LRC Activities 2010-2014
The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota has been a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Language Resource Center since 1993. During the center's sixth round of LRC funding, CARLA staff and faculty focused on the following projects:
- Technology Project
- Less Commonly Taught Languages Project
- Language Assessment Project
- Language Immersion Education Project
- Languages Across the Curriculum Project
- Language Teacher Education Conference
Technology Project: To promote the use by K-16 language teachers of new technologies for more effective instruction, CARLA offered symposia on teaching languages online at the annual conferences of IALLT and the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium; and annually taught beginning and advanced summer institutes on using technology in language teaching.
Less Commonly Taught Languages Project: To better assess and meet the nation’s strategic needs for expertise in LCTLs, CARLA will surveyed users of its regularly maintained database to identify national LCTL trends, and annually offered its popular summer institute for LCTL teachers on materials development.
Language Assessment Project: To meet the need for improved language proficiency assessment in K-16 contexts and expand professional development in classroom-based language assessment, CARLA created and piloted online modules for teachers on how to rate student speaking and writing, and taught the popular annual summer institute on assessment.
Language Immersion Education Project: To deepen CARLA’s support for language immersion educators, CARLA offered three popular summer institutes for immersion educators and administrators; hosted the Fourth International Immersion Education Conference in 2012 and planned for more frequent conferences in other parts of the country.
Languages Across the Curriculum Project: To advance the internationalization of postsecondary education through languages across the curriculum, CARLA hosted the annual meeting of the Consortium on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum in 2012; and developed and piloted a model third year “Green German” course that imparts advanced language skills through environmental and sustainability content.
Language Teacher Education Conference: To foster the exchange of research in language teacher education across the nation, CARLA offered the 7th Biennial Language Teacher Education Conference, which it founded in 1999; and assisted the National Capital Language Resource Center in hosting the conference in spring 2013 in Washington D.C.
