications of the European Language Portfolio (ELP). She and other VCU colleagues incorporated the use of portfolios for learning, teaching, and assessment in a variety of courses from the first-year level through graduate courses for teachers in the public and parochial schools. GLP differs from the earlier LinguaFolio project in that it separates rather than combines the American and European descriptors for student performance in reading, writing, speaking-interpersonal, speaking-presentational, and listening. |
