Jacque Van Houten is passionate about developing learners’ intercultural communicative competence. With BA and MA in degrees French and a Ph.D. in educational leadership, she has taught at the middle, high school, and college level, as well as in university teacher training programs. She was the World Language & International Education consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education for 15 years and World Language supervisor for Jefferson County Public Schools (Louisville, Kentucky), whose language curriculum is used internationally. Jacque has served as president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), the National Council of State Supervisors (NCSSFL) and is on the advisory board of the Global Seal of Biliteracy. Much of her work has focused on the development of LinguaFolio and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Language and Intercultural Communication, whose task forces she directed. Her awards include: the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, State Foreign Language Supervisor of the Year, Kentucky World Language Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education. 

Keynote:  Leveraging Our Leapfrog Moment              

Teachers across the country are facing important instructional decisions as we begin to emerge from the challenges of teaching and learning during the pandemic. How can we leverage this unique opportunity to use what we learned about relationships with students, creative delivery, personalized curriculum, and digital tools to make us better teachers and keep learners at the center of learning? How can we help our learners connect or reconnect with the world in a way that improves their ability to use language in natural contexts and establish their own cultural relationships? Crucial to this effort will be the focus on authenticity and interculturality, that is, allowing learners to explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct language and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems and projects that are relevant to them. Let’s learn to draw on our experiences and leapfrog toward learner success.