Presenters: Lilian Feitosa (Portuguese) and Sarah Annunziato (Italian) 

Title: Go with the Flow: Ideas and Activities to Combat Foreign Language Anxiety and Create a Culture of Empathy in Your Class

Learning a foreign language can trigger lots of anxiety in students. It can be stressful to speak for fear of making mistakes and it may be also hard to acquire sufficient listening comprehension. Some students even feel nervous about reading or writing in a new language. We will present some practical ideas and pedagogical tools we have been implementing in our Italian and Portuguese classes that build community, foster empathy, and reduce anxiety, such as games, role-play activities, learning though music and multimedia, and making assessments more student friendly.