View Content #18513

From http://nflrc.hawaii.edu

Our sister LRC, the National Foreign Language Resource Center, has once again been selected to serve as one of a small number of national Language Resource Centers established to improve the teaching of foreign languages throughout the US, particularly less commonly taught languages.

The major projects for 2014-2018 include:

1.    Project-based Language Learning (PBLL): The NFLRC will explore the application of Project-Based Learning to the context of language education, taking language learning beyond the walls of the classroom to connect with real-world people and problems through work on comprehensive, useful projects. Grant funding will enable the development of curriculum and materials and an electronic repository of model projects to guide practice and professional development.
2.    Design-based Research (DBR): All NFLRC curriculum design and materials development initiatives will be planned, implemented, and revised according to the principles of DBR, which stresses cycles of systematic reevaluation and revision throughout the design process.
3.    Intensive Summer Institutes focusing on various intersections between PBLL and world language education, such as language for specific purposes (2015), content-based instruction (2015), intercultural exchanges (2016), language assessment (2017) and professional development (2018).
4.    Professional Development for Online Foreign Language Teachers, a collaborative effort with the North Carolina Virtual High School. Teachers of foreign languages in online settings will reflect on their own professional practice and receive training in established best practices.
5.    Online Professional Development Module on Project-based Language Learning (PBLL): Any language teacher interested in exploring PBLL will be able to complete a facilitated or self-paced short course (10 hrs) created and administered by the NFLRC.
6.    Dissemination: The NFLRC will publicize the products of its scholarship and disseminate the training tools it develops through conferences, publications, openly available Web-based resources and tools and the common LRC portal.

Learn more about NFLRC at http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/about/6