Newly Added Resource Links

Circle of Stories - Multimedia Collection and Activities
A free multimedia collection of documentary film, photography, artwork, and music for grades 6-12, the Circle of Stories Web site celebrates Native American storytelling.

Endangered Languages
In this interactive e-learning module, you can learn about language,? its origins, why languages die, as well as how speakers of different languages view the world.

LitSite Alaska
An interactive Web site with a wealth of information, insights and stories about the history, diversity, culture and traditions of Alaskans.

The National Museum of Languages
The NML, a small museum that explores the transformative powers of language, recently opened to the public in early May 2008.

Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL) Course Database
This database, contains information on LCTL course offerings for over 300 languages at more than 2,000 colleges and universities in North America, and at elementary, middle and high schools.

Webliography of Less Commonly Taught Languages
This Webliography represents a comprehensive compendium of online Internet materials for numerous languages.



Teaching Spanish to Native Spanish Speakers Web site

The Alliance has redesigned the Teaching Spanish to Native Spanish Speakers (SNS) Web site to make information about the Spanish-speaking population in the United States and resources for working with Spanish speakers in Spanish language programs more readily available. Learn more.

Links

Helpful Websites on Heritage Languages

The following are links to heritage language-related informational websites.

AjabanzabAn
AjabanzabAn is dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Persian (Farsi) language and culture for Iranian Americans.

The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC)
The Asian American Justice Center (formerly the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium) works to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Americans through advocacy, public policy, public education, and litigation.

Download A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States (PDF) - This new demographic report highlights socioeconomic data and explores issues facing the diverse and emerging AAPI communities in the United States.

Asset Languages
This is an assessment scheme for the DCSF Languages Ladder and is being developed by Cambridge Assessment through OCR and Cambridge ESOL, as part of a National Languages Strategy. The Asset Languages assessment scheme is for language learners of all ages and abilities: from primary school through to further, higher and adult education. This scheme helps language learners move through an innovative system of qualifications and encourages native speakers of languages to develop their proficiency to high levels.

Cherokee Preservation Foundation
The Cherokee Preservation Foundation's purpose is to improve the quality of life of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and strengthen the western North Carolina region. The Foundation’s focus is on project, planning and capacity initiatives that will enhance the Cherokee culture, facilitate economic development and job opportunities, and improve the environment. Part of the Foundation's mission is to provide funding for the preservation, research, restoration, and/or development of the history, tradition, culture, language, arts, crafts, heritage and overall well-being of the Cherokee people.

Circle of Stories - Multimedia Collection and Activities NEW
According to the SEDL Web site:
A free multimedia collection of documentary film, photography, artwork, and music for grades 6-12, the Circle of Stories Web site celebrates Native American storytelling. Visitors can listen to four Native Americans tell their stories, explore current issues facing native cultures, view maps and photo galleries that reveal Native American heritage and influence, and share their own stories and feedback. In addition, this PBS Web site features three interdisciplinary lesson plans designed for educators who work with teens.

e-LCTL Initiative
In a time of national and global need for an enlarged pool of speakers and learners of key languages around the globe, a strategic effort is needed in the United States to make less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) available to learners at the post-secondary level. This requires collaboration among the nation’s universities in deciding what LCTLs to offer, at what levels, when and where, in what formats, and what new learning materials will be required. These are the tasks of the e-LCTL Initiative.

En Busca de Nuestras Raíces
This program for heritage speakers of Spanish in Alicante, Spain, administered by the Academic Language Institute, offers courses at the University of Alicante given by specialists in the field of Spanish for Native Speakers and serves as a nexus between Spain and the Hispanic/Latino communities of the United States. A component of this program includes the launching of a virtual library of U.S. Hispanic literary texts that will become part of the Cervantes Virtual Library at the University of Alicante. This is the largest online repository of Spanish language literary texts in the world.

Endangered Languages
This interactive e-learning module, available in English and Dutch, zooms in on two regions: Northeast Siberia and Western New Guinea. In this module much attention is paid to issues like language revitalization, the pride of people for its own language, culture and traditions, the importance of self-esteem and own identity. You can learn about language,? its origins, why languages die, as well as how speakers of different languages view the world.

Enduring Voices: Documenting the Planet's Endangered Languages - MAP
National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them.

French Heritage Language Program
This website now offers a new “Teaching Resources” section, entirely dedicated to the teaching of heritage French and, to a certain extent, heritage languages in general.

This section aims at providing heritage French teachers with the pedagogical guidelines and latest research that will help them respond to the needs, and highlight the strengths, of their students. It also provides a broad range of authentic materials that will prove particularly useful for lesson development around the cultural, social, economical and political realities of Francophone countries. Finally, this website is also a place to find information on the institutions of la Francophonie.

The Language Materials Project: A Searchable Database - MAP
The UCLA Language Materials Project (LMP) is an on-line bibliographic database of teaching and learning materials for over 100 Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs). The LMP, which is funded by the US Department of Education International Education and Graduate Program Service, was created in 1992. The LMP is a unit of the UCLA Center for World Languages. Both the LMP and the UCLA Center for World Languages are affiliated with the UCLA International Institute.

