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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.

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 project studies the diagnosis of reading and writing abilities in a second or foreign language. It seeks to identify the cognitive features which predict a learner's strengths and weaknesses in those areas. The project brings together scholars from applied linguistics, psychology and assessment to engage in multidisciplinary work and to develop innovative ways of diagnosing the development of second and foreign language abilities. The main contribution of the project will be to offer novel, well-grounded theoretical insights and to develop a range of methodologies to study second and foreign language development and its diagnosis. We are exploring the causes underlying strengths and weaknesses in language development, and the relationship between literacy skills in one's first language and the development of second language abilities. The results of the project will also have practical implications by providing a sounder theoretical basis for the development of curricula, pedagogic materials and diagnostic tests."

The Foreign Language Teaching Forum is an integrated service for FL teachers. Resources include this WWW site, the email LISTSERV Academic Discussion List (FLTEACH@listserv.buffalo.edu), list archives, and the FLNews server at the State University of New York College at Cortland. FLTEACH was founded in February 1994 and runs on a computer at SUNY Buffalo. The moderators, Jean LeLoup & Bob Ponterio, both teach at SUNY Cortland. Our broad topic is foreign language teaching methods for all levels and all languages. Specific areas of discussion include school/college articulation, training of student teachers, classroom activities, curriculum, and syllabus design. Students in teacher training programs, teachers both new and experienced, administrators, and other professionals interested in any aspect of foreign language teaching are invited to participate in our discussions.

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.

"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."

"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.

italki.com is where you can find everything you need to learn a language. italki is a social network and an online resource for learning foreign languages. Find a Language Partner: Get a language partner, find a tutor, or just make friends around the world! Answers: Ask your questions here and get answers from the italki community. Shared Files: Download files like free textbooks, handouts, and learning guides. Language Resources Check this directory for other online and offline language learning resources. Knowledge: Free community-created wiki. Contribute your knowledge and create a wiki page. Groups: Join and create groups to discuss and learn from each other.

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.

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.

Foreign Language Teaching Methods focuses on 12 different aspects of language teaching, each taught by a different expert instructor. The site contains video footage from an actual methods course held at the University of Texas at Austin. This flexible resource is designed to be used by foreign language teachers as a component of a classroom methods course or as a stand-alone course for independent learners.

The Teaching Foreign Languages K-12 video library and professional development guide bring to life the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. Illustrating effective instruction and assessment strategies, the series documents 27 teachers and their students in K-12 classrooms around the country as they study eight languages across a range of competency levels.

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.

The Berkeley Language Center has created a library of foreign language clips, each tagged for the vocabulary in the target language and for English descriptors (culture, linguistics, speech acts). Instructors are able to search the library for a clip of interest and then 'order' the clip (a URL is created linking to an mp4 file; the URL stays active for two weeks). Currently we have 5200 clips in 15 languages, and those numbers continue to grow.

"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.

List of links to how-to & help documents for using foreign language keyboards and activating different languages on both Mac and PC computers.

Welcome to the Language Technology Boot Camp Site. The first Boot Camp was initiated because the language residents at the Oldenborg Center at Pomona College did not receive any training in the use of technology in foreign language learning and teaching. Many had never encountered the possibilities that a private liberal arts college offers and most had not been familiar with the teaching and learning styles and philosophy prevalent at our institution. Therefore the first Boot Camp was conducted at Pomona College in August 2006. After talks with colleagues at other colleges I found that this was a novelty, as usually only faculty get trained in these matters and that language residents or assistants usually fall through the cracks. But especially these teacher/students are the ones with a lot of enthusiasm, current cultural knowledge, native-speaker abilities, and a more open and relaxed relationship with new technologies and possibilities. As I was planning the 2007 Boot Camp, which underwent several changes, the idea was born that all this work and preparation should be shared, and also that if others contributed to this Boot Camp, the program would be better than if only I prepared everything.

AAUSC works to: promote, improve, and strengthen foreign language and second language instruction in the US; to strengthen development programs for teaching assistants, teaching fellows, associate instructors, or their equivalents; to promote research in second language acquisition and on the preparation and supervision of teaching assistants; and to establish a forum for exchanging ideas, experiences, and materials among those concerned with language program direction.

The FLAD is a free, searchable directory of information on nearly 200 tests in over 90 languages. The FLAD serves as a starting point for teachers and educators to search for foreign language assessments. Available information about assessments includes grade and proficiency levels, languages for which each test is available, skills targeted by a test, information about the test's development and the publisher's or developer's contact information for further inquiries.