Spring 2022

Announcements

• CARLA Summer Institutes 2022
  Early Registration Deadline—April 29!

CARLA Program Updates

• New Grant Collaboration
  Building Raciolinguistic Justice in Midwestern Dual Language Programs through Research-Practice Partnerships

CARLA Resources

• Language Program Direction (LPD) Project
  New Interactive LPD Module: Language Program Evaluation and Improvement
  

CARLA Presentations

• CARLA Presentation Series 2021-2022
  

2022 CARLA Summer Institute Program
for Language Teachers

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota has provided high-quality professional development for language teachers for over two decades. Launched in 1996, this internationally known program reflects CARLA's commitment to link research and theory with practical applications for the classroom. Each institute is highly interactive and includes discussion, hands-on activities, and networking. In 2022, CARLA will offer online (synchronous and asynchronous) institutes and face-to-face institutes on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

CARLA Summer Institute participants—more than 7,000 to date—have come from every state and from countries all over the world. They have included foreign/world language, ESL/EFL, heritage language, and immersion educators at all levels of instruction, as well as program administrators, curriculum specialists, and language teacher educators.

Register now for the 27th annual CARLA Summer Institute Program.

Information and Registration

• Learn more about each institute on the CARLA Summer Institute website.
• Find details on registration. Early registration is advised.

The summer institutes are co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development and College of Liberal Arts. Many institutes are offered for graduate-level credit for an additional cost.

Building Raciolinguistic Justice in Midwestern Dual Language Programs

CARLA was invited to participate in an exciting year-long project designed to enhance and develop critical consciousness in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) in the U.S. Midwest. Funded by the Spencer Foundation, the project is coordinated by Drs. Lisa Dorner (University of Missouri-Columbia), Trish Morita-Mullaney (Purdue University), Deborah Palmer (University of Colorado-Boulder), and Amy Young (Minnesota Department of Education) with additional support from the Cambio Center andCARLA.

The project has three main goals:

1. Document and more deeply understand the challenges to equity in Midwestern DLBE programs that serve diverse students, especially children of color from bilingual and bicultural homes.
2. Develop research-practice partnerships and new research agendas for understanding and addressing these challenges through critical consciousness.
3. Foster a community of practice and network of researchers and practitioners to build antiracist, equitable DLBE programs across the region.

Critical Consciousness in DLBE Webinar Series

DLBE educators in the Midwest are invited to attend a series of four webinars that will examine ways to develop more equitable programs and enhance educational opportunities for their students. These webinars will develop an understanding of DLBE challenges and opportunities across midwestern DLBE programs and will provide a foundation for a community of practice dedicated to building antiracist, equitable DLBE programs across the region.

The webinars are organized around four actions that enhance critical consciousness:

• Historicizing Dual Language Communities and Ourselves—Tuesday, June 14
  Learn about deconstructing mainstream explanations of the past and foregrounding individuals’ and communities’ local histories.
• Critical Listening in Dual Language Education—Thursday, June 16
  Explore ways of engaging students, educators, and families with others for meaningful and transformative connection through developing curiosity and attention, sharing, caring, reciprocity, and responsivity.
• Embracing Discomfort in Dual Language Spaces—Tuesday, June 21
  Experience and learn from the inevitable unsettled feelings one might have in recognizing, reflecting on, and acting against the ways in which our own privilege, sense of entitlement, or silence reify and reproduce social injustice.
• Interrogating Power to Develop Equity in Dual Language Programs—Thursday, June 23
  Examine ways of calling out oppression and working to push those in power to take note of injustice and to transform systems.

All webinars will take place on Zoom from 4–5:30 p.m. (Central Time).

Additional Information

• Read more about the Critical Consciousness in DLBE project.
• Sign up to attend any or all of the webinars in the Critical Consciousness in DLBE series.

Language Program Direction

CARLA’s Language Program Direction project is focused on developing resources to equip new and aspiring postsecondary language program directors (LPDs) with the knowledge and skills necessary to support their daily work. The job of the LPD typically requires a wide range of knowledge and skills related to curriculum design, assessment, program evaluation, materials development, teacher supervision and professionalization, scheduling, and troubleshooting. Many LPDs are also active scholars and serve as mentors to graduate students.

Language Program Direction Interactive Modules

To support the complex work of LPDs, a team of experts is creating a series of five online learning modules, each addressing a different topic related to directing lower-level language programs in postsecondary language departments:

• Module 1: Understanding the Roles and Work of Language Program Directors
• Module 2: Conceptualizing and Creating the Syllabus
• Module 3: Language Program Evaluation and Improvement—New!
• Module 4: The Language Program Director as Scholar
• Module 5: The Methods Course and Ongoing Teacher Professional Development—Coming Soon!

New Module: Language Program Evaluation and Improvement

Because they are responsible for demonstrating program quality, LPDs must be able to assess students’ learning outcomes – what they know and can do after participating in their language program. The new interactive module on Language Program Evaluation and Improvement takes a close look at the many factors that contribute to learning outcomes, from students’ prior experience, motivation, and effort, to curricular design, teachers’ knowledge and skills, course materials, and program management.

Additional Information

• Find detailed information about the LPD project on CARLA's Language Program Direction webpage.

CARLA Presentation Series 2021–2022

Each academic year, CARLA offers a series of free presentations on research taking place at the University of Minnesota along with invited presentations on topics that are of vital importance in the field. One more presentation will be offered this spring. Click on the link below to learn more and register for the Zoom link to attend the presentation:

The Effects of Guided Strategic Planning on Intermediate and Advanced Spanish Heritage Speakers’ Written Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency

CARLA Presentation Recordings

Many of the CARLA presentations are recorded and then added to the CARLA Presentation Recordings webpage and the CARLA YouTube Channel. Click on the titles to watch a recording of any presentation that you missed:

Bringing Social Justice into Language Classes: Templates to Guide Instructional Planning

Educating, Engaging, and Empowering DLI Parents and Families: Materials and Resources for Families and Parent Educators

Acquisition of Discourse Markers and Fillers in L2 Spanish and Their Usage in Spontaneous Conversation

Harm and Hope: Reflexive Conflicts and Transformations in White Pre-Service Teachers’ Developing Critical Cultural Awareness

Unveiling New DLI-Specific Rubrics to Support Teacher Development

Teaching Roundtable: Ideas Inspired by the CARLA Summer Institutes

Creating Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers of Less Commonly Taught Languages: Case Study of a Tamil Community School

Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: Chinese Teachers’ Perspectives and Integration of Social Justice in Teaching

Additional Information

• Check out past presentations on the CARLA Presentation Recordings webpage.
• Find information about the series on the CARLA Presentations webpage.

About CARLA

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota is a research and resource center devoted to improving language teaching and learning.

The CARLA Update is a quarterly electronic newsletter designed to give second language teachers and researchers current information on the programs and projects currently operating under the auspices of CARLA. We encourage you to share this newsletter.

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