Former Initiatives

CARLA sponsored several projects focused on the articulation of language instruction using a proficiency-oriented approach to language instruction and assessment. The free resources developed in partnership with practicing teachers are available online for use in classrooms across the country. Specific projects included the Minnesota Articulation Project, The Proficiency-Oriented Language Instruction and Assessment (POLIA) Train-the-Trainer Program, and the Critical Languages Articulation Project.

Key resource for teachers: The Proficiency-Oriented Language Instruction and Assessment: A Curriculum Handbook for Teachers provides background knowledge, ideas, and resources for implementing proficiency-oriented language instruction and classroom-based performance measures into language curricula.

CARLA’s second language assessment initiatives built on the University of Minnesota’s long-time commitment to promoting and assessing proficiency in second language learning. Specific projects included the Virtual Assessment Center (VAC), Virtual Item Bank (VIB), Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments (MLPA), and other resources for second language assessment.

Key resource for teachers: The Virtual Assessment Center (VAC) provides a series of web-based learning modules that provides teachers with background information, step-by-step guidance, and many practical resources on developing proficiency-based second language assessments for the classroom.
 

CARLA’s CoBaLTT program provided in-person professional development and online resources to help language teachers create content-based lessons and units using technology to enhance students' language proficiency and content or cultural knowledge.

Key resource for teachers: The Content-Based Language Teaching with Technology (CoBaLTT) website offers in-depth instructional modules on implementing content-based instruction (CBI) for the language classroom, including principles of CBI, and CBI-focused curriculum development, instructional strategies, and assessment approaches. The website also offers teacher-created CBI lesson plans and units, and a template for teachers to create their own units.

CARLA’s Culture and Language Learning initiatives explored the connection between language and culture learning based on the premise that neither culture nor language can be fully understood when taught separately from the other. Initiatives included several research studies on culture learning in the language classroom.

Key resource for teachers: Maximizing Study Abroad: Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use is a unique set of guidebooks designed to help students, program professionals, and language instructors make the most of study abroad through strategies for both language and culture learning and use. 

CARLA’s work on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiatives engaged languages and intercultural perspectives to provide students with a more in-depth and nuanced understanding of academic content. CARLA was an active participant in the CLAC Consortium and hosted two national conferences in 2016 and 2012. 

Key resource for teachers: The Green German Project is a collection of open-access teaching materials and curricular resources related to sustainability and environmental topics. 
 

CARLA supported immersion education through research, professional development, outreach, and materials development for dual language and immersion (DLI) educators, as well as a wide array of resources for the wider community.

Key resources for teachers: Dual Language and Immersion Teacher Assessment Rubrics, a collection of rubrics specifically designed for DLI contexts in the U.S.; Struggling Learners and Language Immersion Education, a book that provides research-based, practitioner-informed responses to educators’ top questions about struggling DLI learners; the Immersion Teaching Strategies Observation Checklist; and the American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE) newsletter archive.

Key resources for the wider community: Frequently Asked Questions about Immersion Education webpage, What the Research Says About Immersion, a chapter outlining the key findings for both advantages and challenges of immersion education, Dual Language and Immersion Family Education, guidelines and materials for family education professionals, and useful resources for families.
 

CARLA’s initiative on learner language supported teachers with tools to analyze their students’ language productions and fine-tune their pedagogy to better promote language learning. Resources included background information on learner language and multimedia activities that show language teachers how to see and analyze the language produced by each learner and identify implications for pedagogy.

Key resource for teachers: Ways of Seeing Learner Language, a set of units showing teachers how to analyze learner language from different perspectives and identify implications for pedagogy. The units include links to video recordings in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, and Spanish designed to provide language teachers with a better understanding of the way learner language develops.

The goals of CARLA’s Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Project were to advance the teaching and learning of LCTLs by encouraging people to study LCTLs, assisting LCTL teachers in developing high-quality teaching materials, and helping LCTL teachers cooperate and communicate.

Key resource for teachers: Developing Classroom Materials for Less Commonly Taught Languages, a set of online modules that present concepts for LCTL materials development accompanied by videos showing ways in which the materials can be used.

CARLA created the Maximizing Study Abroad guidebooks to help students, program professionals, and language instructors make the most of study abroad opportunities through strategies for language and culture learning and use. CARLA also conducted research on the effectiveness of the guides.

Key resource for teachers: The Maximizing Study Abroad: Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use website includes free PDFs of some of the most popular activities included in the guidebooks.

CARLA’s Pragmatics and Speech Acts initiatives provided language teachers with information, tools, and research on the process of learning and teaching speech acts such as apologizing, requesting, complimenting, refusing, and thanking.

Key resources for teachers: Descriptions of Speech Acts, a collection of descriptions of speech acts revealed through empirical research; Strategies for Learning Speech Acts in Japanese, web-based modules for intermediate to advanced-level learners of Japanese; and Dancing with Words, a website dedicated to strategies for learning pragmatics in Spanish.

CARLA has conducted learning strategy research and developed several teacher resources for strategies-based instruction, which is a learner-centered approach to teaching that integrates strategy training with embedded strategy practice in the foreign language classroom. 

Key resource for teachers and learners: Spanish Grammar Strategies Website, a user-friendly website that provides strategies to help students to learn and use problematic grammar structures in Spanish. 

Technology has always been an important part of CARLA's work and is now included as part of all CARLA's initiatives. CARLA regularly offers professional development exploring many aspects of technology in language teaching and learning.

Key resource for teachers: The Teaching Languages Online (TLO) Project provided professional development to help language teachers learn how to improve their ability to teach language online.