**INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH**

**AND STUDIES PROGRAM**

**(84.017A)**

![](media/image1.wmf){width="1.2805555555555554in" height="1.1875in"}

###### Fiscal Year 2006 New Grants

**Summary and Abstracts**

####### International Education Programs Service

####### U.S. Department of Education

####### 6th Floor, 1990 K Street, N.W.

####### Washington, DC 20006-8521 

####### 

+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| **Application       | **Project       | * | * | *    |     |      |
| Number, Applicant** | Title**         | * | * | *Fun |     |      |
|                     |                 | T | Y | ding |     |      |
| **and Project       |                 | y | e | A    |     |      |
| Director**          |                 | p | a | lloc |     |      |
|                     |                 | e | r | atio |     |      |
|                     |                 | * | s | ns** |     |      |
|                     |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
|                     |                 |   | * | **FY |     |      |
|                     |                 | * |   | 2006 |     |      |
|                     |                 | * |   | FY   |     |      |
|                     |                 | I |   | 2007 |     |      |
|                     |                 | M |   | FY   |     |      |
|                     |                 | / |   | 20   |     |      |
|                     |                 | R |   | 08** |     |      |
|                     |                 | E |   |      |     |      |
|                     |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
|                     |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
+=====================+=================+===+===+======+=====+======+
| P017A060006\        | National K-12   | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| Center for Applied  | Foreign         | * | * | *\$1 | 79, | $176 |
| Linguistics\        | Language Survey | R | 3 | 65,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 4646 40th Street,   | Research        | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| N.W.\               | Project (K-12)  | * | * |      |     |      |
| Washington, DC      |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| 20016\              |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Nancy Rhodes        |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060011\        | CutureTalk      | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| Five Colleges,      | Islamic Worlds: | * | * | *\$1 | 24, | $124 |
| Incorporated\       | A Video         | I | 3 | 13,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Department of       | Resource of     | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| French and Italian\ | Language and    | * | * |      |     |      |
| Amherst, MA 01003\  | Culture         | * |   |      |     |      |
| Elizabeth Mazzacco  |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060014\        | K-12 Gateway to | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | the Less        | * | * | *\$1 | 90, | $180 |
| California, Los     | Commonly Taught | R | 3 | 57,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Angeles\            | Languages       | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| 1333 Hearshey Hall\ | (K-12)          | * | * |      |     |      |
| Los Angeles, CA     |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| 90095\              |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Thomas Hinnebusch   |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060016\        | National Online | * | * | **\$ | \$1 | \$85 |
| University of       | Less Commonly   | * | * | 96,0 | 64, | ,000 |
| Wisconsin, Madison\ | Taught          | I | 3 | 00** | 000 |      |
| 732 Van Hise Hall,  | Languages       | M | * |      |     |      |
| 1220 Linden Drive\  | (LCTL) Teacher  | * | * |      |     |      |
| Madison, WI 53706\  | Training        | * |   |      |     |      |
| Sally Magnan        | Initiative      |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | (K-12)          |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060017\        | CAILS: Central  | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Asian           | * | * | *\$1 | 30, | $132 |
| Wisconsin, Madison\ | Interactive     | R | 3 | 17,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 1254 Van Hise, 1220 | Learning Series | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| Linden Drive\       |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| Madison, WI 53706\  |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| Uli Schamiloglu     |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060018\        | Thai Reading    | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Textbook        | * | * | *\$1 | 58, | $155 |
| Wisconsin, Madison\ |                 | I | 3 | 15,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Center for          |                 | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| Southeast Asian     |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| Studies\            |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| Madison, WI 53706\  |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Robert Bickner      |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060020\        | New Travels on  | * | * | **\$ | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Old Roads: The  | * | * | 98,0 | 17, | $145 |
| Montana\            | Geography of    | I | 3 | 00** | 000 | ,000 |
| Department of       | Central Asia    | M | * |      |     |      |
| Geography\          | and the         | * | * |      |     |      |
| Missoula, MT        | Caucasus (K-12) | * |   |      |     |      |
| 59812-4840\         |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Sarah Halvorson     |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060024         | Survey of       | * | * | **\$ | \$  | \$0  |
|                     | Foreign         | * | * | 67,0 | 45, |      |
| Modern Language     | Language        | R | 2 | 00** | 000 |      |
| Association         | Enrollments at  | E | * |      |     |      |
|                     | U.S. Colleges   | * | * |      |     |      |
| 26 Broadway         | and             | * |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Universities,   |   |   |      |     |      |
| New York, NY        | Fall 2006(K-12) |   |   |      |     |      |
| 10004-1789          |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Nelly Furman        |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060025\        | E-Learning      | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Materials for   | * | * | *\$1 | 32, | $135 |
| Maryland, College   | Improving       | I | 3 | 20,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Park\               | Reading         | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| National Foreign    | Proficiency in  | * | * |      |     |      |
| Language Center\    | Chinese (K-12)  | * |   |      |     |      |
| College Park, MD    |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| 20742\              |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Myriam Met          |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060033\        | Advancing       | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Computer        | * | * | *\$1 | 50, | $155 |
| Arizona\            | Assisted        | I | 3 | 36,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 1717 East Speedway  | Instructional   | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| Boulevard\          | Materials for   | * | * |      |     |      |
| Tucson, AZ          | Less Commonly   | * |   |      |     |      |
| 85721-0151\         | Taught          |   |   |      |     |      |
| Alex Dunkel         | Languages:      |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Kurdish,        |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Turkish and     |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Ukrainian       |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060034\        | Intern          | # | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| Social Science      | ationalization, | # | * | *\$1 | 89, | $189 |
| Research Council\   | Int             | # | 3 | 70,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 810 Seventh Avenue\ | er-Disciplinary | # | * | 00** |     |      |
| New York, NY 10019\ | and             | # | * |      |     |      |
| Seteney Shami       | Bou             |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | ndary-Crossing: | R |   |      |     |      |
|                     | An Evaluation   | E |   |      |     |      |
|                     | of Title VI     |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | NRCs for the    |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Middle East,    |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Eurasia and     |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | South Asia      |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060038\        | Ojibwe Movies   | * | * | *    | \$1 | \$94 |
| University of       |                 | * | * | *\$1 | 19, | ,000 |
| Minnesota, Duluth\  |                 | I | 3 | 14,0 | 000 |      |
| 11217 Blue Heron    |                 | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| Lane\               |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| Hayward, WI 54843\  |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| Mary Hermes         |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060044\        | Development of  | * | * | **\$ | \$  | \$16 |
| Coalition of        | Integrated      | * | * | 66,0 | 43, | ,000 |
| Distinguished       | Four-Skill      | I | 3 | 00** | 000 |      |
|                     | Workbooks in    | M | * |      |     |      |
| Language Centers,   | Russian for     | * | * |      |     |      |
|                     | Students        | * |   |      |     |      |
| 784 Northridge PMB  | Studying Toward |   |   |      |     |      |
| 293\                | Distinguished   |   |   |      |     |      |
| Salinas, CA 93906\  | Level           |   |   |      |     |      |
| Betty Leaver        | Proficiency     |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060057\        | Beyond          | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Immediate       | * | * | *\$1 | 56, | $176 |
| Minnesota\          | Impact: Study   | R | 3 | 35,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 330 Wulling Hall\   | Abroad for      | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| Minneapolis, MN     | Global          | * | * |      |     |      |
| 55455\              | Engagement      | * |   |      |     |      |
| Michael Paige       |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060058         | SEALANG Lab:    | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
|                     | Assistive       | * | * | *\$1 | 72, | $174 |
| CRCL Inc.           | Technology for  | I | 3 | 52,0 | 000 | ,000 |
|                     | Reading,        | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| 820 Calle Pluma     | Writing and     | * | * |      |     |      |
|                     | Vocabulary      | * |   |      |     |      |
| San Clemente, CA    | Acquisition in  |   |   |      |     |      |
| 92674               | Complex Script  |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Languages       |   |   |      |     |      |
| Doug Cooper         |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060059\        | Advanced        | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University of       | Proficiency     | * | * | *\$1 | 41, | $145 |
| Pittsburgh\         | Development in  | I | 3 | 25,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 5106 Posvar Hall,   | Chinese,        | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| 230 Bouquet\        | Japanese and    | * | * |      |     |      |
| Pittsburgh, PA      | Korean          | * |   |      |     |      |
| 15260\              |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Daniel Dewey        |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060064\        | A Dynamic       | * | * | *    | \$1 |      |
| Colleges of the     | Trainer for     | * | * | *\$1 | 31, |      |
| Seneca\             | Russian Verbs   | I | 2 | 12,0 | 000 |      |
| 114 Honness Lane\   |                 | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| Ithaca, NY 14850\   |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| David Galloway      |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060067\        | GLOSSARI:       | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| University System   | Georgia         | * | * | *\$1 | 88, | $189 |
| of Georgia\         | Learning        | R | 3 | 70,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| 270 Washington      | Outcomes of     | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| Street, S.W.\       | Students        | * | * |      |     |      |
| Atlanta, GA 30334\  | Studying Abroad | * |   |      |     |      |
| Richard Sutton      | Research        |   |   |      |     |      |
|                     | Initiative      |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060068\        | A Reading       | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| Tufts University\   | Environment for | * | * | *\$1 | 51, | $155 |
| Perseus             | Arabic and for  | R | 3 | 26,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Project/Classics    | Islamic Culture | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| Department\         |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| Medford, MA 02155\  |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| Gregory Crane       |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060073\        | Arabic K-12:    | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| George Washington   | Training the    | * | * | *\$1 | 24, | $121 |
| University\         | Teachers (K-12) | I | 3 | 10,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| NCLRC, 2134 G       |                 | M | * | 00** |     |      |
| Street, Room 422\   |                 | * | * |      |     |      |
| Washington, DC      |                 | * |   |      |     |      |
| 20052\              |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
| Anna Chamot         |                 |   |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
| P017A060079\        | Pathways to     | * | * | *    | \$1 | \    |
| SUNY, Buffalo\      | Bilingualism:   | * | * | *\$1 | 85, | $189 |
| Department of       | e-Learning and  | R | 3 | 66,0 | 000 | ,000 |
| Linguistics\        | the Teaching of | E | * | 00** |     |      |
| Buffalo, NY 14260\  | Modern Foreign  | * | * |      |     |      |
| Guofang Li          | Languages       | * |   |      |     |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+
|                     |                 |   |   | **\  | **\ | **\  |
|                     |                 |   |   | $2,6 | $2, | $2,7 |
|                     |                 |   |   | 30,0 | 988 | 35,0 |
|                     |                 |   |   | 00** | ,00 | 00** |
|                     |                 |   |   |      | 0** |      |
+---------------------+-----------------+---+---+------+-----+------+

