CARLA Summer Institutes

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota has provided high-quality professional development for language teachers for over two decades. Launched in 1996, this internationally known program reflects CARLA's commitment to link research and theory with practical applications for the classroom. Each institute is highly interactive and includes discussion, hands-on activities, and networking.

Registration is now open for the
CARLA's 2022 Summer Institute Program!

Check out the full line-up of institutes
of 11 online and 5 face-to-face options.

Who Participates in the CARLA Summer Institutes?

CARLA summer institute participants—more than 7,000 to date—have come from every state and countries all over the world. They have included foreign/world language, ESL/EFL, heritage language and immersion educators at all levels of instruction, as well as program administrators, curriculum specialists, and language teacher educators.

2021 CARLA Summer Institute Program

CARLA’s annual Summer Institute Program had another banner year in 2021. For the second consecutive summer, CARLA offered all of its institutes online because of the ongoing pandemic. This year, over 400 language educators participated in fifteen summer institutes offered by CARLA. Check out the impressive statistics below.

By the Numbers

• 407 language educators were engaged in the fully online program in 2021: 371 participants and 36 instructors/guest presenters.
• Participants hailed from 43 states, Puerto Rico, and DC: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, and WI.
• 15 countries outside the U.S. were represented at the institutes this year: Algeria, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Norway, Spain, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
• The summer programs served teachers of 27 languages: Arabic, ASL, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, EFL/ESL, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Navajo, Ojibwe, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Fun Fact: Over the past 26 years, CARLA has offered 273 summer institutes to a total of 7,089 teachers from all 50 states and 72 countries/US territories.

It is clear from reading the institute evaluations that these professional development opportunities make a significant difference for language teachers and their students. Comments by participants show that CARLA is seen as the “go to” center for resources and support for language instruction, and they greatly appreciate that our instructors are some of the best in the field.

Check out a few of the photos and "quotable quotes" from past summer institute program participants:

See a list of all the summer institutes CARLA has offered since the program began in 1996.

The institutes have been developed and are supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Center program. The summer institutes are co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development and College of Liberal Arts.