Presenter Christopher Barley of Essex Street Academy in Manhattan gets a kick out of how Monica Cabrera of Bryant HS in Queens acts out an Italian phrase during a workshop at the NYC Association of Foreign Language Teachers/UFT’s annual conference at UFT headquarters in Manhattan on Nov. 16.

Robin Birnbaum (right) of Edward R. Murrow HS in Brooklyn laughs her way through a group “speed dating” activity that utilized Cantonese phrases written on cards.

Nunzia Manginelli of Esperanza Preparatory Academy in Manhattan, the vice president of the NYC Association of Foreign Language Teachers and conference chairperson, addresses the gathering.

Sharing their conference experiences are (from left) Luisa Orlovac of James Madison HS in Brooklyn, Babou Ido of PS/MS 95 in the Bronx and Irma Evangelista, the president of the NYC Association of Foreign Language Teachers.

Jorge Chan (left) of Humanities HS in the Bronx and Arelis Reynoso of Bronx Theater HS enjoy the Activities, Engagement and Assessment workshop.

Melissa Fleming (left) of Central Park HS in Manhattan and Gabriela Altomarino of Newtown HS in Queens participate in a workshop titled Exploring the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages.

Liwia Rosamond (left) of Archbishop Molloy HS and Nubia Cuellar of Hillcrest HS, both in Queens, respond to questions in Italian during a workshop titled Engaging Students Through Comprehensible Input: Reading and Storytelling in the Foreign Language Classroom.

Some of the more than 200 participants at the conference, where the theme was “World Language Proficiencies: Celebrating Our Shift to Global Connections.”