NOTE: **IM** = instructional materials; **RE** = research

P017A060006\
**Center for Applied Linguistics**\
4646 40th Street, N.W.\
Washington, DC 20016\
Nancy Rhodes

#### 

#### NATIONAL K-12 FOREIGN LANGUAGE SURVEY

Foreign language education is in the spotlight. In the aftermath of
9/11, there has been renewed attention to the need for Americans who can
communicate in more than one language. At the same time, No Child Left
Behind legislation recognizes foreign languages as a core subject. To
determine how well the United States is preparing students to meet the
need for individuals with proficiency in critical languages, educators
and policy makers alike need up-to-date, detailed information on the
current status of foreign language education in this country. Thus, it
is time to conduct a comprehensive national survey of elementary and
secondary school language programs.

In a three-year project, the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
proposes to replicate its 1987 and 1997 surveys of K-12 foreign language
programs to identify current patterns and shifts over time in
enrollment, amount of foreign language instruction, and type of foreign
language offerings, foreign language curricula, teacher qualifications,
and other issues. Results will show trends in foreign language education
over three decades.

The study aims to provide a portrait of elementary and secondary foreign
language education at national and regional levels. The survey will be
sent to a random sample of public and private schools. Working with
Westat, a leader in survey design, CAL will use various techniques to
ensure a high response rate (60 percent or higher), including the option
of responding online. Final products will include a comprehensive
report, an executive summary, and a brochure with key findings.

This project will expand our knowledge, suggest needs for increased or
improved foreign language instruction, and provide data to inform
language education policy at the local, state, and national levels.

P017A060011\
**Five Colleges, Incorporated**\
Department of French and Italian\
Amherst, MA 01003\
Elizabeth Mazzacco

#### 

#### CULTURETALK ISLAMIC WORLDS

This innovative, Web-accessible collection of 1,200-1,500 short video
clips addresses the need for students of languages and cultures at all
levels to hear ordinary people talking about their lives in the
languages and dialects they use every day, to read accessible
transcripts and translations of those interviews and conversations in
English, and also to hear citizens of predominately Muslim countries
speaking in English about their everyday lives and cultures. There is no
similar resource currently in existence.

CultureTalk Islamic Worlds will feature video interviews with
individuals who are native speakers of multiple dialects of Arabic from
regions such as North Africa, Egypt and the Sudan, the Levantine coast,
Iraq and the Gulf states; African languages such as Wolof, Hausa,
Somali, and Swahili; Turkish and Turkic languages such as Azerbaijani,
Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kirghiz; Persian dialects from Iran,
Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; South Asian languages such as Pashto, Urdu,
and Bangla; Indonesian and Malaysian from Southeast Asia; and
Serbo-Croatian and Albanian from Eastern Europe. CultureTalk Islamic
Worlds will forge the important link between linguistic and cultural
proficiency that comes from an understanding of language but also of the
value systems and cultural networks that inform the target language.

CultureTalk Islamic Worlds will be of use to postsecondary language and
area studies students, K-12 students and teachers, and individuals
involved in international occupations or who desire increased
international understanding (military, government, and the business
community). This rich, innovative video resource will have free and easy
access via the Web for anyone with computer access.

