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ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) is a speech-based toolbox for language teachers. Like the language lab console of old, it's focused on the practice of oral/aural language, but at its core are very modern web-based audio and video tools from duber dot com: Voiceboards (an asynchronous speech tool), LiveChat (a 4-way conversation tool), and Voicerecorder (a widget for instant recordings). Each really opens up the scope and sequence of spoken language tasks. Creating media-rich lessons in ANVILL is simple and straightforward. There are templates for audio, video, and image tasks; there are also tools for text-based discussions like blogs and forums. ANVILL's assessment tool,Quizzes and Surveys, gives teachers an easy way to assign and respond to spoken language tasks. In addition, ANVILL is a course management system. Teachers who are doing distance or hybrid courses have a simple means of managing their students as well as their curriculum. We think you'll find that ANVILL is quite flexible, and permits the kind of extra listening and speaking practice that language students need so much. ANVILL is a project of the Yamada Language Center at the University of Oregon. These tools are currently in use at UO and at a select number of K-12 sites around the Northwest. Thanks to our National Foreign Language Resource Center partners at CASLS, we are able to offer ANVILL to educators at no cost. Here is an overview of its features. If you think it would be helpful to you and your students, contact us to set up an account. Our two-year pilot study has just gotten underway and we're looking for language teachers at all levels to use it and tell us what they think.

The Mixxer is a free educational community for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. As a member of the Mixxer community, you can communicate with your language partner via Skype to practice speaking. You can also submit documents and ask native speakers to correct your writing.

This is a first announcement and invitation to participate in the International Conference on Language Policy, Planning and Support in Higher Education - Challenges of Multilingualism. As the title suggests, three main themes will be dealt with: * The development, implementation and management of language policies for a multicultural, multilingual higher education setting * Language planning (management, structures, services, etc.) needed to support language policies in a multicultural, multilingual higher education setting * The diversity of language support initiatives needed to guarantee successful language policy implementation in a multicultural, multilingual higher education setting The conference will be held at the Spier Estate outside Stellenbosch, South Africa, a magnificent rural setting that should stimulate fascinating discussion on a set of complex topics. Therefore the Language Centre of the Stellenbosch University invites you to make use of our hospitality - we are looking forward to welcoming you all!

The Modern Language Association supports a broad, intellectually driven approach to teaching language and culture in higher education. To study the best ways of implementing this approach in today's world, the MLA Executive Council established an Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages. The committee was charged with examining the current language crisis that has occurred as a result of 9/11 and with considering the effects of this crisis on the teaching of foreign languages in colleges and universities. This summary of the committee's and the Executive Council's deliberations offers background and context for the association's recommendations regarding the challenges and opportunities facing language study in higher education. While the recommendations address issues specific to the United States, they may be applicable to other contexts and countries.

May 28 - 30, 2009 at The George Washington University, Washington, DC Designed for practitioners and researchers involved in the preparation and ongoing professional development of language teachers, LTE 2009 will address the education of teachers of all languages, at all instructional and institutional levels, and in many national and international contexts in which this takes place including: English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) instruction; foreign/modern/world language teaching; bilingual education; immersion education; indigenous and minority language education; and the teaching of less commonly taught languages.

The Autonomous Language Learning (ALL) project, funded by the European Union, is building Blended Learning language courses in four European languages (Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian. These courses are designed for students who have had an initial introduction in one of the languages and who wish to progress from a basic survival level to a higher competency (A2 of the Common European Framework) The project results are for Language schools and Colleges. The partners in this project are experts in language education and technology in education, from across Europe. You can get involved and contribute to this project in a number of ways.

SACODEYL presents an innovative ICT-based solution for the compilation and pedagogical, language learning-oriented exploitation of linguistic teen talk oral corpora. SACODEYL is an integration initiative that takes into account areas as: 1. multilingual corpus compilation and innovation support, 2. pedagogical adaptation of existing ICT tools for the integration of corpora and corpus-based methods of Data Driven Learning (DDL) into mainstream language teaching, and 3. know-how building which will contribute to the future drafting of specifications that can take both DDL and the use of oral corpora in language education a step forward. SACODEYL sees itself as a pedagogical mediator in the language learning process of young European, exploiting ICT resources to deliver learning experiences based on data driven, constructivist approaches to language acquisition. SACODEYL will demand young learners of languages across Europe to personally explore, and engage in learning tasks of different nature.

SACODEYL is a web based system for the assisted compilation and open distribution of European teen talk in the context of language education. The project includes the collection and distribution of English, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian, and Spanish teen talk. SACODEYL sees itself as a pedagogical mediator in the language learning process of young Europeans, exploiting web multimedia resources to deliver learning experiences based on data driven, constructivist approaches to language acquisition.

"Welcome to DIALANG where you can test your language abilities in 5 skills in 14 European languages. DIALANG is a language diagnosis system developed by many European higher education institutions. It reports your level of skill against the Common European Framework (CEF) for language learning. DIALANG's skills are reading, writing, listening, grammar and vocabulary DIALANG's languages are Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Irish-gaelic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. Instructions as well as tests are available in all these languages."

