View Content #18346

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

On September 15, 2014, the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) celebrated its 20^th Anniversary. Twenty is an exciting milestone. It is a time to celebrate the past and look towards the future. We continue as home to the Chinese Oregon Flagship Program and are excited to announce we have received a Title VI grant to continue as a National Foreign Language Resource Center.

While much has changed at CASLS over the past twenty years, we remain a diverse group of multilingual people working together toward a common goal: improving the teaching and learning of second, foreign, and heritage languages. As we look towards the future, CASLS will continue to focus on its core mission by providing research-based solutions to materials creation, implementation, and evaluation and assessment.

What does this mean for our work in the immediate future? We will continue many of the projects teachers, students and administrators have asked for and come to count on. In addition, we are starting new projects designed to create exciting opportunities for teaching and learning languages.

Our work will center around six main areas:

1. Program Development: The design of language learning experiences remains at the core of our work. We look forward to continued work with advanced students through the Oregon Chinese Flagship Program as well as Shule ya Umoja: Swahili College Readiness Academy, a STARTALK program for high school students.
2. Place-based Learning: Projects in this area will provide a research-based model for the use of place-based experiences in language teaching and learning contexts. Contexts include foreign language classes and academic residential programs. We will also be creating a national database of available projects, so if you are working on something place-based, let us know so we can include your work!
3. Articulation and Collaboration: We will seek enhance collaboration between two- and four-year higher education institutions and articulate language program outcomes.
4. Innovative Assessment: Projects will expand available assessment instruments and provide resources for their effective integration into the classroom. This includes improvement and support of Linguafolio Online as well as the use of digital simulations for assessment.
5. Professional Development: This cornerstone provides educators with practical, research-based information and resources about language instruction. Key projects include InterCom, resources for teaching in an intercultural classroom, and Games to Teach, a project with a partner LRC, CERCLL.
6. Study Abroad: CASLS directs the Oregon International Internship Program and hosts students from universities in China, Japan, and Taiwan who are interested in language education.

These priorities have been designed based on your requests for materials and resources. We continue to remain open to your needs and always welcome input and insight.

Thank you to CASLS partners around the world and especially to language teachers working every day to expand horizons and make learning languages great!

We can't wait for the next 20 years!