P017A060014\
**University of California, Los Angeles**\
1333 Hearshey Hall\
Los Angeles, CA 90095\
Thomas Hinnebusch

## 

## K-12 GATEWAY TO THE LESS-COMMONLY-TAUGHT LANGUAGES

This proposal seeks U.S. Department of Education funding to expand the
K-12 components of the University of California (UCLA Language Materials
Project\'s (LMP's) Online Digital Bibliography, increasing its
effectiveness for elementary and secondary language teachers. The
proposed project will:

> 1\. Identify traditional teaching materials and Authentic Materials in
> Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs), focusing on materials for
> cultural and social curricula in grades K-12, and present those items
> on the LMP\'s Online Digital Bibliography, with a special K-12 search
> function for easy access.
>
> 2\. Identify resources on K-12 teaching methodology for specific Less
> Commonly Taught Languages or language groups, and add them to the
> LMP\'s Online Digital Bibliography.
>
> 3\. Expand the existing Authentic Materials Guide by providing
> templates of lesson plans for K-12 teachers.
>
> 4\. Create a K-12 portal to unify the presentation of K-12 resources
> from the Language Materials Project, publishers and distributors, and
> external Web sites.

Although there are currently 2476 courses offering Less Commonly Taught
Languages to K-12 students, there are few online tools to support those
instructional programs. There is no comprehensive public source of
information on materials to support LCTL instruction in grades K-12.
This proposal offers a means to fill that gap.

The LMP is well suited for locating materials on K-12 language-teaching
and methodology, and making them known. We already provide a
comprehensive Online Digital Bibliography of postsecondary language
teaching materials for 138 LCTLs, including 48 languages of Islamic
countries, on our Web site at
[http://www.lmp.ucla.edu](http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/). The current
proposal will extend that expertise to materials appropriate to K-12
LCTL education.

The strength of this proposal lies in the fact that it builds on the
existing LMP database, processes, and expertise. The team has a proven
history of collecting and disseminating information on language teaching
materials. We maintain a dialog with language professionals, Language
Resource Centers, and national LCTL teaching organizations to assure our
awareness of teachers' changing needs. We are fortunate to have access
to a wide range of LCTL speakers and teachers, both on the UCLA campus
and through the national Language Resource Centers. Our Advisory Board
is made up of leading LCTL experts.

The LMP Bibliography is used extensively by researchers, foreign
language teachers and area studies programs. The Web site receives
nearly 900 visits a day from United States educational, government, and
military entities, a measure of our accessibility to a wide audience of
potential users, and recognition of the project as an acknowledged
source of language teaching information. There are currently over 300
significant Web sites in the United States and abroad that provide links
to the LMP.

P017A060016\
**University of Wisconsin, Madison**\
732 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive\
Madison, WI 53706\
Sally Magnan

**NATIONAL ONLINE LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT LANGUAGES (LCTL) TEACHER TRAINING
INITIATIVE**

The National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) and the
University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Institute propose to launch the
National Online Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Teacher Training
Initiative. This initiative will strengthen the teaching and learning of
LCTLs in the United States by helping postsecondary LCTL teachers learn
about current research and teaching methods, reflect on their own and
others' teaching practices, build communities of practice around
language teaching, and strengthen their connections to their
professional organizations. The current proposal requests funding for
the first phase of the initiative, to develop a series of five,
one-credit online teaching methods courses for the LCTLs. The courses
will be offered through the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison)
and made available to educational programs and institutions throughout
the United States. The NCOLCTL will offer a certificate of completion
for the courses; this certificate will form the basis of a national
certificate of instruction for postsecondary LCTL teachers, currently
under consideration by NCOLCTL.

Most of the world's population speaks a language not commonly taught in
American colleges and universities. Despite the strategic, economic, and
social importance of the "less-commonly taught languages" (languages
other than English, French, German, Spanish), the LCTLs and their
instructors occupy a marginal place in our educational system. The
proposed initiative will enhance the capacity of United States'
institutions to produce graduates with foreign language expertise by
nurturing a growing national corps of teachers and leaders in the LCTLs.
The initiative will also produce a substantial "washback" effect for
preparing future secondary teachers as well by helping to produce a
cadre of postsecondary instructors who can, in turn, train teachers on
the secondary level, or work with them to build secondary programs.

P017A060017\
**University of Wisconsin, Madison**\
1254 Van Hise, 1220 Linden Drive\
Madison, WI 53706\
Uli Schamiloglu

## CENTRAL ASIAN ADVANCED INTERACTIVE LISTENING SERIES

The Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) seeks U.S. Department of Education
funding to support the first phase of an initiative to rapidly expand
national capacity in critical Turkic languages of Central Asia and
surrounding regions. The current proposal is to support CAILS, the
Central Asian Advanced Interactive Listening Series, a project to
develop a series of 20 online listening comprehension and culture
lessons targeting advanced level listening proficiency in Kazakh and
Uzbek. The lessons will be based on video clips of interviews conducted
in the target languages, both in-country and in the United States, and
will cover topics such as history, literature, culture, politics,
education, and economics. The project is unique in providing
cross-language training for students with intermediate proficiency in
Kazakh, Uzbek, or other Turkic languages to develop advanced-level
listening comprehension proficiency in Kazakh or Uzbek without having to
begin a four-skills language course in that language from the first
semester.

The CAILS project is directed by Professor Uli Schamiloglu, a leading
specialist in the Turkic languages and cultures of Central Asia and
president of the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages.
The project builds upon, and extends, the work of other successful
materials development projects in advanced-level listening comprehension
and technology at the UW-Madison \-- RAILS: Russian Advanced Interactive
Listening Series directed by Professor Benjamin Rifkin, and Utamaduni
Online: An Advanced Level Course in Swahili Language and Culture,
directed by Professor Magdalena Hauner.

P017A060018\
**University of Wisconsin, Madison**\
Center for Southeast Asian Studies\
Madison, WI 53706\
Robert Bickner

## DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING PROFICIENCY IN THAI

Professor Robert J. Bickner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
(UW-Madison) proposes a three-year project for the development of
materials for the teaching of reading proficiency in Thai. The materials
will be designed to supplement any basic Thai language text. The
difficulty of the reading materials will range from novice (0) through
advanced-high (2+) levels on the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency scale. Thai is an appropriate
language for this type of project. Spoken by the vast majority of
Thailand's population of more than 60 million, it is the primary means
of communication in all government, commercial, and academic endeavors
in Thailand, which is a staunch ally of the United States. With its
lengthy border with Malaysia, Thailand has a significant Islamic
population and has experienced considerable unrest in Islamic areas, but
remains an active participant in efforts to eradicate international
terrorism. Thailand remains an open society that grants easy access to
United States students, scholars, governmental representatives, and
businesses. Interest in studying Thai has grown significantly in recent
years, and that interest seems likely to be sustained into the future.

