AELRC

There is so much to know about our Language Resource Centers. Learn more in the new article from Julio C. Rodriguez of the National Foreign Language Resource Center in The Language Educator (ACTFL login required).

https://www.thelanguageeducator.org/actfl/library/item/spring_2024/4188356/

Congratulations AELRC graduates! We are lucky to have you in our family and wish you all the best in future endeavors near and far!

📣 Calling secondary and post-secondary world language educators and students, ages 18+📣

Are you passionate about world language education? Join our groundbreaking focus group study on K-16 language program articulation this June. Your voice matters!

https://georgetown.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8GuqlSexkbDE6Ng

DEADLINE APPROACHING! ECOLT 2024 Call for Proposals closes May 15!

This year's theme is "Responsibility in Language Testing." We invite proposals from colleagues in academia, education, government, and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. ECOLT encourages students, teachers, researchers, and test developers to present papers and posters on projects related to language testing and assessment.

Learn more and submit your proposal at https://sites.google.com/.../ecolt-2024/call-for-proposals.

Do you know about all the amazing Language Resource Centers supporting language educators around the country? Check out this video produced by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) to learn about the program and our sister LRCs!

Meet the Title VI Language Resource Centers! In 1990, the U.S. Department of Education established the first Language Resource Centers (LRCs) at U.S. universities in response to the growing national nee...

🚨 Calling all US postsecondary educators, those at community colleges & minority-serving institutions, teaching heritage or LCTL. 🚨 Apply to participate in the FREE OPI Assessment Workshop, sponsored by AELRC! Apply by 6/2 at: https://www.actfl.org/professional-learning/individual-workshops/actfl-virtual-oral-proficiency-interview-assessment-workshop

The AELRC is proud to announce the online publication of the updated Program Evaluation Bibliography. Citations are annotated and tagged with keywords to help you find the research you need. Special shoutout to the project lead Yunjung (Yunie) Ku and the invaluable work of research assistants Elli Ahn, Quaylin Dang, Chanhee Park, Tianyi Ye, and Ian Timoteo Franza. https://aelrc.georgetown.edu/evaluation-bibliography

Congratulations to Meg Malone (ACTFL Director of Assessment and Research, AELRC partner, and our former director) and our colleagues at ACTFL on the release of the 2024 ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines! The Guidelines are foundational to the AELRC's work, and we are excited for this updated edition.

We're thrilled to announce the release of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2024, marking a giant leap in language assessment standards! Thank you to our wonderful members and staff for their invaluable contributions! Check out the full press release at: https://bit.ly/3xlV7L5

Dr. Megan Montee, Director of the AELRC will be presenting the plenary on Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship Programs outcomes at the April meeting of the Interagency Language Roundtable.

An amazing learning opportunity, including the AELRC workshop “An Introduction to Program Evaluation: Teacher Preparation Programs” from AELRC director Meg Montee and Meg Malone of ACTFL.

The full schedule is up for the 12th International Language Teacher Education Conference.
Check it out now!
https://carla.umn.edu/conferences/lte2024/schedule_detail.html

Apply for the summer institute by April 22 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SummerInstitute2024!

ECOLT 2024 Call for Proposals is open! This year's theme is "Responsibility in Language Testing."

We invite proposals from colleagues in academia, education, government, and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. ECOLT encourages students, teachers, researchers, and test developers to present papers and posters on projects related to language testing and assessment.

Learn more and submit your proposal at https://sites.google.com/view/ecolt/ecolt-2024/call-for-proposals.

The Call for Proposals for ECOLT 2024 is open! Proposals are due May 5, 2024.

Submit your proposal now! https://openconf.org/ecolt2024/openconf.php

The 2024 East Coast Organization of Language Testers conference will be held on Friday, October 25, 2024 at Georgetown University.

Amazing round table “Evidence-based practices for strengthening K-16 program articulation” with MAP and Meg Montee from ! Don’t miss it! Right now at Sutton Center

AELRC is at NECTFL! Come find us tomorrow for a round table.

AELRC Research Assistant Shannon Victoria King presented her master's thesis to the Swedish Women's Education Association at the Swedish Embassy. Her research focused on children in the Washington metropolitan area who are heritage speakers of Swedish and how their language use with siblings affected Swedish proficiency. She also looked at the attitudes and home language policies of parents.

