Spring Conference

Each spring (typically in April), HALT hosts its biggest event of the year, our Spring Conference. Highlights include keynote addresses given by language experts and award-winning teachers, selected presentations by K-16 world language educators in Hawai‘i and abroad, the publishers’ exhibit (and its annual prize drawing), and more. HALT members receive a discounted registration rate.


37th Annual Spring Conference: Saturday April 1, 2023

“Laugh, Play, Learn: Humor and Play in the World Language Classroom”

Hawai‘i Association of Language Teachers is pleased to announce that we will be IN-PERSON at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies UH Mānoa Campus 


Conference Agenda and Program

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Diane Neubauer

Diane Neubauer completed her PhD in Foreign Language and ESL Education at the University of Iowa in 2022. Diane is currently researching how language play facilitates students’ involvement in using and responding to use of the target language in novice-level Chinese language classrooms. Prior to her PhD, she taught Mandarin Chinese for 10 years in elementary, middle, and high schools in the US. Since 2017, she has continued to teach Chinese online and in language teacher training contexts. Play is a regular part of her own language teaching through imaginative, collaboratively-created stories and playful talk. She served as an officer in ACTFL’s Comprehension-based Communicative Language Teaching special interest group from 2018-2022. She produces videos on YouTube for Chinese language learners & teachers, blogs about language teaching & learning, and is on Twitter @DuYanzi. She speaks English and Mandarin Chinese, and has learned some French, Thai, ASL, Spanish, and Japanese, and recently began learning Vietnamese.

Past Conferences (click to drop down)