This project continues efforts to adopt competency-based methods for the
development of materials for both teaching and testing Thai language
skills. The communicative and interactive materials will be designed for
use in the first through third years of Thai language instruction in the
United States and will be used during regular academic year instruction
as well as in courses offered through the Southeast Asian Studies Summer
Institute (SEASSI), which is funded by a consortium of nearly two dozen
universities in part through a pooling of the Foreign Language and Area
Studies Program fellowship funds, and which will be hosted by UW-Madison
at least through the completion of the grant period. The materials will
also be used by the Advanced Study of Thai (AST) program, which is
sponsored by the Consortium for the Advanced Study of Thai (CAST) and
funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

The materials to be used will be authentic texts collected from
Thailand; they will be drawn from written material found in magazines,
newspapers, announcements, signs, documents, letters, instructions,
advertisements, and so on. Two volumes will be produced, the first of
which will cover from novice through intermediate-mid levels, with the
second to cover from intermediate-high through advanced-high levels.
Within each volume materials will be organized thematically; topics will
include categories such as entertainment (theater, movies, music,
television), life events (birth, marriage, death and related rituals),
sports, shopping (food items at stores and restaurants, clothing,
household goods, toiletries, etc.), travel and transportation (both
local and international), occupations, business, economics, politics,
biography, people, and religion. As the volumes are being created, they
will be tested in class sessions in Madison during the academic year and
also in the summer intensive language institute (SEASSI), as well as the
Advanced Study of Thai program in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Bickner, as
Language Director of SEASSI and past president of CAST, will maintain
good communication with SEASSI and CAST member institutions to make the
materials available to them for additional testing for and feedback from
them regarding project design.

Finally, Bickner will supervise and participate in the development of
guidelines for Thai reading proficiency, and a reading test to measure
proficiency from intermediate-mid through advanced levels. This test
will then be used in academic year programs, SEASSI and the AST program,
providing a national standard for reading proficiency measurement.

P017A060020\
**University of Montana**\
Department of Geography\
Missoula, MT 59812-4840\
Sarah Halvorson

**NEW TRAVELS ON OLD ROADS: UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING MATERIALS**

**ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS**

The Central and Southwest Asian Studies (CASWAS) Program at the
University of Montana (UM) requests funds to support a project titled
"New Travels on Old Roads: Undergraduate Teaching Materials on the
Geography of Central Asia and the Caucasus." U. S. Department of
Education funds will support the design, development and evaluation of a
much-needed curriculum package for undergraduate students that are
focused on the regional geographies of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

The curriculum package of this pioneering effort will consist of three
components: (1) an undergraduate introductory geography textbook; (2) an
instructor's manual; and (3) a multimedia compact disk with
supplementary materials such as map resources and activities, resource
links, country and regional data sets, virtual field trips (i.e.,
pictorial narrated walkthroughs that integrate text and image galleries
of six places around these regions), literary excerpts, and previously
un-translated documents from the region. It will be structured around
six broad interdisciplinary themes that are fundamental to the study of
these strategically important regions: (1) environmental geography; (2)
cultural landscapes and religious diversity; (3) population and
settlement; (4) history and geopolitics; (5) social and economic
development; and (6) globalization and local responses. They can be
adapted for semester-long courses or as modules for intensive short
courses.

The goal of the project is to help students gain deeper knowledge and
understanding of the complex regional geographies of Central Asia and
the Caucasus, two predominantly Islamic regions. For purposes of this
project, we have chosen to define the countries comprising the Central
Asia and Caucasus regions as including: Armenia; Republic of Georgia;
Turkey; Azerbaijan; Iran; Afghanistan; Pakistan; the five Central Asian
Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and
Kyrgyzstan; Mongolia, and the Xinjiang province of China. With the
exception of the Republic of Georgia, Armenia and Mongolia, Islam is the
preponderant religion of all the other countries. The proposal responds
to the Department of Education's Invitational Priority I for materials
development projects focusing on Islamic societies.

The CASWAS Program has a solid track record of achievement in providing
interdisciplinary and pedagogically effective instruction on the
geography, history, and environments of Central and Southwest Asia.
Building on the success of its popular undergraduate program, the
project will strengthen UM's existing curriculum with the latest
instructional materials and make the resulting curriculum package widely
accessible to students at institutions of higher education across the
nation. The package will be produced by a team of area and curriculum
specialists, pilot-tested and evaluated, and made available for national
distribution. It addresses an urgent need for more integrated,
well-documented and comprehensive teaching and learning on Central Asia
and the Caucasus regions.

P017A060024\
**Modern Language Association**\
26 Broadway\
New York, NY 10004-1789\
Nelly Furman

## SURVEY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ENROLLMENTS IN U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, FALL 2006

The Modern Language Association (MLA) has for nearly half a century
conducted surveys of fall-semester enrollments in foreign languages in
all United States institutions of higher education, and we are hereby
applying for a grant to conduct a survey of enrollments for the fall of
2006. Preparation of the survey, information gathering, data analysis,
and publication and dissemination of the survey results will extend over
an eighteen-month period from July 2006 to December 2007. The last MLA
survey covered enrollments in the fall of 2002. The response rate to
past enrollment surveys has consistently hovered between 97 percent and
99.6 percent, which allows us to examine with precision changing trends
in the study of languages other than English in United States colleges
and universities. Our last survey included detailed responses from all
but twelve of the 2,781 postsecondary institutions surveyed.

As we have done with each previous survey, at the conclusion of the fall
2006 survey we will broadly disseminate a report with findings that
encompass the most commonly taught languages (currently, Spanish,
French, German, Italian, American Sign Language, Japanese, and Chinese),
as well as the less taught languages. Our last survey reported on
enrollments in over 175 languages. Our final report will compare
enrollments in foreign languages with enrollments in higher education
overall, provide information in actual numbers and percentages, and
indicate the geographic distribution of language enrollments. We will
note new programs and program closings by language and institutional
type, and augment current enrollment data with data from preceding
surveys (1960, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1990,
1995, 1998, and 2002) to present a comparative portrait of language
enrollments in the United States through time in narrative text, tables,
and graphic form. Findings will be disseminated through the Association
of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) Bulletin and the MLA Web site
and in response to requests from the public and the press. In 2004 and
2005 over 260 articles in the national media referenced the MLA's 2002
enrollment data; this coverage attests to the continuing public interest
in developments in the nation's study of languages other than English.
MLA enrollment surveys are also the standard resource for teachers,
program and school administrators, researchers, and publishers.

At a time when knowledge of foreign languages is recognized as an
advantage for the expansion of global economic partnerships and
considered a significant factor in world events, the MLA provides an
essential service through its enrollment surveys, not only to educators
but also to public and private agencies and the nation's political,
social, military, and business communities. In view of recent events,
security concerns, and economic pressures, we expect that the proposed
2006 enrollment survey will again be received with intense public
attention.

P017A060025\
**University of Maryland\
**National Foreign Language Center\
College Park, MD 20742\
Myriam Met

**DEVELOPING E-LEARNING MATERIALS THAT WILL HELP STUDENTS**

**IMPROVE THEIR ABILITY TO READ CHINESE**

The National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the University of
Maryland proposes a project to address the growing interest in teaching
Chinese in secondary schools by developing high quality e-learning
materials that will help students improve their ability to read Chinese.

The project builds on a five-year, \$17 million investment in LangNet, a
sophisticated e-learning system developed for the United States
government. LangNet provides electronic practice materials (primarily at
Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Levels 2 and above) that enable
government workers to improve their ability to carry out their jobs by
increasing their reading and/or listening proficiency. This project will
extend the technology, expertise, and production processes developed at
NFLC over the last five years to address the needs of a new audience:
secondary students of Chinese reading at the 0 to 1 (ILR) levels of
proficiency.