Language Resource Center, UCLA
This Web site contains information about activities and conferences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) related to heritage language education and research. It includes heritage language courses taught at UCLA, research projects that are underway, and resources for heritage language program personnel.

Language Policy Research Unit (Arizona State University)
LPRU, under the direction of Dr. Terrence Wiley, promotes research and policy analysis on the challenges and opportunities posed by national and global multilingualism. LPRU priorities include: a) interdisciplinary studies designed to promote equitable language policies in education and society; b) language demographic studies with policy implications for language rights and preservation; c) historical and contemporary studies on language contact, conflict, and minority language accommodation and promotion; d) and media, legal and legislative analyses designed to better inform public discourse and policymaking in state, national, and international contexts. The site provides links to the full-text of research articles and reports which are freely available on-line, and which address issues of language policy. These articles and reports come from on-line journals, agency and organization websites, and the websites of individual researchers/scholars.

Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL) Course Database
This database, part of the Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Project sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), contains information on LCTL course offerings for over 300 languages at more than 2,000 colleges and universities in North America, and at elementary, middle and high schools. More than 25 Less Commonly Taught Languages are listed on the distance ed database of credit courses.

LitSite Alaska
An interactive Web site with a wealth of information, insights and stories about the history, diversity, culture and traditions of Alaskans. Over 1,000 pages of text have been enhanced with audio files, using IBM WebSphere Voice Server text-to-speech software. These audio files even include uncommon pronunciations of Alaskan native names and words such as KwaashKiKwaan, Tlingit, and Inupiaq.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) Language Map - MAP
The MLA Language Map is intended for use by students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning about the linguistic and cultural composition of the United States. The MLA Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and three groups of less commonly spoken languages in the United States. The census data are based on responses to the question, "Does this person speak a language other than English at home?" The Language Map illustrates the concentration of language speakers in zip codes and counties. The Data Center provides census data about over three hundred languages spoken in the United States, including actual numbers and percentages of speakers.

The National Museum of Languages
The National Museum of Languages (NML), a small museum that explores the transformative powers of language, recently opened to the public in early May 2008 after more than ten years in the making. A trail-blazer in the field—there are no more than three museums in the world with a similar focus--the Museum will examine the history, impact and art of language.

New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education (OBE)
Download the complete text of The Teaching of Language Arts to Limited English
Proficient/ English Language Learners: Learning Standards for Native Language Arts
from this site.

Recursos para la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje de las Culturas Hispanas (REACH)
REACH is a project of the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), based at the University of Maryland, with the cooperation of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP).

On this site are six modules based on themes related to the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the US and other Spanish-speaking nations, as well as many other useful resources.

Resources on Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS)
A resource site for ACTFL’s Spanish for Native Speakers special interest group.

Spanish for Native Speakers Curriculum
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2004

Teaching Indigenous Languages (TIL)
This site, hosted by Northern Arizona University and run by Jon Reyhner, maintains online resources on the linguistic, educational, social, and political issues related to the survival of the endangered indigenous languages of the world.

The site offers multiple resources, including the selected full-text proceedings of the 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1998 conferences on stabilizing indigenous languages. The Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) funded the first two conferences, which focused on meeting the goals of the Native American Languages Act of 1990. For more information, e-mail Jon.Reyhner@nau.edu.

UNESCO Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Education Website

Webliography of Less Commonly Taught Languages
This Webliography of Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs), compiled by the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), represents a comprehensive compendium of online Internet materials for numerous languages. Depending on the language, available resources can include socio-historic language sketches, introductions to writing systems and phonologies, beginning and intermediate online tutorials and exercises, online dictionaries, media sites, cultural and target country materials, etc.


Heritage Language Conference Links

The following are links and references for publications that have emerged from the work presented at the foundational conferences.

Heritage Languages in America Conference:
(1999, Long Beach, CA)

Campbell, Russ & Christian, Donna. (2001). Heritage Language Education: Needed Research. In: Peyton, J. K., Ranard, D. A. and McGinnis, S. (eds.), Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource. McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems Co., Inc

Heritage Language Research Priorities Conference (2000, Los Angeles, CA): University of California, Los Angeles. (2001). Heritage language research priorities conference report. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

2nd National Conference on Heritage Languages in America:
(2002, Tysons Corner, VA)

Campbell, Russ & Christian, Donna, eds. 2003. Directions in Research: Intergenerational Transmission of Heritage Languages. Heritage Language Journal. 1, 1 (Spring 2003).

Hornberger, Nancy H., ed. (2005) Heritage/Community Language Education: US and Australian Perspectives. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 8: 2 & 3. This is a special issue of the journal based on the research presented at the 2001 conference in Melbourne, Australia. The journal contents and abstracts are available at the link above. Access to full-text articles requires a subscription.

The Heritage Language Journal, an online blind-refereed journal exclusively dedicated to the publication of research on heritage language teaching and learning was established by the Language Resource Center of UCLA and the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching in 2003. Visit the Web site to read current and back issues or to find out about submission procedures.