Panel: Sustaining Multilingualism: Heritage Language Education in Diverse Communities
February 12, 2025, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
For those who missed the event, please feel free to view the recording below.
Come to UBC Vancouver for a Language Sciences talk with a full set of panelists: Drs. Guofang Li, Zoe Lam, Joash Gambarage and Asma Afreen!
Join us at the Peña room in Irving K. Barber, UBC Point Grey on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, from 12:00pm - 1:00pm for a Language Sciences panel discussion on heritage language schools featuring a full set of panelists, covering a range of perspectives and expertise on Sustaining Multilingualism: Heritage Language Education in Diverse Communities. For attendees joining us from UBCO or off-campus, please use the Zoom connection information below. Panelists will discuss their respective experiences with speaker communities.
Panelists
Panelists Drs. Guofang Li (Mandarin/ multilingualism), Zoe Lam (Cantonese), Joash Gambarage (Swahili) and Asma Afreen (Bangla) will discuss their respective experiences with speaker communities.
- Dr. Guofang Li, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Language and Literacy Education, UBC
- Mandarin/Multilingualism
- Dr. Zoe Lam, Lecturer, Asian Studies, UBC
- Cantonese
- Dr. Asma Afreen, Sr. Research Analyst, Surrey Schools
- Bangla
- Dr. Joash Gambarage, Sessional Lecturer, Linguistics, UBC
- Swahili
Moderator
The panel will be moderated by Dr. Molly Babel, Professor, Linguistics.
Where
301 Peña room, Irving K. Barber, UBC Vancouver.
UBCO attendees may join virtually using the Zoom link below.
Zoom link- https://ubc.zoom.us/j/69757429543?pwd=g7oRW4L6ZHxvde7avPVCRfbFaaDqyC.1
Meeting ID: 697 5742 9543
Passcode: 664501
RSVP
Registration is required due to limited number of seats. Additionally, please send us any questions you may have for the panelists via the RSVP form:
About the Panelists
Dr. Guofang Li is Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Transnational/Global Perspectives of Language and Literacy Education of Children and Youth, University of British Columbia. Her research interests span longitudinal studies of bilingualism, new literacies and technology-enhanced language teaching, language teacher education, and language and educational policies in globalized contexts. Li’s recent works include International Handbook of Literacies in Families and Communities (forthcoming, Edward Elgar), Handbook on Promoting Equity in Education for Inclusive Systems and Societies (2024, Routledge), Superdiversity and Teacher Education (2021, Routledge), Languages, Identities, Power and Cross-Cultural Pedagogies in Transnational Literacy Education (2019, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press), and Educating Chinese-heritage Students in the Global-Local Nexus: Identities, Challenges, and Opportunities (2017, Routledge).
Dr. Zoe Lam is a lecturer in Cantonese Language and Culture at UBC Asian Studies. With a strong interest in speech perception and heritage language maintenance, she completed her Ph.D. in Linguistics at UBC, where she investigated how heritage speakers of Cantonese in Canada perceive tones. As an advocate of knowledge mobilization, Zoe works closely with community organizations, and was the instructor of a Cantonese Saturday School held at the historic Mon Keang School in Vancouver Chinatown. She and her collaborators received the BC Heritage Award in 2020 for excellence in programming that advances the appreciation, understanding, and practice of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Zoe often speaks about her Cantonese-related academic and community work at local and international media outlets, including CBC Radio, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Metro News, Fairchild Radio, South China Morning Post, and Singtao Daily.