The proposed project responds to a growing interest in Chinese language
study that has not as yet been met by an infrastructure of highly
qualified teachers and excellent materials appropriate to secondary
school students. Not only will the project provide an additional source
of instructional materials, it will also allow schools to use technology
to moderate the effects of a severe teacher shortage by supplementing
face-to-face instruction with technology-delivered learning activities.

These materials will be available at no cost on the Internet, accessible
without User ID or password. Therefore, in addition to meeting the need
for improving reading proficiency in secondary students, the materials
will also be accessible to students in lower level courses at colleges
and universities, to government personnel seeking to improve their
reading skill, and to the public at large. In addition to Internet
accessibility, the project will make CD-ROMs available to schools prefer
that form of access.

To ensure the production of high quality materials, the project will
train and employ secondary school Chinese teachers as materials
developers. A side benefit of this training will be that the teachers
hired by the project will themselves become more skilled in both
teaching and curriculum development.

Project evaluation will include online testing of students to assess
their reading skills prior to using the materials and at the end of the
academic year. In addition, using questionnaires and focus groups, data
on teacher and student perceptions of the quality of the materials,
their usefulness, and their strengths/weaknesses will be collected
regularly throughout the pre-testing and revision phase of the project.

Building on LangNet, a project designed to meet the needs of government
workers, the proposed project represents a considerable cost savings.
Needed hardware and software have been purchased and/or developed; an
authoring tool that both facilitates and guides the work of materials
developers has been developed, tested, and refined; quality criteria for
materials have been developed, reviewed, and revised over a five year
period; support for developers that includes face-to-face training, a
resource manual, and computer-based modules are now available; and
production processes and management protocols that have resulted in over
3,000 hours of LangNet instructional materials for government workers
delivered to specifications and on time will be used to manage
production in this project.

P017A060033\
**University of Arizona\
**1717 East Speedway Boulevard\
Tucson, AZ 85721-0151\
Alex Dunkel

**ADVANCING COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS\
FOR LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT LANGUAGES**

This project will provide state of the art courseware in Turkish,
Ukrainian, and Kurdish that addresses several urgent, unmet needs,
expanding the national capacity to offer the Less Commonly Taught
Languages (LCTLs) in a wide variety of learning environments. In order
to develop cadres of professionals in various fields who possess
significant language proficiency in LCTLs, innovative programs,
materials, and instructional delivery systems must be created that
promote increased cooperation and collaboration among secondary and
postsecondary institutions, government, and business. Toward these ends,
this project extends the contributions of a team of courseware experts
in the University of Arizona Critical Languages Program (UACLP), the UA
Computer-Aided Language Instruction group (UACALI), and the National
Association of Self Instructional Language Programs (NASILP).

For over three decades, since the advent of the audio cassette, NASILP
has promoted, coordinated, and established national standards for
instruction in LCTLs at schools, colleges and universities. Since 1997
the University of Arizona (UA), in partnership with NASILP, has
developed, published, and distributed a series of much needed
instructional materials to aid learners and teachers of Brazilian
Portuguese (Level I), Cantonese (Level I & II), Mandarin Chinese (Level
I), Korean (Level I), Kazakh (Level I, II, & III), Turkish(Level I &
II), and Ukrainian (Level I). More than 3,000 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
versions of these materials have been sold since the first courseware
became available in 2000.

These materials are being developed using the highly successful
MaxAuthor language-teaching authoring software that has been created,
distributed, and refined at the UA over the past decade. MaxAuthor
programs can be used flexibly by teachers, students, and independent
learners to provide instruction or to supplement it systematically.
Under the supervision of the project's directors, competitively selected
authors will create the equivalent of one year's worth of material for
three languages, including digital audio and video recordings and
integrated activities based on these recordings. The three language
projects are: Kurdish (Level I); Ukrainian (Level II); and Turkish
(Level III). As in past projects, instructors and students nationwide
will test and help refine the new materials. They will then be published
by UACLP on DVD-ROM and distributed by the UA Press. They will also be
available on an e-commerce Internet host easily accessible to schools,
colleges, businesses, government agencies, and the general public for a
modest subscription fee. This publishing model provides royalties to
authors and assists in distributing and funding future LCTL materials
development.

In addition to materials development, the team will continue to make
MaxAuthor available free for non-commercial use to authors worldwide who
wish to create their own lessons. UACLP will provide technical support,
provide training materials, and continue refining the software. By
providing completed courseware and the capacity to develop additional
lessons, and by continuing professional development efforts among LCTL
programs and instructors, this project will promote in ongoing ways the
study of a wider range of LCTLs in secondary and postsecondary
institutions and beyond.

P017A060034\
**Social Science Research Council**\
810 Seventh Avenue\
New York, NY 10019\
Seteney Shami

**INTERNATIONALIZATION, INTER-DISCIPLINARY AND BOUNDARY-CROSSING: AN
EVALUATION OF TITLE VI NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTERS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST,
EURASIA AND SOUTH ASIA**

This project has the following main objectives:

-   To evaluate the current performance of National Resource Centers
    (NRC) for the Middle East, Eurasia and South Asia in terms of
    meeting national needs for intercultural competence and
    international education as well as their roles in promoting
    inter-disciplinary approaches and cross-boundary expertise.

-   To map the context in which the NRCs operate both in terms of wider
    campus resources and nationally available resources through
    educational, exchange and funding programs.

-   To produce analytical essays, educational policy briefs and project
    reports and to disseminate them by print and Web-based media to aid
    a variety of actors and agencies in programmatic planning in area
    and international studies.

The project will be undertaken by experienced Social Science Research
Council (SSRC) staff including a full-time researcher, as well as a
senior consultant and a statistical consultant who will provide
additional expertise for the design of research instruments, analysis
and report preparation. Outside experts will be involved through two
workshops to provide input and evaluate the project at different stages.
A final conference and print and Web-based dissemination will ensure a
broad outreach.

The project will evaluate the role that Title VI centers play, and
potentially could enhance, in meeting new demands placed on
international and area studies in the United States through evaluating
how the centers cope with the declining presence of crucial social
science disciplines, how the post 9/11 context has affected their
ability to provide in-depth training and intercultural competence; and
finally, the potential, incentives and challenges faced by centers in
designing creative responses to the understanding of thematic,
cross-regional and global phenomena.

P017A060038\
**University of Minnesota, Duluth**\
11217 Blue Heron Lane\
Hayward, WI 54843\
Mary Hermes

## ONLINE OJIBWE LANGUAGE TEACHING MODULES

We propose to create 12 online Ojibwe language teaching modules that
address the needs of beginning (high) through intermediate levels of
Ojibwe learners. These modules will consist of four short (three-five
minutes) movies per module; interactive comprehension and vocabulary
lessons; audio only transcriptions at normal and slow speeds, and a
short quiz for each module. Modules will be organized around themes that
feature daily functional language. Themes will be culturally rich and
visually interesting and may include, for example, visiting Elders;
driving; cooking; shopping; taking care of children; sewing blankets and
preparing a feast. The raw footage for the modules will be collected
using first speakers of the language, which are likely to be Ojibwe
Elders. Building on a previously funded Nation Science Foundation
project (SERG #0442489) the Elders will be given a situation, props and
asked to improvise. This will provide authentic, informal, unscripted
dialogue for the learning modules.

