Welcome to the NLRC Newsletter!

Since we received funding for the National LCTL Resource Center in August, we have been working to launch the center - including all eleven of our projects in our three core areas of professional development, open resources, and strategic collaboration.

Our monthly (from here on out!) newsletter will highlight various efforts of our center, including upcoming opportunities! We are continuing to develop our website and social media presence and welcome your feedback, so check back often and don't hesitate to reach out with questions and comments!

Announcing the 2023 MAFLT LCTL Innovation Awards

These awards recognize outstanding, innovative, and transformative uses of technology in the teaching of Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs). Up to three prizes ranging between $250 and $500 will be awarded this year.

Find out more and submit your application here by January 31st, 2023.

Sign up for our Professional Learning Community

The learning community aims to work with a small group of K-16 less commonly taught language (LCTL) instructors over the course of five meetings during the spring 2023 semester, with meetings planned once a month from January until May 2023.

The NLRC’s first learning community will focus on the design of proficiency-based language teaching materials that fit your classroom. The learning community will adopt a task-based, proficiency-oriented view of language instruction and will follow a reverse/backwards design approach.

Read more and sign up here by January 11th!

Project Highlights

Professional Development

Virtual Video-based Inquiry for Development of LCTL Teachers (ViVID) -The first cohort of ViVID fellows has been onboarded, with languages represented from Malagasy to Thai!
Online Language Teaching - see below for upcoming courses
Professional Learning Community - see announcement above

Open Resources

The LCTL Downloadable Open Online Resources (DOORs) project personnel have started to develop additional activities for intermediate level and are in the process of hiring editors for target language activities. View existing DOORs resources here.
Local LCTL Assessment Templates (LoLA) - After presenting at the LARC Conference in September, project personnel have been working to prepare assessment templates for piloting in the spring of 2023.
The Teach-A-LCTL team has been initiating conversations with community-based language programs to gather experienced perspectives to help inform the resource guide development

Strategic Collaboration

Strategic Collaboration project personnel have presented a draft of a LCTL Sharing Toolkit at the Shared LCTL Symposium (SLCTLS) for community input and have met with multiple stakeholders to explore opportunities for creating additional models
Language Program Consulting (LPC) services are offered through MSU's Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA) to LCTL programs free of charge. Preference will be given to minority-serving institutions and LCTL programs that can document a particular need. Access the LPC request form here (at the bottom of the page).

Other Items

Social Media: We have developed a series of Tweetorials over the semester. These threads provide details about the LCTL DOORs project, including the history of the program, how to navigate the pages, and other information about Open Educational Resources. Our social media team has also created introductory posts for each member of the staff, which will continue to be published during the spring semester.

UPCOMING OLT OPPORTUNITIES

Learn more about our Spring 2023 Online Language Teaching courses!

Purposeful Technology Integration

Explore novel and alternative technology-supported pedagogical approaches, identify technology-enabled practices with the most transformative potential, and design an intentional “new normal” for what language instruction might look like for you in the near future.

Oral Communicative Tasks

Engage in best practices for designing and facilitating synchronous and asynchronous oral communicative tasks for both presentational and interpersonal modes of instruction. Design scaffolded task progressions in order to meet all your language objectives in rigorous fashion.

Teaching the Whole Class: Technology for Differentiated Instruction

Leverage course design principles and learning technologies to facilitate proficiency development for class sections with heterogeneous learners (differing proficiency levels, heritage, abilities, backgrounds, etc.).

Spring deadlines for applications:

Online Communicative Tasks: January 23rd
Purposeful Technology Integration: March 6th
Teaching the Whole Class: March 27th

Learn more and apply!

Funding Opportunity for OER Development for LCTLs!

The LCTL and Indigenous Languages Partnership (also housed in CeLTA at MSU) is launching a call for THREE additional working groups to develop OERs for their language and strategic collaboration plans for working across institutions! Awards are up to $30,000 per group!

Pass this opportunity along to your colleagues who work in LCTLs – Letters of Intent are due January 31st! https://lctlpartnership.celta.msu.edu/2023-call-for-working-group-proposals/