Teaching Classical Languages
Annual Editor’s Report
April 27, 2020
The past year of TCL saw a change in editorial staff as previous editor John Gruber-Miller’s final issue (10.2) appeared, and we prepare for the publication of 11.1. Issue 11.1 includes contributions on: transforming program assessments; advanced language learners’ motivations for learning Latin; implementing a web-based commentary and research project; the utility of visual aids in vocabulary acquisition.
As we look toward Issue 11.2, we are focusing on how the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected teaching. TCL will do a special issue on this topic, and a Call for Proposals (below) has been disseminated. We greatly look forward to the innovative proposals we will receive.
Issue 11.2 will also include a remembrance of former TCL Editorial Assistant and Editorial Board member Keely Lake, who passed away in January 2020.
Of the proposals received last year, roughly half were rejected, and roughly half are in the revise-and-resubmit process. We are also receiving and accepting feature stories—which are not full-blown articles, but rather interviews, opinion pieces, the sharing of activities—that are selected by the editor, rather than through the full review process. Finally, while some other journals have halted production, TCL has continued its review and publication process amidst COVID-19.
Respectfully submitted,
Yasuko Taoka
Editor, Teaching Classical Languages
Call for Proposals
Lessons from COVID-19: Reflections on Teaching and Learning Remotely
Special Issue of Teaching Classical Languages
As the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced classes to move to “remote delivery,” students and teachers alike are fearful that both “Everything Will Change” and “Nothing Will Change.” For teachers concerned about the rise of online and distance education, this emergency foray into online teaching prefigures a turn to more permanent and widespread online delivery of coursework: everything will change. For underserved students for whom school serves as a safe place and provides the possibility for socio-economic mobility, the emphasis on technology in remote delivery reiterates geographic and class disparities: nothing will change.
The world over, we are hoping that we will emerge from this period somehow changed for the better: that we will learn lessons about what really matters and how better to do what matters most. We are concerned to make the best use of this bizarre opportunity to reconsider our lives, our priorities, our work, our teaching.
Teaching Classical Languages will devote its next issue (11.2) to essays and columns on lessons learned during the COVID-19-induced shift to remote instruction. These pieces should be reflections, thoughts, and opinions about teaching and learning classical languages during this time, but need not be full-length research articles. Pieces may engage a wide variety of topics: sharing distance teaching techniques; advocating or arguing for a position; relaying and reflecting on an anecdote.
Timeline:
- Paper proposals / abstracts of up to 500 words will be accepted at tcleditor@camws.org until June 1, 2020. Submissions will be blind-reviewed by the Editorial Board of TCL, and authors of selected proposals will be informed soon thereafter.
- Complete drafts of submissions will be due by August 3, 2020, to be followed by editing and proofing, with projected publication in Fall 2020.
Questions and inquiries may be directed to Yasuko Taoka, TCL Editor, at tcleditor@camws.org