In an effort to bring together diverse stake-holders, faculty from the
University of Minnesota Duluth and Twin Cities\' campuses are working
collaboratively with Ojibwe communities, Elders and area schools. The
creation of this resource relies on collaboration and will model
distance delivery (online) teaching for oral proficiency in a less
commonly taught language to a population that is rural. This innovative
and creative project will assist other communities who are attempting to
meet these same challenges in fostering proficient speakers of less
commonly taught languages by utilizing internet and multimedia
technologies.

P017A060044\
**Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers\
**784 Northridge PMB 293\
Salinas, CA 93906

Betty Lou Leaver

## 

## DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED FOUR-SKILL WORKBOOKS IN RUSSIAN

The Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers (CDLC), comprised of
programs and centers devoted to the development of very high levels of
foreign language proficiency and staffed by individuals experienced in
teaching high-level students, proposes to prepare replicable materials
in the sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and linguistic aspects of
communicative competence for students of Russian at Interagency Language
Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages \[ACTFL\] Superior) proficiency trying to attain ILR Level 4
(ACTFL Distinguished) proficiency, as indicated by the project title,
"Development of Integrated Four-Skill Workbooks in Russian for Students
Studying toward Distinguished-Language Proficiency, with a Generic
Template for Other Languages." These materials, published as books and
made available on line, include teacher materials, audio and video for
students, and a faculty development video tape. The materials will be
field-tested in the various programs of the institutions affiliated with
the CDLC and made available to any other high-level programs in the
United States. Feedback will be sought from all users, both online and
onsite.

The population to be served, on the surface, is the elite but very
important group of students who possess Level 3 (Superior) proficiency
in Russian and want to reach Level 4 (Distinguished/"near-native"), for
whom almost nothing currently exists in the way of learning materials,
the goal being to fill this gap in the areas of culture and language
(linguistic expression). In reality, the nature of these materials are
likely to have a washback effect on the teaching of language at lower
levels of proficiency, and some of the materials, e.g., some
sociocultural components, could possibly be introduced in adapted form
as low as at the advanced level. The materials, while meant to be used
by teachers in a classroom, will take into account that many students at
this level are teacher-less and have become good independent language
learners. The online availability will help such learners.

P017A060057\
**University of Minnesota**, **Twin Cities**\
330 Wulling Hall\
Minneapolis, MN 55455\
Michael Paige

## WHAT IS THE NEAR- AND LONG-TERM IMPACT OF STUDY ABROAD?

What is the near- and long-term impact of study abroad on alumni's
professional development, personal development, and social capital
contributions as perceived by the alumni themselves and as assessed by a
set of external measures? During the past decade, education abroad has
experienced considerable growth in the number and range of programs
being offered, the level of student participation, and the size of the
investments being made by United States colleges and universities to
develop and support these programs. We argue that, despite the rapid
expansion and professionalization of study abroad, the research
literature, while extensive, focuses almost exclusively on the immediate
post-return impact of study abroad and notably on the personal
development dimension. No studies, to our knowledge, have examined the
social capital impact of study abroad, i.e., commitments to the public
good expressed, for example, through philanthropy, socially conscious
career and professional paths, civic engagement activities, social
entrepreneurship, and knowledge production (Putnam, 2000). Akande and
Slawson (2000), who did the major previous study in this area, note the
serious limitations of their study and call for "a larger scale, more
comprehensive survey based on a more representative sample of all study
abroad students"

Though the major focus of this study is practical and policy-related, it
can also inform important theoretical thinking and constructs developed
by scholars and writers such as Gordon Allport (social contact theory),
Milton Bennett (development of intercultural sensitivity), Robert Lifton
(the Protean self), and Thomas Friedman ("the world is flat"). The
implication of these theories, and the hypothesis of this research, is
that study abroad should have significant impact on the reduction of
ethnocentrism while enhancing cultural understanding, civic engagement,
and global citizenship and consciousness.

The proposed research is based on tracer study methodology. Our
population of interest will be alumni who in college had overseas study
experience(s). We will stratify our intensity sample of colleges and
universities using the following categories: (1) Doctoral degree
granting institutions; (2) institutions granting up to the master's
level; and (3) institutions offering only the bachelor's degree. Given
the serious under-representation of groups such as African-American
students in study abroad, we add a fourth important category,
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). With a goal of
studying the long-term impact of study abroad, we will begin with 1960
graduates, and then randomly sample groups of alumni every five years.
Thus, we will have ten panels covering the years, 1960-2005. For each
five year interval, our target will be a total of 200 alumni from the
four basic categories (50 from each genre of higher education
institutions). Individuals will be randomly selected from the study
abroad alumni lists for the selected five year panels. Thus, our total
target sample will be 2,000, providing for considerable statistical
power and external validity.

Two types of factors may influence the near- and long-term impact of
study abroad. The first are background demographic factors such as
gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These also serve as
important control variables in our study. The second set of factors
includes those explanatory variables that are hypothesized to relate to
professional and personal development, and social capital contributions.
These explanatory variables include study abroad-related factors, and
other control variables not related to study abroad. Following
completion of a quantitative electronic survey, qualitative case studies
of individuals will be completed to provide a more nuanced and deeper
understanding of the nature of the study abroad experience and its
impact.

P017A060058\
**Center for Research in Computational Linguistics Inc.\
**820 Calle Pluma\
San Clemente, CA 92674\
Doug Cooper

## THE SEALANG LAB: ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR READING, WRITING, AND

**VOCABULARY ACQUISITION IN COMPLEX-SCRIPT LANGUAGES**

Prepared learning resources for less commonly taught languages (LCTLs)
are rarely sufficient. Nevertheless, broad reading of authentic texts
usually helps mitigate the lack of ancillary study or reference
materials -- and even, for some self-directed students, of teachers or
native speakers. But dozens of languages in Southeast, Central, and
South Asia and the Middle East (including Arabic, Thai, and Urdu)
require complex scripts. They use non-roman alphabets, non-linear
ordering, context-dependent letterforms or ligatures, implicit vowels,
tones, and registers, and may not even space between words. Students who
turn to authentic materials are deadlocked: they must read extensively
to acquire vocabulary, yet cannot until they already have vocabulary.

The SEAlang Lab takes a new approach to reading, writing, and vocabulary
acquisition for complex-script LCTLs. Our goals are well-defined and
achievable; we will build:

-   Reader's Workbench: a free, online complex-script reading tool that
    increases reading speed and accuracy at all levels, using any text
    (such as Web-accessible newspapers). Besides integrating dictionary
    and corpus data, the Workbench provides word and phrase
    segmentation, automates phonetic transcription, highlights
    core-vocabulary coverage, evaluates text difficulty, and even finds
    appropriately graded texts for the student.

-   Writer's Workbench: a free, online complex-script writing tool. The
    tool addresses both mechanical ability (using predictive completion
    from local script, phonetic transcription, or letter-by-letter
    transliteration), and syntactic / expressive competence (via
    integrated corpus and collocation reference tools).

