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National Middle East Language Resource Center
In August of 2002 the U.S. Department of Education announced the creation of the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC), the first Title VI Language Resource Center to focus solely on the languages of the Middle East. NMELRC is now in its second round of funding. Its mission is to both increase and improve opportunities for learning the languages of the Middle East. It does so through its own projects and by working with others to coordinate efforts.
NMELRC, with headquarters at Brigham Young University (BYU), represents a consortium of language experts from more than twenty universities. NMELRC works across the four major Middle East language groups (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish) to foster cooperation and joint utilization of expertise and resources. Kirk Belnap serves as the center's director. Maggie Nassif is the administrative director. Three associate directors oversee NMELRC 2006-2010 focus areas: Mahmoud Al-Batal (University of Texas at Austin) directs teacher development efforts; Shmuel Bolozky (University of Massachussetts - Amherst) directs infrastructure building activities, and Erika Gilson (Princeton University) directs language assessment projects.
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| Announcements |
NMELRC's Language Assessment Project
We have now completed Phase One of our language assessment project, the creation of Intermediate- and Advanced-level online reading comprehension tests for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish. We are now looking for institutions to pilot these tests--free of charge. |
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Arabic Exchange Teachers
American Councils continues to be privileged to administer the Teachers of Critical Languages Program of the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. We are pleased to announce that applications to host Chinese or Arabic exchange teachers during the 2008-2009 school year are available and can be downloaded from either www.americancouncils.org or www.tclprogram.org. |
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2008 NMELRC Arabic Summer Workshop
NMELRC will be holding its annual Arabic seminar this year in DC in May in collaboration with NCLRC. The workshop will be with Professors Mahmoud Al-Batal and Kristen Brustad. |
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Startalk Summer Arabic Camp at BYU
The National Middle East Center offers a summer Arabic language camp for high school students, as well as several professional development opportunities for prospective and current K-12 Arabic teachers.
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Intensive Summer Language Institute for Teachers
Funding for the Intensive Summer Language Institutes has been approved
Visit www.americancouncils.org for information and applications for the program.
More information will be posted as it is made available. |
Workshop Connecting your Classroom to the Heritage Language Community: Tools and Resources
The National Heritage Language Resource Center invites applications to participate in a Workshop Connecting your Classroom to the Heritage Language Community: Tools and Resources. This workshop, to be held at UCLA on May 16-17, 2008, is aimed at language teachers in community, pre-college, and college programs |
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2nd Summer Heritage Language Research Institute
The National Heritage Language Resource Center invites applications to participate in the 2nd Summer Heritage Language Research Institute directed by Professor Maria Polinsky and held at Harvard University June 22-27, 2008. |
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