Since becoming a language resource center, the NHLRC has convened three quadrennial International Conferences on Heritage/Community languages and partnered with affiliates to host other conferences as well.
The quadrennial International Conferences have provided two-day forums that have brought together heritage language researchers, instructors, and specialists from around the world to discuss issues, relevant to heritage/community language studies as a multi-disciplinary field.
3rd International Heritage Language Conference: February 16-17, 2018
2nd International Heritage Language Conference: March 7-8, 2014
1st International Heritage Language Conference: February 19-21, 2010
A Memorial Conference Honoring the Legacy of Olga Kagan: May 31, 2019
The UCLA Center for World Languages, the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures, and the Division of the Humanities held a conference celebrating the legacy of Professor Olga E. Kagan. The all-day conference brought together scholars from UCLA and around the country who worked closely with her, to present on topics that are representative of her extraordinary career on heritage language teaching and second language acquisition.
Language Teacher Education Conference 2017: February 2-4, 2017
The NHLRC partnered with our sister LRC the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition to bring together domestic and international language teacher educators, instructors, and administrators, at a three-day conference, hosted on the UCLA campus.
Community Language Schools Conference: Saturday, April 13, 2013
This conference brought together teachers and administrators of community language schools with local faculty and graduate student researchers.
Since 2009, the NHLRC has held annual week-long workshops on the UCLA campus that have focused on training cohorts of K-16 and community school instructors of heritage languages in the development of innovative heritage curricula to address the challenge of teaching heritage language (HL) students. The participants in these workshops have engaged in hands-on activities that have involved the development, presentation, and critique of projects that can be used with heritage language students. Visit each workshop page to see the heritage language curricula submitted for each of the represented languages.
2021 STARTALK/NHLRC Heritage Language Teacher Workshop
June 21-25, 2021
Previous Workshops
2018 Workshop
2016 Workshop
2012 Workshop
Since 2007, the NHLRC has partnered with affiliates to host research institutes that have focused on addressing the pressing need for empirical data on the grammar of heritage language learners and exploring the connections between these findings and heritage language teaching.
Thirteenth Research Institute (2021): Complexity in Heritage Grammars
June 8-11, 2020 at Pennsylvania State University
Previous Institutes
Ninth Institute (2016)
Seventh Institute (2013)
Fourth Institute (2010)
In conjunction with STARTALK, the National Heritage Language Resource Center has developed this online course for language instructors who teach heritage language (HL) students. (A HL student has grown up in a home in which a language other than the dominant societal one is spoken and has enrolled in a class to study that language.)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 20% of the U.S. population speaks a language other than English at home (Source: U.S. Census Bureau). As the number of HL learners continues to grow, language teachers need to be well versed in the foundational principles of HL teaching and be able to enact them in their particular language and instructional context. With this in mind, our course aims to:
The course consists of five self-paced modules: Each module is comprised of five to eight lessons, with each lesson further subdivided into segments organized around videos that average approximately three minutes in length. The modules build on each other and form a coherent whole, but each module also functions as a stand-alone unit, and participants can choose either to cover all the modules or only those they find useful.
The modules can be used in conjunction with a teacher training course or by individual teachers wanting to improve their teaching skills and better serve their HL students.
For each module, the following choices are available:
$75 per module gives you access to:
$150 per module gives you access to:
The first module focuses on foundational concepts of the field, including characteristics associated with heritage speakers, definitions of key concepts, and pedagogical strategies that meet the needs of heritage language learners.
Lesson Topics:
The second module aims to develop a detailed understanding of what HL learners with no prior HL instruction can and cannot do with their HL in terms of phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, register, and dialect. Strategies for addressing language needs in these areas are also included.
The third module introduces the principles and practices of differentiated instruction and discusses their application to heritage language learners.
The fourth module explores strategies and approaches that are useful for teachers of mixed heritage language/second language learner classes.
The fifth module describes the principles and practices of PBL as they pertain to heritage language students, including the challenges involved in implementing a PBL curriculum and presentations of successfully implemented projects.
Registration is currently closed as we transition the online modules to the new UCLA Bruin Learn system. We plan to open the registration again in early 2023.
1. Register online through the following link. Click here to register.
2. Create a UCLA Logon ID at https://accounts.iam.ucla.edu. Select Create a UCLA Logon ID, agree to the terms, and then click I do not have a 9 digit UCLA ID number (UID).
3. Once you create your login ID, activate the account by logging into UCLA's Learning Management System (LMS): https://ccle.ucla.edu/
4. We will email you once we have added you to the LMS. You will generally have one month to complete each module.
If you have any questions, please contact us cwl@international.ucla.edu