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Newsletter - October 2024
The Fall semester is in full swing! Check out more of our latest happenings below, including the Fall 2024 Learning Community and the remaining Fall 2024 OLT course dates! Don't forget to explore opportunities from other LRCs and Language Centers in our PD Opportunities and Resources section, at the end of the newsletter. Don't forget to come see us at several conferences this fall - including MIWLA and ACTFL!
New to our newsletter? Explore all eleven of our projects in our three core areas of professional development, open resources, and strategic collaboration on our website!
Check out other events on our joint LRC calendar (also linked below under PD Opportunities and Resources).
Updates
2024-2025 Learning Community:
Project-Based Learning
This year’s Learning Community will focus on project-based learning. Last year and the year before the Learning Community adopted assessment-based learning and task based and proficiency-oriented language instruction, respectively. This time, we will be launching a project-based learning view on language instruction. Project based language learning can immerses language learners in real-life issues (i.e., a response to a challenging problem or question) and practical language application, achieved through creating meaningful projects serving genuine purposes, and sharing their products with an audience beyond the classroom context. The learning community is an excellent way for LCTL instructors to expand their teaching methods repertoire and explore with peers how small- or large-scale projects, infused or not with technology, help integrate culture, content and language and help advance their student to that next proficiency level. Participants will have the opportunity to:
- Learn how to design projects that engage students and help develop their language and life skills at the same time
- Create and scaffold appropriate and authentic materials with a student-centered approach
- Brainstorm with fellow LCTL instructors and learning community facilitators, and share ideas and stories to build off each other
Check it out: Our newest Teach-a-LCTL guide was just released, aimed at the intermediate level!
The Teach-a-LCTL Resource Guides combine scholarship on community language education, research on heritage language learners, and literacies-based approaches to language learning. The guides aim to provide teachers and coordinators in community LCTL education programs with an easy-to-use resource, adaptable to their languages, cultures, and learners. Each guide has an introduction that describes the project’s rationale, as well as some of the things that make community LCTL programs unique. Both guides contain sample lesson plans on 5 themes: music; sports and movement; clothing; expressions and emotions; and food.
Does your institution want to expand their world language options for your students? We are actively seeking institutional partners to pilot our asymmetrical course sharing project. Partner with MSU to offer Persian, Russian, Tamil, or Vietnamese! (Other language options can be explored if there is interest!)
We are piloting this collaborative partnership structure, which would allow your institution the following benefits:
- Students retain access to their own financial aid
- Students earn home institution credits
- Students pay their normal tuition rate
- Keep a portion of the student’s tuition money for administrative costs
Please reach out to us if you are interested in exploring a partnership with us!
Consulting/Coaching with the NLRC
Did you know that the NLRC offers FREE consulting/coaching?
Do you or your language department want to talk through something related to LCTL teaching or learning? From grant writing feedback to proficiency-based teaching, from online language learning to OERs, you can book time with the NLRC to gather resources, get feedback, and process ideas about the teaching and learning of LCTLs.
Don't hesitate to reach out to us to book an initial 30 minute call!
NLRC Social Media Highlight
We have officially entered autumn! To mark the end of summer and the beginnings of fall, we kicked the month off by celebrating Labor Day, which landed on September 2nd this year. Following that we also celebrated International Literacy Day on September 8th—cheers to developing all language skills! We also observed the beginning of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month on September 15th, through October 15th! Finally, we concluded the month by acknowledging International Translation Day on September 30th. In terms of program related posts, we continued to update our audiences with our upcoming OLT deadlines: we saw the deadline of our OCT course and the announcement of our CEM course. To see what more we must share, follow our social media!
NEW! OER Textbooks from MSU
Check it out! There are three new OER (Open Educational Resource) books that have been published at MSU, which include the languages of Vietnamese, Tamil, and Khmer! OER Textbooks are a great form of accessible teaching and learning, for all subjects and languages! MSU and the NLRC will continue to promote and provide resources for LCTL teachers and students. Check them out here:
Basic Tamil: https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/basictamil/
Intermediate Khmer: https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/intkhmer/
Advanced Vietnamese: https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/advancedvietnamese/
Upcoming PD Opportunities
Creating Engaging Materials
Develop in-depth expertise for developing engaging online materials. Build a portfolio of 3-6 sets of materials in a variety of domains of your choice (vocabulary or grammar, reading or listening, and culture or pragmatics) for use in your online or hybrid courses.
Fall Dates: November 4 – 22
Deadlines for Fall course applications are:
- Creating Engaging Materials: October 21st
PD Opportunities and Resources
To view all current LRC offerings in an aggregate format, please see this calendar:
Many of our fellow Language Resource Centers and National Resource Centers (and some of our collaborative partners) have their own professional development opportunities. This section highlights some of those opportunities/resources.
- Faculty from Michigan State University and Indiana State University will be offering a learning community on thriving language programs and enrollments in Fall 2024.
- CERCLL announced a Fall Webinar Series on Virtual Exchange in Language Education. Webinars are in October, November, and December, and are free to join.
- CERCLL Webinar Series Rebooting Language Educ-AI-tion from Spring 2024 has all recordings available for reference!
- The Teaching and Learning Languages in the United States (TELL-US) podcast series is available. This resource is aimed at novice LCTL instructors with content focusing on pedagogy and school culture.
- The Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has several professional development events online for this academic year, including topics surrounding proficiency-based instruction and teacher wellbeing.
- The Cornell Language Resource Center has a podcast called "Speaking of Language" as well as a Speaker Series (with archived videos of previous events), covering topics of wide-ranging interest for language learners and instructors.
- Registration is now open for the 11th Annual Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference on October 4-5, presented by the Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools.
- The LCTL Program at the Ohio State University has created self-paced, asynchronous LCTL Courses on their Scarlet Canvas platform. Course options exist in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Catalan, Persian, Polish, and Romanian.
