Teach-a-LCTL
The Teach-a-LCTL project consists of two resource guides (for novice and intermediate level students) to provide pedagogical support for instructors and coordinators involved in community language education for less-commonly taught languages.
About the Project
Many students pursue the study of LCTLs to continue learning a language spoken at home or in their communities or to communicate more effectively within immigrant or diaspora communities. However, given the limited opportunities to study LCTLs in formal educational contexts, the responsibility of LCTL instruction often falls on family or community members. Parents, guardians and community members take on the role of language educators, many with little or no pedagogical training. In an effort to provide support for community language educators, the Teach-a-LCTL initiative will create two resource guides, one at the novice and the other at the intermediate level, specifically for use in LCTL instruction.
Research
The Teach-a-LCTL project team laid the foundation for their resource guides by first conducting a needs analysis. The needs analysis sought to highlight issues related to curriculum design, program structure and administration, funding models and teacher recruitment and training in the various community LCTL programs. Surveys and interviews were conducted in Spring 2023 and data provided a wealth of information about not just the questions that the team sought to explore, but also shed light on new issues across community LCTL programs. Read the findings in our Research Report: Teach-a-LCTL Needs Analysis.
Guides
The Teach-a-LCTL Resources Guides combine scholarship on community language education, heritage language learners, and literacies-based approaches to language learning. The goal of the guides is to give an easy-to-use resource to teachers and coordinators of community LCTL education programs, so that they can adapt lesson plans to fit their languages, cultures, and learners. The Teach-a-LCTL team continues to work on the intermediate-level guide, which will be published on this page – stay tuned for announcements!
The Teach-a-LCTL Resource Guide for use with Novice Level Learners is a resource for teachers working in community-based LCTL education programs.
An introduction describes the rationale for the guide, as well as some of the things that make community LCTL programs so unique.
The guide contains sample lesson plans on 5 themes: music; sports and movement; clothing; expressions and emotions; and food. It also directs community language educators to additional educational and organizational resources. Access the Teach-a-LCTL Resource Guide for use with Novice Level Learners here.