ulimi 2005 - National African Language Resource Center - Indiana ...

Congressman Rush Holt givesa talk at the NCOLCTLconferenceRalph Hines leads a plenarysession at the NCOLCTLconference.Dora Johnson the Walton Award winner with Antonia Schleicher.Audrey Heining-Boytonaddresses LCTL scholars at theconference.David Edwards leads a sessionabout languages and thenational interests.Effective LCT Language Program for HigherEducation”. The workshop focused on how toestablish a language program in the U.S. highereducational institutions with results in mind.Discussion was centered on what kind of languageprogram we should envision and establish before webegin teaching the first year of non-Indo-Europeanlanguage class.The reception held on the same day featured colorfuldance performances staged by the Natyaprana DanceCompany. It was inaugurated with classicBharatanatyam dances led by Kripa Bhaskaran. Theywere followed by dances from Arabia, India, Hmong,the Middle East and Africa. Global unity wasemphasized by the last dance which featured allthese performers dancing to the tune of VandeMataram.The Welcome session on the 15th of April waschaired by Michael Everson. Speakers includedAssociate Dean Magdalena Hauner, Sally Magnan,Antonia Schleicher and Dean Gilles Bousquet. Thekeynote address was delivered by Congressman RushHolt of New Jersey. The need for foreign languageeducation in the U.S. was emphasized by theCongressman in his talk, titled “An UncommonMoment for Less Commonly Taught Languages”.Slater, Audrey Heining-Boynton, Ray Clifford andDavid Edwards. These sessions focused on topics likeTitle VI/Fulbright-Hays and Less Commonly TaughtLanguages, The Course of Human Events andLanguage Education in the U.S., The NationalFlagship Language Initiative (NFLI), American Councilfor the Teaching of Foreign Languages, GainingEsteem in the Academe, and Languages and theNational Interests.Papers were presented in the fields of Research,Material, Curriculum, Teacher Development, Testingand Technology. The delegate assembly meeting washeld on the 15th of April and it was attended bydelegates from the constituent organizations ofNCOLCTL as well as the NCOLCTL executive boardmembers. The delegate assembly voted to acceptMGLTA (Modern Greek Language TeachersAssociation) as an affiliate member of the NCOLCTL.They also elected Erika Gilson as the at-largerepresentative for the executive board during themeeting.A dinner was held on the 16th of April to honor Dr.Dora Johnson with the 2005 Ronald. A. WaltonAward in recognition of a career of distinguishedservice to the LCTLs. This was followed by anacceptance speech by Dora Johnson in which sheshared with the audience, her invaluable experiencein the LCTL field stretching over four decades.The conference was a wonderful forum for theparticipants to share and communicate ideas on thecommon cause of promoting the Less CommonlyTaught Languages and identifying the various needsin this field.There were also four plenary sessions in theconference with eminent speakers from the LCTLfield such as Ralph Hines, Richard Brecht, Robertfall 2005 / 7