New Language Resource Center grant awarded at Georgetown

Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center

Georgetown University, in collaboration with the Center for Applied Linguistics, has been awarded a Language Resource Centers grant by the US Department of Education to establish the Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center (AELRC). AELRC is one of 15 such centers nationwide, and initial anticipated funding is for a period of four years. Principal Investigator and Director of the Center is Dr. John Norris (Associate Professor, GU Department of Linguistics), and Co-Directors are Dr. Margaret Malone (Associate Vice President, Center for Applied Linguistics) and Dr. John McE. Davis (Visiting Assistant Professor, GU Department of Linguistics).

About the Center

The goal of AELRC is to enhance and expand the nation’s foreign language (FL) educational capacity and to improve FL learning outcomes by providing leadership, scholarship, and outreach in the practices of FL assessment and program evaluation to language teachers, program administrators, and researchers working in K-16 language education settings. Assessment and evaluation are key elements in a comprehensive approach to education that is accountable to the needs of learners, the values of scholarly disciplines, and the well-being of society; assessment and evaluation also provide essential mechanisms for understanding, improving, and demonstrating the worth of FL education. Despite the critical and increasing importance of these processes, they are under-emphasized in FL educator development and frequently misunderstood in the delivery of language programs. AELRC is designed to redress this status quo by engaging in cutting-edge research and development of high-quality instruments, disseminating tools and frameworks that respond to clear needs and have been validated for specific uses and contexts, and building capacity through workshops, institutes, and multimedia materials. The primary audiences for AELRC endeavors, especially those working with less-commonly taught or priority FLs, include language teachers in K-12 and higher education (including community colleges); language program administrators responsible for accountability; FL professional organizations; and FL researchers.