The Georgetown University Linguistics Department invites teachers of Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, or Russian to learn more about the summer STARTALK Program. Learn more during zoom info sessions on February 15th and February 20th.

Register for the February 15th info session : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Zc4LxO0nI3fF4SCZugEz7JZ2qLkiCNmYUMsXaIeXlrI

Register for the February 20th info session: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TIAvOcwQkkY0sz51wAWyYQMLALMqF0dQYgafQbLxcMI

This roundtable presentation will present preliminary findings of the AELRC's ongoing project on world language program articulation across primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions throughout the United States. In addition to highlighting barriers to effective K-16 world language programs, this study aims to generate evidence-based strategies that empower administrators, educators and policymakers to (1) support high-level language proficiency outcomes, (2) increase program enrollment, and (3) expand world language access and equity.

This paper presents findings from a survey-based project about U.S. K-12 stakeholders' current understandings of world language program evaluation. The unique affordances of evaluation make it a powerful tool for strengthening program performance, but it is often overlooked or misunderstood. Check out the article to learn more!

Malone, M. E., Stevenson, M., & Pineault, C. (2024). Survey of K-12 world language program evaluation. Foreign Language Annals. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12749

Elli is a third-year undergraduate student studying Culture and Politics with a minor in Linguistics. Her research interests include Korean linguistics, heritage language learning, and the interaction between language and placemaking. In her free time, Elli likes to draw, read, and collect Smiski. The AELRC is so lucky to have her!

Coming to the ACTFL Convention? Find out how the Language Resource Centers can support language educators with free resources! Find the AELRC and our sister LRCs at booth 4638 in the Exhibit Hall.

Come learn about AELRC projects at the ACTFL Convention!

Introducing AELRC staff member Conor McKeon! Conor is a fourth year doctoral student in Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. His research interests include language placement testing, oral proficiency assessment, language test development, and language assessment literacy. Conor enjoys live music, good food, and traveling.

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2023 ECOLT student paper award! Jieun Kim, Maggie McGehee, and Anupama Reddy of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa received the award for their paper,
"Streamlining a reading placement test: Insights from factor analysis and Rasch modeling".

Our next issue of Intercom focuses on assessing for intercultural and pragmatic competence.

Thank you Meg Montee at AELRC for sharing your perspective on this week's question.

What do you think? Join in the conversation in the comments below or spark a conversation with your colleagues IRL!

Curious about what program evaluation can do for you and your language program? Check out this short video series designed for teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders who are interested in learning more about how program evaluation can support world language programs in their educational contexts. https://aelrc.georgetown.edu/resources/evaluation/k-12-world-language-program-evaluation-info-series/

Check out AELRC posters at ECOLT 2023 on Friday, October 27!

The AELRC supports the Center for Applied Linguistics' Foreign Language Assessment Directory (FLAD) which has been supporting language educators in finding appropriate assessments for decades. During the summer of 2023, AELRC interns at CAL updated the FLAD with a focus on including assessments for less commonly taught languages. With 102 LCTLs represented, the FLAD includes assessments at all 5 ACTFL proficiency levels and grade levels in nearly all of the top 10 LCTLs in the United States (ASL and Hawaiian are represented but do not have the full range of language domains). Find the assessments you need at www.cal.org/flad

📣 Webinars for LCTL educators coming soon! 📣

AELRC's new webinar series “Advancing LCTLs: Assessment and Evaluation for Cross-Cultural Communication” will address the program evaluation and assessment needs of Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs).

Each 30-minute installation of the series will center the needs of LCTL programs and educators, with topics including C-test uses, the Intercultural Pragmatic Interactional Competence (iPIC) assessment and more.

What LCTL program evaluation and assessment topics would you like to see addressed? 🧐 Watch this space for the webinar schedule and registration details!

Tianyi is a first year master student in the Applied Linguistics concentration. Her research interests are in crosslinguistic influence and L2 learning and teaching in general (still in her way to find research interests). This is the first time that Tianyi studies abroad in the States, so she likes to explore foods and fun places in her free time.