The Language Acquisition Resource Center, LARC, is a national Language Resource Center located on the San Diego State University campus. It is one of fifteen Department of Education Title VI funded Language Resource Centers (LRCs). Our mission is to develop and support the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the United States through research, technology, and publications. Particular attention is paid to less commonly taught languages, cross-cultural issues, language skills assessment, and teacher training.

Diane J. Tedick, Editor (The Minnesota Articulation Project). This handbook for teachers was designed to provide world language teachers with the background knowledge, ideas, and resources for implementing proficiency-oriented language instruction and classroom-based performance measures into their curriculum. Tied to the national Standards for Foreign Language Education, the Handbook gives teachers a solid foundation of the principles and practices that are central to standards-based and proficiency-oriented language instruction and assessment. The Handbook gives teachers a wide variety of tasks and activities to use in the classroom along with ideas for adapting these activities for different levels and languages and longer curricular packages.The Handbook was originally created by members of the Minnesota Articulation Project. While the handbook is still available in print through the CARLAmworking paper series most of the handbook is now available online.

"Understanding Assessment: A Guide for Foreign Language Educators is a tutorial on language testing for foreign language educators. It is designed to help new users of the Center for Applied Linguistics' Foreign Language Assessment Directory (FLAD) and it is also an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about language testing."

The Center's mission is to serve the entire community of African language educators and learners in the United States by sponsoring a wide range of educational and professional activities designed to improve the accessibility and quality of African language instruction in the United States. The Center encourages a variety of pedagogical approaches to accommodate learner diversity, and advocates the integration of language and culture learning and the acquisition of fluency in these areas. It facilitates dialogue among teachers, learners, and administrators from a wide variety cultural and institutional perspectives, and promotes the profession of African language teaching.

"WeSpeke (www.wespeke.com) is a free, unique and innovative language website and cultural exchange for teachers and students. WeSpeke is designed as a free-time resource to help improve the efficiency of foreign language acquisition and practice amongst language learners and focuses on supporting the language education curriculum across the conversation continuum including; Messaging (asynchronous communications) Chat (synchronous and asynchronous communications) Audio (real time conversations) Video + Audio (full peer-to-peer language immersion and cultural exchange)"

The French Heritage Language Program was created in 2005 by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received additional support from the Alfred & Jane Ross Foundation. It is designed to support and enrich the teaching and learning of French language, literature, and culture for students of Francophone background enrolled in New York City public schools. The primary objectives of the program are to help these students develop proficiency in French (reading comprehension, writing, oral expression and other literacy skills), and keep a connection to their respective cultures and identities, while increasing their opportunities for success in their new environment. Through university partnerships, this project also hopes to contribute to scholarly research in the field of heritage language learning. As a pilot program, it is a place for pedagogical and methodological exploration, and a way to build new partnerships. We seek to develop curriculum models that can be replicated and adapted in other cities in the United States, in France as well as in other countries. The French Heritage Language Program works closely with the Internationals Network for Public Schools, which includes nine high schools for new immigrants in New York City and one in Oakland, California, all working at the development of models for global education.

"MIMEA is a series of interactive multimedia modules for language learning, practice, and assessment. The modules are based on video clips that show native speakers and nonnative speakers interacting in natural, unscripted situations. Interactive exercises reinforce language and cultural topics that spring from the scenarios. Teachers can use MIMEA modules as part of a language course to demonstrate language use, provide contextual language practice, or as an assessment tool."

"In the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century, Americans must be able to communicate effectively in English and other world languages. Yet while countries around the world are implementing language programs that position their students to become multilingual world citizens, results of a recent national report by the Center for Applied Linguistics (Rhodes & Pufahl, 2010) reveal that opportunities for U.S. students to learn a foreign language have declined.

"Language Acquisition and Technology is a course that surveys technologies currently in use in language instruction, and will be delivered using an important subset of those technologies under student management. The course consists primarily of four components: 1) creating digital media and integrating it into instruction; 2) creating and deploying learning objects based on principles derived from instructional design and second language acquisition; 3) managing technology in an instructional environment; 4) evaluating existing technology-based learning objects and applications. Primary outcomes will be based in each of these four categories and include produced media, language courseware, technology training experience and a publishable review. "

The National Capital Language Resource Center is a nonprofit organization funded by the US Department of Education to promote foreign language learning nationally. This video podcast gives highlights of our summer institutes for foreign language teachers and other local events that can be useful in the language classroom.

"A program of United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program will offer intensive summer language institutes overseas in thirteen critical need foreign languages for summer 2010. The on-line application for CLS Program awards is now available, and the deadline to apply will be December 18, 2009. "

The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) supports the educational community and the nation by providing resources and research focused on culture, language and literacy in less commonly taught languages. CERCLL is associated with the SLAT Program.