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LRC Activities 1993-1999
CARLA first received funding to establish its LRC in 1993. The initial
projects of the NLRC, listed below, have provided a strong base for continuing
work on these themes:
- Second Language Assessment
- Less Commonly Taught Languages
- Second Language Learning and Technology
- Language Immersion Education
- Language and Culture Studies
- Second Language Learning Strategies
In 1996, CARLA received a second three-year grant to work on the following
projects:
CARLA Language Resource Center Final
Performance Report 1996-2000.
Second Language
Learning Strategies
The Learning Strategies team worked on a number of research and professional
development projects for foreign language educators involving Strategies-Based
Instruction (SBI). From 1993-1996, the team:
- Conducted research on the impact of SBI on speaking proficiency;
- Created teacher development courses on SBI for secondary and post-secondary
teachers;
- Provided individual consultation on strategies-based instruction to
students and teachers at the University of Minnesota and other institutions;
- Produced a teacher-training
manual and accompanying
videotape on SBI for use in foreign language classrooms and workshop
settings;
- Created and conducted a one-week summer study institute to train high
school and university foreign language teachers on the implementation
of SBI in the classroom;
- Disseminated information on SBI through national and international
conference presentations, publications in professional journals and books,
and the publication of The Network of Styles and Strategies in Language
Acquisition (NeSSLA) Report, an international newsletter designed
to provide a forum for information on learning styles and strategies.
Visit the Second Language Learning
Strategies page to learn more.
Second Language Assessment:
The main focus of the LRC Second Language Assessment Team was the development
of the Minnesota Language Proficiency
Assessments (MLPA). This battery of instruments is designed to measure
learners' proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking at the Intermediate-Low
level on the ACTFL scale in French,
German, and Spanish. The assessments developed to date include the Contextualized
Reading Assessment (CoRA), the Contextualized
Writing Assessment (CoWA) and the Contextualized
Speaking Assessment (CoSA). The team completed development of proficiency-based
assessments through a one year extension on the LRC grant (1999-2000),
with a focus on the following:
- Completion of a listening test at the ACTFL Intermediate-Low level
in French, German, and Spanish;
- Development of proficiency-based assessments in all four modalities
at the ACTFL Intermediate-Mid level in French, German, and Spanish;
- Creation of computer-based versions of all the instruments in the MLPA.
Visit the Second Language Assessment
page to learn more.
Teacher Development:
Immersion Education and Research
“Describing Effective Immersion Teaching” was a research
project that continued previous LRC-funded research designed to investigate
the unique challenges faced by immersion teachers. The project was conducted
with Spanish immersion teachers, using focus groups and the Critical Incident
Technique.
The American Council on Immersion
Education (ACIE) began work in 1996 to establish a national network
of immersion teachers. To support the development of this national network,
the project offers a website for immersion teachers, an annual summer institute
for teachers, and the Language Immersion
in the Americas (LIM-A) listserv. ACIE also launched the publication
of a national newsletter in November 1997.
Visit the Language Immersion page
to learn more.
Teacher Development:
Technology and Language Learning
This project developed a unique cooperative training model for preservice
and inservice teachers on the use of technology in the second language
classroom, which has been institutionalized into the University of Minnesota's
preservice program for language teachers and was offered nationally as
a professional development opportunity to teachers through the CARLA summer
institute program. This program provided the instructional base for the
Content-Based Language Teaching with Technology
initiative.
Visit the Technology and Second
language Learning page to learn more.
Less Commonly Taught Languages
The Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Project concluded the first
round of project funding in fall 1996 with a well-received national summit
meeting of LCTL faculty, teachers, and administrators. During the period
1996-1999, the LCTL team continued to develop responses to the challenges
faced by LCTL teachers with the following initiatives:
- The team maintained and expanded its database
of LCTL course offerings at North American postsecondary institutions,
available on the Web/gopher;
- Eight listservs
(e-mail discussion lists) are maintained: one each for teachers of Hindi,
Dutch, Nordic, Celtic, and Polish, and one LCTL-general list. Discussions
on all LCTL listservs are archived and available on the World Wide Web;
- Virtual Picture Album
- the project team increased its digitized media archive containing authentic
photographs, pictures and line diagrams useful in LCTL lesson development,
and has developed curricular support guides to assist teachers in using
the materials;
- Databases on computer-assisted language learning materials were updated
for Chinese, Russian, and Japanese. Hebrew was added in 1998. In 1997,
this team offered a summer institute on the use of computer technology
for Japanese teachers, and a similar one for Hebrew teachers in 1998.
- A summer institute for LCTL
teachers, on developing materials, was held in June 1999 and continues
to be offered on an annual basis.
Visit the Less Commonly Taught Languages
page to learn more.
Language in a Cultural
Context
Following the research priorities set at two major conferences held during
CARLA's first LRC cycle, this project investigated the relationship between
language and culture learning in secondary foreign language classrooms
through:
- Ethnographic research on teachers' attitudes and their intercultural
frame of reference;
- Quantitative measurement of students' attitudes toward cultural learning
and intercultural competence through the Intercultural Development Inventory.
The project has issued two CARLA working papers and sponsors an annual
summer institute on integrating
culture into the language curriculum. With the third round of LRC Title
VI funding (1999-2002), this project expanded on its previous work by creating
manuals and workshop materials targeted at language teachers, study abroad
advisors, and students to support culture learning in the study abroad
context.
Visit the Culture and Language Learning
page to learn more about these initiatives.
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