-   Vocabulary Workbench: a free, online data-driven drill and test
    tool. Using novel heuristics that draw on dictionary and corpus
    data, the Workbench dynamically generates review and reinforcement
    based on student queries, arbitrary texts, or required word lists.
    It can be coupled to the Reader's Workbench, or used standalone as a
    teacher's assistant.

The Workbenches are enabled by enriched lexical resources derived from
the U.S. Department of Education and Center for Research in
Computational Linguistics (CRCL)-sponsored SEAlang Library by extending
the functionality of e-text corpora, and adding word origin, frequency,
difficulty, collocation, usage, and core-wordlist data to existing
dictionaries.

The SEAlang Lab proposal is submitted by the Center for Research in
Computational Linguistics (CRCL Inc., a US 501(c)3 nonprofit agency).
Its design has benefited greatly from wide, public demonstration of our
preliminary development, most recently as the invited plenary speaker at
the September 2005 Interagency Language Roundtable in Washington, D.C.
All tools will be class-tested and improved in collaboration with the
nation's best intensive language programs: the Foreign Service
Institute, the Defense Language Institute, the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Southeast
Asian Studies Summer Institute.

Our working language is Thai. Unlike Arabic or Urdu, Thai has all of the
characteristic complex script problems, including lack of word
separation. Southeast Asia's strategic importance to the United States
makes Thai very attractive as a cross-training source or target
vis-à-vis Khmer, Burmese, and Lao, as well as Shan and other ethnic
minority languages. Finally, despite its difficulty, Thai has sufficient
existing resources and students for timely, cost-effective development
and testing.

P017A060059\
**University of Pittsburgh**\
5106 Posvar Hall, 230 Bouquet\
Pittsburgh, PA 15260\
Daniel Dewey

## ADVANCED PROFICIENCY DEVELOPMENT IN CHINESE, JAPANESE AND KOREAN

We are requesting funding for a three-year longitudinal study of
advanced proficiency development in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. We
will focus on producing profiles of American learners who are successful
in achieving advanced or better proficiency in these three languages.
Our study will address the national need for "foreign language
specialists with advanced levels of proficiency," in particular in "the
'investment' languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and
Farsi" (Lukach, 2005).

We will collect data from as many as 1,000 learners (300-400 Chinese,
400-500 Japanese, and 120-150 Korean) over a three-year period. We will
assess learners' proficiency in both oral and written modes prior to and
following study abroad. In order to address important issues relating
to: (1) at-home proficiency development prior to time abroad; and (2)
the importance of timing and length of study abroad immersion, we will
include students with varying amounts of previous instruction in Chinese
and Japanese and with differing lengths of stay abroad in our study.

Profiles of effective language learners will be created by analyzing a
range of data on individuals' background and experiences (demographic
information, questionnaire data, journal entries and interviews) and
comparing this data with proficiency exam results. We will focus our
proficiency analyses not only on test scores, but also on specific
aspects of speech such as oral fluency and the use of culturally
appropriate speech (speech adjusted according to setting, goals, roles
and relationships, audience, etc.).

Contact information and results from individuals involved in this study
will be placed in a database for use in continued longitudinal research
after study abroad. We will be able to further explore proficiency
development and language use by returnees using this database.

P017A060064\
**Colleges of the Seneca - Hobart and William Smith Colleges**\
114 Honness Lane\
Ithaca, NY 14850\
David Galloway

## A DYNAMIC GRAMMAR TRAINER FOR RUSSIAN VERBS

We propose an instructional materials project which will enhance the
teaching of Russian at the beginning and intermediate levels, and which
offers a powerful solution to the structural limitations of existing
Web-based exercises in all languages. With help from a Mellon Foundation
Center for Educational Technology grant, we have completed a Web-based
pilot application that tests student knowledge of Russian noun
declension. The successful implementation of this pilot application
leads us to the next logical stage of development---creating a module
that allows users to practice exercises based on the complex Russian
verb system.

What we propose is completely unknown in the field. Existing Web-based
exercises are static and do not change with repeated use. Our solution
to this problem is an application that generates its content in response
to user specifications. The exercises are not stored in a static form,
but change every time a user encounters them, thus making the
application ever-relevant and useful to students, even with daily use.

Our project, by providing a free-access Web-based application, will
particularly support efforts at teaching Russian at both the high school
and University levels, and its availability will allow it to be used by
any user who desires training in Russian grammatical structures. Our
work also serves as a powerful model of a new way to construct Web-based
language modules that is easily transferable to other languages.

P017A060067\
**University System of Georgia**\
270 Washington Street, S.W.\
Atlanta, GA 30334\
Richard Sutton

## GLOSSARI: THE GEORGIA LEARNING OUTCOMES OF 

**STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD RESEARCH INITIATIVE**

To support a systematic initiative to document learning outcomes
accruing from United States' student participation in study abroad. The
Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying Abroad Research
Initiative (GLOSSARI) will develop significant new knowledge about
international education programs that will contribute to the purposes of
Title VI, Part A, of the Higher Education Act.

Proficiency in foreign languages, enhanced understanding of host
cultures, more authentic area studies knowledge, and improved
international expertise are among the learning outcomes that we
associate with academic programs abroad. Yet we have limited empirical
evidence about the impact of the study abroad experience on the learning
process. The GLOSSARI project is intended to address concerns of
multiple constituencies through a series of structured investigations
that pose basic questions about the academic consequences of studies
abroad. Because of the broad range of experiments, research instruments,
and techniques that we will employ, our research methods are replicable
in many different settings. We expect our findings to be tested
rigorously by colleagues in the field. A substantial part of our
evaluation plan envisions a coordinated, independent replication of
research results to determine their validity across varied populations.

The GLOSSARI project is perhaps the most ambitious and comprehensive
attempt to measure the impact of study abroad ever designed. The
University System of Georgia is comprised of thirty-five public
institutions and currently enrolls 253,000 students. Campuses range from
small, rural two-year colleges to large, cosmopolitan doctoral
research-intensive universities. They offer more than 325 study abroad
programs.

The Board of Regents strategic plan calls for a major increase in study
abroad participation---to 25 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded by
2007 (approximately 6,200 students). As part of its documentation for
annual reports to the Regents, since 2002 the System Office of
International Education has collected detailed information about each
student (by name and identification number) and their study abroad
experience (country of study, duration, etc.). This extensive data
collection effort, now numbering nearly 5,000 individual records per
year, provides a rich, self-standing resource for analysis of study
abroad patterns and characteristics. It can also be linked to other
System databases to extract additional data about study abroad
participants. In addition to supporting analysis of student demographic
data, an important function of this design is its ability to access pre-
and post-participation academic performance measures and behaviors.

P017A060068\
**Tufts University**\
Perseus Project/Classics Department\
Medford, MA 02155\
Gregory Crane

## READING SUPPORT FOR ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

Students learning Arabic or reading English texts about Islamic Culture
are confronted with a dizzying set of references as well as quotations
from religious texts and classical poems that are part of the vocabulary
of even ordinary, and apparently, unrelated discourse, understood by
native speakers but unintelligible to outsiders. This project develops
and evaluates a reading environment, based on automatic linking within a
digital library framework, that automatically provides lexical and/or
encyclopedic background information adapted to individual users.

