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Transforming Language Teaching Materials: From Selection and Adaptation, to Creation, to Successful Implementation Language teaching and learning materials encompass a rich spectrum of resources—from traditional textbooks and teacher/student-generated content to digital applications, and authentic realia—serving as foundational elements in language programs and classrooms worldwide. These materials bridge the gap between theoretical pedagogical approaches and practical classroom implementation, while providing essential structure to the learning experience. The effectiveness of these resources, however, hinges critically on language educators’ ability to thoughtfully...
These modules are for educators who are interested in becoming postsecondary language program directors (LPD) or in learning more about what LPDs do and the multiple facets of this complex and rewarding job. Although the intended audience is novice and aspiring LPDs, experienced LPDs will also gain from the various perspectives and resources provided, including the extensive LPD bibliography and project-sponsored activities at the International Language Teacher Education Conference hosted by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)....
The MODES Scaffolding Framework website is a free resource developed by Dr. Blaine Smith (Vanderbilt University) with the goal of helping teachers to integrate digital multimodal composing–visuals, sounds, text and movement–in the classroom. The site offers a guide for World Languages teachers to design instruction related to digital multimodal composing and specific strategies for supporting students during this process. On the MODES website, you will find a linked white paper that explains the benefits of this approach, and details the...
Footprints is an open educational resource (OER) designed to support educators in integrating local environments, community knowledge, and spatial awareness into language education. Co-created by Liudmila Klimanova (University of Arizona) and Lara Lomicka Anderson (University of South Carolina), with contributions from graduate students, this resource draws on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of applied linguistics, human geography, and pedagogy. The site offers a conceptual foundation for understanding and implementing place-based pedagogies and second language (L2) geoliteracies – practices of reading...
2025 CERCLL Faculty Research Fellows Congratulations to the recipients of two 2025 CERCLL Faculty Research Fellowships! Dr. Yousra Abourehab received one award, and the other went to Dr. Sandiway Fong with Dr. Liudmila Klimanova. Many thanks to the ten University of Arizona faculty members who reviewed the proposals submitted for this competition! Yousra Abourehab, Assistant Professor of Practice in International Studies in Education and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching; Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies, College of Education: Multilingual...
“A research-based approach to learning beginner-level contemporary Egyptian Arabic that puts culture up front.” As part of the Title VI grant that funds CERCLL, Mahmoud Azaz and Ayman Mohamed have authored El-Mumtaaz: Contemporary Beginning Egyptian Arabic (Georgetown University Press, 2025), a textbook that bridges the gap between traditional Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) instruction and the Arabic your students want to speak. Built around ACTFL’s world readiness standards, authors Dr. Mahmoud Azaz (Director, University of Arizona Center for Middle Eastern Studies;...
Three plenary presenters will speak at our Tenth International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence, the theme of which is Intercultural Competence in a Rapidly Changing World: Supporting Sustainable Futures for All. ➣ Read their biographical statements and abstracts on the ICC website. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti Dr. Andreotti is Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, where she leads transformative conversations about education in complex times. Her presentation is entitled When Intercultural Competence...
Current Directions in Postsecondary Language Program Administration This series was planned to coincide with the publication of a new book forthcoming in 2025, The Routledge Handbook of Language Program Development and Administration, the editors of which (one of whom is CERCLL Director Beatrice Dupuy) will present the first, introductory webinar. The series will delve into some of the 52 chapters in this volume, to focus on practical issues in language program development and administration. These webinars also tie into the Language...
Presented by Peter Ecke (University of Arizona). Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 2-3:30 PM Arizona/MST (UTC -7). To see when it begins where you are, click here. Join us for an enlightening webinar with our own Dr. Peter Ecke! Discover how his successful decade-long course–Becoming multilingual: Learning and maintaining two or more languages–encourages students to appraise the benefits and costs of becoming multilingual, and gain insights that will help them to make informed decisions about their own language learning and use...
We have extended the application period for the 2025 CERCLL Faculty Research Fellowships by one week! Extended application deadline: Monday, April 7, 2025. The CERCLL Faculty Fellows program promotes scholarly work connected to the mission of CERCLL as a Title VI National Language Resource Center: to research and develop the teaching of culture, language and literacy, especially within less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). In 2025, we particularly invite proposals focused upon research related to AI and critical digital literacy; critical...