The application period has ended.

Instructors of all languages from K-16 programs and community schools are invited to apply. The workshop is sponsored by STARTALK and the National Heritage Language Resource Center. The STARTALK sponsored languages are: Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu. The NHLRC sponsors all other languages.

About the Workshop

This workshop is designed to help language teachers face the challenge of teaching heritage language (HL) students. The workshop will open on June 1, 2021, with asynchronous online assignments for three weeks. This will be followed by a five-day, virtual workshop (June 21-25, 2021) that will be conducted via Zoom. Accepted participants will be required to complete the online assignments as well as the virtual workshop.The online assignments will focus on identifying and addressing the linguistic gaps in HL students’ language, differentiated teaching, and teaching mixed classes. The virtual workshop will focus on how to use project based learning (PBL) as a useful tool in heritage language instruction.

PBL is a learner-centered approach in which students work over an extended period of time on a task that demands engaging with complex issues, analyzing topics, solving problems, or meeting particular real-life challenges. The workshop will be designed to impart the principles and methods of PBL and the ways in which language teaching and authentic materials can be incorporated into a PBL classroom. Participants will engage in hands-on activities that involve the development, presentation, and critique of projects that can be used with HL students.

This workshop aims to create a cohort of language teachers who will be leaders and mentors in the field of HL instruction. We hope that teachers who participate in the workshop will commit to re-teaching “lessons learned” at their institution or in their region when they return home.

The workshop's goals are to:

1. Understand the needs of HL learners.
2. Design projects and select materials that build on HL students’ initial proficiencies and meet both their linguistic and affective needs.
3. Identify criteria and strategies for developing PBL curricula.
4. Understand how to structure and pace a project-based unit.
5. Understand how to select and use authentic materials, and develop real-life activities to accompany them.
6. Become familiar with the principles of differentiated and macro-based teaching.

There is no charge for this workshop, but there is an application process. Click on the link above to apply.

For additional information, contact cwl@international.ucla.edu.

Sponsor(s): Center for World Languages, National Heritage Language Resource Center, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Center for Near Eastern Studies, STARTALK