Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Language Learning Receives Boost - Through the Sallyport
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
Language Learning Receives Boost
It is often said that immersion is the only real way to learn another
language. In 1999, Rice’s Language Resource Center (LRC) took that
philosophy to heart, developing ExTemplate, Internet-based languagelearning
software that incorporates audio, video, and Web links as well as
text to immerse students as fully as possible in the language they are
studying. The LRC has not only made Rice a national leader in language
instruction, it recently attracted a $1 million endowment from Suderman &
Young Towing Co. to help keep its technological needs updated.
“This magnificent gift will make it possible for the Language Resource
Center to maintain the cutting-edge technology that already has made it
nationally known as a creative innovator in the delivery of language
instruction,” says humanities dean Gale Stokes. “Over the past few years,
the Language Resource Center has pushed the use of technology in the
classroom to entirely new levels.”
Claire Bartlett, director of the LRC and associate director of Rice’s Center
for the Study of Languages, notes, “The gift will allow us to maintain and
expand our digital collection while enabling our instructors to further
increase the integration of technology into their language curriculum.” The
LRC is part of the Center for the Study of Languages, which was created
four years ago to improve foreign language instruction and cross-cultural
learning.
The center is housed in Rayzor Hall, Rice’s new focal point for classes in
foreign languages and literature. The 1962 building recently underwent
renovations and was reoccupied in December. J. Newton Rayzor, for whom
Rayzor Hall is named, was the former president of Suderman & Young
Towing Co. The company is co-owned by his daughters, June Rayzor
Elliott and Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis, and it also included his nephew, the
late N. Claxton Rayzor.
Rice Named a
“Best Buy”
Rice University has
been named a “best
buy” in the 2002 edition
of the Fiske Guide to
Colleges for offering
“remarkable
educational
opportunities at a
relatively modest cost.”
Edited by former New
York Times education
editor Ted Fiske, the
guide lists best buys
among 22 private and 21
public institutions. The
rating is based on the
quality of the academic
offerings in relation to
the cost of attendance.
For more information
about the Fiske Guide to
Colleges, visit the
website.
For more information about the center, go to www.ruf.rice.edu/~lrc/.
—Ellen Chang
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