Modern Technologies in World Language Instruction

Dr. Esperanza Román Mendoza

Dr. Esperanza Román Mendoza is Professor of Spanish and Spanish Linguistics at George Mason University (Virginia, USA), where she has been a faculty member since 1996. Her primary research interests are distance education, e-learning, and heritage language education from a critical pedagogy approach. Her extensive research on educational technology has been instrumental in understanding the different ways that students perceive themselves as learners and how educators can help them take advantage of instructional technology to address learning challenges, overcome self-criticism, and become autonomous learners and active critical citizens.

Dr. Simone Smala

Dr. Simone Smala is the co-author of Languages and Social Cohesion (Meier & Smala, 2021), the first comprehensive transdisciplinary review of research into social contexts in which decision makers and researchers consider social cohesion in the presence of linguistic diversity. Her background in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in bilingual immersion education settings led her to ask questions about natural language processing, machine translation and more broadly, AI in Education, and what this means for the role of learning modern languages in young people's formation of identity. She argues that learning a second (or third etc) language is a human right and contributes significantly to our enchantment with the world.

Stephanie Wössner

Stephanie Wössner is a freelance consultant and speaker for future-oriented learning with a focus on extended reality, game-based learning, AI, design and futures thinking and metaverse. Currently she is a team leader innovation at the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is convinced that our understanding of education must change fundamentally. She centers her instruction is on innovative impulses for the transformation of (lifelong) learning in a digitally networked and ever-changing world that requires many competencies that have so far only been marginally anchored in the education system. She sees great potential in digital games that enable immersive, collaborative learning experiences.

Chantil Bounheuangvilay

Chantil Bounheuangvilay attained her Master's degree in French Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition/Teaching (SLAT) from the University of Arizona. A pioneer in pedagogical methods, she champions a multiliteracies-based teaching approach, skillfully adapting to the dynamic shifts in 21st-century literacy. Chantil currently is the sole French instructor at Bishop Lynch High School, the largest co-ed private institution in Texas.