The work proposed here transfers digital library research to a
pedagogical setting. Heavy and growing usage of a reading environment
for Greco-Roman culture suggests that a similar set of tools may attract
substantial use for Arabic and Islamic studies. This project goes beyond
implementation, studying the impact of these technologies on two core
groups of learners: Arabic language students moving beyond annotated
texts and to real world Arabic, and students reading texts about Islamic
culture, especially non-specialists from other disciplines.

We focus upon two broad areas. First, to what extent does this reading
environment enhance existing practice? Can readers move more quickly
through new text? Can readers begin working with culturally complex
documents at an earlier stage? Second, to what extent does this reading
environment change the goals of learners? Can they address more
challenging topics? Do they make broader use of more complex source
materials? We will examine three core user groups:

1)  students enrolled in Arabic courses at Tufts University;

2)  students working with Islamic cultural materials as part of courses
    taught as International Relations;

3)  individuals making use of the reading environment online from
    outside Tufts. Instruments include reading comprehension tests for
    both Arabic and English texts on Islamic culture, field observations
    of practice, structured interviews with students, instructors and
    focus groups, and analysis of lookup patterns.

P017A060073\
**George Washington University**\
National Capital Language Resource Center

2134 G Street, Room 422\
Washington, DC 20052\
Anna Chamot

## THE ESSENTIALS FOR ARABIC K-12 TEACHERS

The proposed project meets the critical need for familiarizing K-12
Arabic teachers with modern language teaching methodology. Furthermore,
it meets the equally critical need to develop teacher educators who will
prepare a cohort of highly qualified teachers for U.S. Arabic language
classrooms and programs.

The proposed project will be carried out in two parts. The first part
will be an Arabic language Web site that will parallel and add to a
popular Web site for foreign language teachers, The Essentials of
Language Teaching (<http://nclrc.org/essentials/>), developed by the
National Capital Language Resource Center. This Web site contains a
series of modules that are aimed at encouraging best practices and
professional development for language teachers. For this project, The
Essentials will be translated into Arabic, and Arabic-specific
additional pages will be added, including explanatory text and examples
to help teachers. The purpose of the supplement is to focus on K-12
because The Essentials was primarily written for teachers in
postsecondary situations. Additions to the modules will highlight
specific issues that confront Arabic K-12 language teachers on a regular
basis, such as multilevel classes, the problem of teaching Modern
Standard Arabic vs. a dialect, and the need for developing proficient
communicative competence to meet U.S. national needs. All these
materials will be based on the recently completed Standards for Learning
Arabic K-16 in the United States (in Standards for Foreign Language
Learning in the 21^st^ Century, American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages, in press).

The new standards-based Arabic materials will be augmented by video
clips of excellent teaching in Arabic provided by the National Middle
East Language Resource Center. These videos will demonstrate the
innovative and effective teaching approaches described in 'The
Essentials.' Teachers viewing the videos in conjunction with reading the
modules will better understand and appreciate how to apply the material
to their own practice, much as they would benefit from watching a master
teacher. The Arabic version of The Essentials of Language Teaching will
become a powerful tool for preparation of teachers.

The second part of the project is to develop curriculum materials for
use in Arabic language teacher-education institutes and workshops. These
materials will be a collection of relevant articles, lesson plans,
curriculum resources, and descriptions of how to adapt existing
materials, overheads, and PowerPoint presentations. The curriculum
materials will be field-tested in summer workshops run by the National
Capital Language Resource Center in Washington, D.C. The curriculum
materials will in a form that can be easily updated, such as loose leaf
binders for print delivery and CD-ROM for electronic delivery.

Dissemination is a crucial component of this project. It will be based
on the success of the K-12 Arabic Language Teachers Network, which has
received an overwhelming number of requests for teacher education
resources and information about pedagogy since its inception. Providing
Arabic K-12 language teachers with high-quality professional teacher
preparation will allow them to become a visible and respected group in
the foreign language teaching and learning world. The Arabic K-12
Teacher's Network will use its Web site and numerous collaborative
partners to inform teachers and program directors about the Arabic K-12
Teacher Materials project, encourage their participation, and solicit
their input.

P017A060079\
**State University of New York, Buffalo\
**Department of Linguistics\
Buffalo, NY 14260\
Guofang Li

**PATHWAYS TO BILINGUALISM: E-LEARNING**

**AND THE TEACHING OF MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES**

Goals: Fiscal Year 2006 Code of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA)
Invitational Priority 2: Research, surveys, studies or the development
of instructional materials that serve to enhance international
understanding for use at the elementary and secondary education levels,
or for use in teacher education programs.

Expected Outcomes and Contributions: E-learning refers to learning that
takes place using a network for the delivery, interaction, or
facilitation of learning. This network could be on the Internet or an
organizational Intranet. Current research on e-learning has been
primarily limited to distance education (cf. Waterhouse, 2005) and no
research to date has examined its impact as a blended language pedagogy,
that is, as a combination of multimedia e-learning environments and
face-to-face interaction. In our three year research program, we aim to
establish an evidence-based research to assess the effectiveness of this
blended nature of the e-learning pedagogy in teaching modern foreign
languages in early bilingual education. This e-learning pedagogy will
complement the knowledge of the bilingual teacher and create a
culturally and linguistically authentic language learning environment.
This aspect of e-learning is especially important for students living in
contexts that lack authentic materials and contact with the target
language and culture.

The Sample Population: This research will involve approximately 10,500
students, 500 teachers, and 40 principals and vice principals in 20
bilingual elementary schools in Shanghai, China. The ages of the Chinese
students will be 10-12.

Research Methods: This study will use a mixed methods design that
consists of quantitative and qualitative study of the effects of
E-learning Across the Curriculum (EATC) on bilingual Chinese/English
education in grades four-six classrooms in Shanghai, China. Quantitative
methods will focus on a survey study of how e-learning is used and
perceived in bilingual Chinese/English elementary schools, a two-year
experimental study of the EATC intervention using a randomized pre-and
post-test control group design. Outcome measures will be students'
performance in Chinese and English literacy skills. Quantitative data
will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of Covariance
(ANCOVA), and multiple regression analysis. Qualitative methods will be
used throughout the research to conduct needs assessment and to design,
implement, and observe the intervention, and will consist of video- and
audio-taped classroom observations, interviews, group discussions,
participant observations, teacher logs, lesson plans, student writing
samples, and formative assessment. Qualitative data will be analyzed
using content and thematic analysis.

The Proposed Intervention: The proposed EATC intervention will include
six bilingual e-learning modules for students and ten e-learning
instructional modules for bilingual teachers. Using appropriate software
such as Fabula that was funded and tested by the European Union
Multimedia Software program, the project will create content modules in
social studies and children literature within an interactive multimedia
environment in English and Chinese. The modules emphasize the nature of
a blended language pedagogy that combines the use of technology (e.g.,
Internet and Intranet), the methodology of bilingual education, and the
face-to-face learning environment.

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12/08/06