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NFLC Receives Funding for Language Training
8/6/22

The University of Maryland’s National Foreign Language Center (UMD-NFLC) is proud to  announce that we have become a DLNSEO funded Language Training Center (LTC) which will  provide language courses in Korean, Russian, and Ukrainian beginning this fall.  

Additionally, UMD-NFLC’s existing Title VI Language Resource Center (LRC) has been  renewed for funding for another four years, 2022-2026.  

 

Please see information about each center below.  

LTC Background  

With decades of experience supporting government partners and developing courses, learning  materials, and assessments in over 100 languages, the LTC will provide language courses  specifically tailored to the government’s needs.  

In order to support government and military linguists to carry out their missions UMD-NFLC  will offer courses centered on current, relevant, and authentic curriculum which will be taught in  carefully sequenced thematic units that integrate culture, area studies, and language.  

UMD-NFLC offers five-week hybrid and online language courses, providing 150 hours of direct  instruction with an additional 50 hours of guided practice in the form of graded homework,  online assessments, and online learning modules. Students also have access to the UMD-NFLC’s  Language Portal, an online collection of language learning materials and assessments, and they  can earn ten Continuing Education Units for completing the course.  

Korean; Blended (classroom and online); Incoming ILR 2 Course pre-requisites

Russian; Blended (classroom and online); Incoming ILR 2 Course pre-requisites

Ukrainian; Online; Incoming ILR 2 Course pre-requisites

Pedagogical Approach  

UMD-NFLC’s courses are designed around its research-based principles of effective language  teaching, which maximize students’ proficiency gains:  

  • Implementing a standards-based and thematically organized curriculum  • Integrating culture, content, and language in the classroom
  • Adapting and using expertly-leveled, authentic materials 
  • Using the target language and providing comprehensible input 
  • Facilitating a learner-centered classroom 
  • Conducting performance-based assessments  

Institution Website: https://nflc.umd.edu/LTC  

LRC Background  

Professionals in Education Advancing Research and Language Learning (PEARLL) at the  University of Maryland promotes a multifaced, research-based program for excellence in  language instruction. PEARLL offers a common vision for high-quality language learning and  provides materials and models of professional learning for language educators, with a special  focus on the needs of instructors at community colleges, historically Black colleges and  universities (HBCUs), and of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). PEARLL’s goals for  the 2022-2026 LRC grant period take a comprehensive view of the knowledge and skills world  language educators need to prepare students to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world,  particularly in light of post-pandemic teacher needs.  

  1. To promote models of educator effectiveness for language learning, PEARLL will  increase the reach of the Teacher Effectiveness for Language Learning (TELL)  Framework, develop and pilot model curricula for courses at community colleges and  HBCUs, and identify a network of model classrooms that serve as regional hubs for  professional learning. 
  2. PEARLL seeks to facilitate reflective practice for language educators by continuing to  contribute to the development of Catalyst, an online portfolio for language educators;  maintaining communities of practice; publishing a guide to action research for language  educators; and supporting an educator in resident who will contribute to PEARLL  projects.
  3. Recognizing the importance for language teachers of having knowledgeable and skilled  supervisors and teacher leaders, PEARLL will help leaders develop leadership skills to  support teacher effectiveness through a guide to effective world language programs, a  leadership certificate, a summer leadership academy, and research on how program  leaders adapt to and implement their learning.
  4. To connect language teacher educators and classroom practitioners, PEARLL will  support and host the International Language Teacher Education Conference and identify  how the TELL Framework can facilitate the transition from being a student teacher to a  classroom teacher by examining how the TELL Framework is used in language teacher  training. 
  5. Building on PEARLL’s experience offering in-person and virtual professional learning,  PEARLL will continue to provide professional learning opportunities for language  educators, including a hybrid summit focused on LCTL educators and a series of annual  summer institutes for classroom teachers. These activities will be supported by two  research projects, one to understand language teachers’ needs for professional learning,  and a second to identify whether there is a relationship between professional learning  offered by PEARLL and participating educators’ teaching practices.  

PEARLL’s projects will draw on PEARLL’s and UMD-NFLC’s expertise and experience in  offering high-quality professional learning opportunities; developing resources such as model  curricula; and collaborating with teachers, schools and districts, and colleges and universities  around the country.  

Institution Website: https://pearll.nflc.umd.edu  

 

‘The way language is used in real life’: Lectica language app engages users with culture
2/10/22

The University of Maryland National Foreign Language Center released Lectica — a free language learning app — last year that engages users in language and culture simultaneously.

Lectica currently offers a total of 420 lessons across seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Persian, Russian and Spanish. All lessons and content were prepared by native speakers, said Connie DiJohnson, the NFLC’s director of Second Language Acquisition.

Many language learning apps on the market feel like a game, DiJohnson said, where they max out at a certain level and don’t delve into how native speakers use language.

Lectica’s curriculum is designed, created and written by native speakers using authentic content, passages and texts so people using the app can engage with the language they are learning, the way native speakers do, DiJohnson said.

For example, you can learn fashion tips in Persian, how to make Lanzhou beef noodle soup in Chinese, safety rules for riding scooters in French, how to read a job posting in Arabic, learn about National Tango Day in Spanish, K-pop group BTS in Korean and what it’s like buying an apartment in Russian.

“This is the way the language is used in real life,” she said.

To create an app that closely resembles how languages are used in real life, the NFLC had help from target language faculty members and Second Language Acquisition Specialists.

A target language faculty member is a native speaker of a particular language with a background in language learning. A Second Language Acquisition Specialist is a faculty member with an expertise in developing materials and assessments for language learning, DiJohnson said.

These faculty members worked together to create lesson plans that were both perfectly leveled for different abilities, but also culturally engaging, DiJohnson said.

“There’s usually a culture or cultures that go along with the language, and if you’re just learning the structure of the language or, you know, copying a routine dialogue in a textbook or something like that, you’re sort of missing out on the culture,” Rebecca Rubin Damari, director of research at the NFLC said. “The culture is really built into the language learning so you’re getting both at the same time.”

There’s also a common misconception that being bilingual only matters for service sector jobs or intelligence and security jobs, Damari said. However, research shows bilingual employees are needed in a variety of jobs, she said.

“It can make you so much more competitive in the job market regardless of what your career goals are,” Damari said.

Damari said the NFLC is now working on outreach to language programs at this and other universities to spread the word about Lectica. She also said faculty in the NFLC and school of Languages, Literatures and Cultures have shown interest in incorporating Lectica as a supplemental resource into their courses.

The NFLC also had help from RedBlack, a student consulting group part of the university’s chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Senior marketing major Faith Chisholm, a previous RedBlack consulting account manager for NFLC, said her three person team helped with defining a target market, social media marketing, recommending improvements for the app prototype and coming up with a name for the app.

The name Lectica uses the Latin root ‘lect’, meaning read or readable, Chisholm said.

“This name really worked well … because we wanted it to be related to reading skills since this is something that [Lectica] focuses on,” Chisholm said.

Megan Jeffrey, director of Strategic Initiatives and Communication at the NFLC and a language learner herself, said her favorite thing about Lectica is the cultural context it provides.

“[Lectica is] really very thorough. I haven’t seen anything on the market for this,” Jeffrey said.

Lectica is currently available on the Apple App Store and will be available on Google Play in the summer 2022, Jeffrey said. NFLC plans to make 12 more languages available on the app soon, she said.

“Our mission really is to help people learn about each other and the world around them,” Jeffrey said. “There’s so much diversity in the world and that should be celebrated. And through language is how we usually do that.”

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