Registration for the 11th Annual Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference is OPEN! The conference will be hybrid, held both on site at American University in Washington, DC and online on October 4-5, 2024.

Explore the conference website and register now! The registration fee on-site participants covers the program as well as refreshments, lunch on Saturday, and a reception Saturday night. In addition, on-site participants can get together for a meet and greet at a local restaurant on Friday evening.

See a list of hotels with discounted rates.

Please also share the conference Facebook event as well as LinkedIn event widely and invite your colleagues! Today, we are excited to introduce our wonderful plenary speakers, Ken Cruickshank and Richard Brecht!

Click to view the schedule.

Plenary Speakers

Ken Cruickshank, Ph.D.

is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has taught languages and TESOL in elementary and secondary schools as well as universities for many years. He has also worked with heritage language schools since the 1990s. He is Director of the Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education (SICLE), which supports heritage language schools in Sydney. SICLE has developed key resources to support heritage language schools and also pathways for heritage language teachers to gain accreditation for mainstream schools in Australia.

Presentation: Community and Heritage Language Schools Transforming Education: Research, Challenges, Teaching Practices, and Next Step

Richard Brecht, Ph.D.

is University of Maryland Professor Emeritus and currently serves as co-director of the American Councils Research Center. As Co-Founder and Chief Language Officer of Jeenie, an interpretation company, he has focused on immigrant and foreign-born communities, their locations and languages. He has served as a leader in academic organizations such as American Councils for International Education, the Center for Advanced Study of Language (now the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security, ARLIS), the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, and the National Foreign Language Center.

Presentation: Expanding Heritage Language Education in the U.S.: Historic Immigration & Renewed opportunities

Sponsor(s): National Heritage Language Resource Center, American University, Washington DC, Institute for Innovation in Education