Ohio Foreign Language Association

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Ohio Foreign Language Association

Announcing: The 2012 North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad!

Attention all High School Students

The Ohio State University is proud to announce the 2012 North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. The Open Competition will be held on Thursday, February 2nd. Register now at http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu.

NACLO is an educational competition in Linguistics -- the Science of Language. It challenges you to develop your own strategies for solving problems in fascinating real languages and formal symbolic systems. Do you have a knack for languages, logic and "computational thinking"? Would you like to try your hand at deciphering an ancient script or deducing the logical patterns of Swahili or Hawaiian? Maybe the Computational Linguistics Olympiad is the right challenge for you! Try some problems on the website: www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu

Can you be a Linguist or a Computational Linguist? Give it a try! Ask your language arts or second language teacher how you can participate in NACLO 2012. Or contact your local NACLO sponsors at: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~mwhite/naclo12/ or email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NACLO is an academic competition sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, the North American Chapter of the Associa-tion for Computational Linguistics (NAACL) and others. An information session will be held on January 10th; please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you plan to attend. Top scorers in the Open Competition on February 2nd will be eligible to compete in an Invitational Competition on March 13th. Winners of the Invitational Competition will be eligible to represent North America at the International Linguistic Olympiad in Slovenia in the summer. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, there is no participation fee for any NACLO event. More details about the event can be found on the national website at www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu.

 

Which language should I study?

As language educators, we have all been asked this or a similar question by students, parents and administrators. Most of us have focused our educational efforts on one or two languages, and it is logical that our love for those languages and cultures could bias our answer in one way or another. However, the best answer to this is the simple one – STUDY ANY LANGUAGE. Why? Because the study of any language is the study of a culture other than our own, and studying a foreign language gives the learner the tools to interact with a multitude of different cultures.

Language study (and through language study intercultural competence) provides students with transferable skills they can employ well beyond the country (or countries) where the target language is spoken. Of course, a student who wants to eventually live or work in France should focus on improving his or her fluency in French language and culture. However, consider for a moment an interesting parallel between learning a foreign language and learning mathematics. Most children will not grow up to be mathematicians, so why then would we emphasize the importance of learning fundamental math skills?

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Conference Volunteers

The 50th Anniversary of OFLA will be celebrated in a fun and festive way at the conference March 29-31, 2012 at the Sheraton Hotel Columbus at Capitol Square (formerly the Hyatt on Capitol Square where we have been for the last few years).

Please consider volunteering an hour or two of your time to be a presider at a session, or a worker at the registration desk or hospitality desk, or a seller at the Used Book Sale. It is a great way to get to know OFLA members. It’s also a great way to start getting involved with the OFLA board.

To volunteer, go to http://ofla.memberlodge.org/Default.aspx?pageId=418057&eventId=355313&EventViewMode=EventDetails and “REGISTER” your intent to do so.

Your assignment will be sent to you via email closer to the conference time.

Thanks for giving back to OFLA.

If you have any questions, contact me at mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

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Conference News!!

OFLA 50th Anniversary Shirts & Jacket

Get ready to celebrate OFLA's 50th!! Order your shirt and/or jacket today by clicking here! (Link will open in a new window.)

Wondering what to do with your gently used books?

Bring them with you to our 50th Annual Conference!

After such a remarkable result from our first used book sale, we will hold the 2nd OFLA Used Book Sale on Saturday, March 31 the last day of our 50th Anniversary Conference! More details on where to take books will come later.

 

 
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The OFLA Vision

Every Ohio student will be proficient in a second language, which is essential to a world-class education.

The OFLA Mission

The Ohio Foreign Language Association is committed to world language study beginning in the primary grades, so that every learner, from early childhood through adult, acquires a high level of communicative and intercultural competence.

The OFLA Strategic Plan

1. Establish clear expectations for foreign language learners.

2. Build the capacity of foreign language teachers to prepare learners to demonstrate their proficiency.

3. Build support for foreign language instruction among parents, policy leaders, the business community and opinion leaders in the media.



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