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NALRC collaborates with Nigerian language institute |
Professor Antonia Folarin Schleicher, Director of the NALRC, traveled to Nigeria, March 2–18, to begin a series of collaborative efforts with the National Institute for Nigerian Language (NINLAN).
It was during the ALTA 2005 Conference at Yale Univeristy, New Haven CT, where the collaboration began. Professor Ben Elugbe, the director of NINLAN, had traveled from Nigeria to present the ALTA conference’s first plenary presentation. He was so impressed with the materials and activities of the NALRC, that he requested one copy of each of the NALRC materials and expressed interest in a collaborative relationship.
NINLAN is a tertiary research, documentation, and teaching center for the production |
Professor Schleicher at NINLAN in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria. |
To initiate a collaborative relationship with the NALRC, Professor Elugbe invited Dr. Schleicher to give a public presentation at his institute on “The Status of African Languages Pedagogy in the United States” and to showcase the NALRC. About 200 scholars, students, and government officials were present for the presentation. All of the materials taken along for publicity, including the NALRC brochure, ULIMI 2005, and various African language brochures, were well received.
In the next step to further this collaborative effort, NINLAN is sending three of their instructors (Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba) to the NALRC Summer Institute in Madison, WI, May 29–June 9, 2006.
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of resource materials and teacher training in all Nigerian languages— large, medium, and small. NINLAN operates under the ambit of the Nigerian National Universities Commission. The Institute also employs qualified and experienced translators of and lecturers in French, English, Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba. |
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South African Language Scholar visits NALRC |
Professor Victor Webb, Director of the Center for Research in the Politics of Language, University of Pretoria, South Africa, visited the NALRC on Monday, February 9, 2006. He had come to the University of Wisconsin to give a presentation on Language Policies |
and Pedagogical Practices in South Africa, organized by the UW Language Institute.
Dr. Webb spent his day at the NALRC with Assistant Director Adedoyin Adenuga, learning about the NALRC office, staff, and projects. He was impressed with all of the materials, professional development, and research initiatives in which the NALRC is engaged. He looked at the list of publications on the NALRC. Website, and then found himself breathless upon seeing all of those publications in stock on our shelves. He also viewed the African Language Map (ALM) on our Website. He was especially impressed by the information |
provided about the South African Languages, isiZulu, isiXhosa, and Sesotho. He found the audio clips of many of the African languages particularly attractive—especially the clip for Zulu, a language in which he is fluent.
Dr. Webb expressed appreciation for the diversity of African languages addressed by NALRC materials. He also remarked that many of the materials on South African languages were authored by colleagues he knows well.
Finally, Dr. Webb graciously offered to be a mouth piece for the NALRC to the Department of African Languages in his home institution. ₪ |
Professor Victor Webb standing just outside the NALRC offices. |
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NALRC connects with the familiar and the new at ALTA 2006 |
The 10th Annual Conference of the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) was held on the campus of Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 23–25. The theme of this year’s conference was “African Languages in the Age of Globalization: Prospects and Challenges.”
The NALRC was represented at ALTA by Professor Antonia Schleicher, Adedoyin Adenuga, Bezza Tesfaw Ayalew, and Matthew H. Brown. With so many representatives at the conference, the NALRC was
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able to participate in a number of important conference activities. On Thursday, March 23, the NALRC sponsored a pre-conference workshop by Dr. Ray Clifford, entitled “Classroom Implications of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Guidelines.” On Friday and Saturday, the NALRC |
booth attracted a number of visitors and sold a variety of textbooks, t-shirts, CDs, and other materials. Simultaneously, many of the conference sessions were attended by NALRC staff. On Saturday afternoon, Professor Schleicher and Mr. Ayalew, along with |
Audrey Mbeje and Alwiya S. Omar, presented a session on materials development at the NALRC.
Many conference attendees were familiar with the NALRC and its materials, but were excited to see some of the new additions to our list of publications. Others, who were new to ALTA and the NALRC were impressed by the variety of materials on display. Zulu language teachers from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa were excited by the prospect of using the Zulu Learner’s Reference Grammar in their classrooms back home. ₪ |
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Matthew and Bezza
with the NALRC booth
at the ALTA 2006 Conference |
Materials Development Camp
increases African language resources |
NASILP conference attendees recognize importance of LRCs |
In an effort to increase the number of materials published for teaching African languages, the NALRC invited three scholars, Mr. Abdullahi Abdinoor, Dr. Ibro Chekaraou, and Dr. Mazemba Nzwanga to Madison, WI to write the first drafts for three new Let’s Speak textbooks: Somali, Hausa, and Kikongo, respectively. The scholars came during the 2005 winter vacation and returned to their respective institutions for the spring 2006 semester.
One of the scholars became interested in developing a textbook after seeing NALRC materials at the NALRC/ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview training in May 2005. Another scholar’s interest began when a |
colorful NALRC language brochure—displayed in a community college—caught his eye. He contacted the NALRC to find out how he might also promote his native language. The third scholar contacted the director of the NALRC after realizing there were no communicatively oriented textbooks available for his native language.
These three scholars began by writing a proposal which included the first three chapters of the anticipated textbook. They used Je K’A So Yoruba by Antonia Schleicher (1993) as a model for their texts. The drafts for the full textbooks are currently in progress and will be published very soon. ₪ |
Assistant Director, Mr. Adedoyin Adenuga, represented the NALRC at the 2005 National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs (NASILP) Conference, Oct. 28th and 29th at the Hilton in Crystal City at the Washington DC National Airport.
The NALRC booth was set up and manned throughout the period of the conference. With approximately 50 participants, the booth was kept busy. More than half of the African languages brochures displayed were picked up by conference attendees. Many new participants at the conference added their names to the NALRC |
list-serve, so as to benefit from new materials as they are published.
The following were topics of discussion at the various workshops and presentations by national figures: courseware development, funding opportunities, program administration, second language pedagogy, distance learning & examinations, expansion of NASILP web services, NASILP service recognition, program growth opportunities, and last, but not least, the importance of utilizing Language Resource Centers. ₪ |
From left to right: Dr. Ibro Chekaraou, Dr. Mazemba Nzwanga, Dr. Antonia Schleicher, and Mr. Abdullahi Abdinoor. |
The NALRC booth at the NASILP 2005 Conference.
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Standing out at the ACTFL 2005 Conference |
Andrew Gurstelle with the NALRC booth at the ACTFL 2005 Conference. |
Representing the NALRC at the 39th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Nov. 18–20, 2005, were Dr. Antonia Schleicher, Adedoyin Adenuga, and Andrew Gurstelle. The conference was held in the downtown harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s theme of “Realizing Our Vision of Languages for All” matched the NALRC’s own vision of bringing African languages to national attention. The NALRC booth was shared with the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC), and was adjoined with the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS). Our booth generated a large amount of interest and |
excitement among conference attendees due to the fact that the NALRC was the only booth on the conference floor dealing specifically with African languages. Many visitors to the NALRC’s booth were teachers of European languages interested in African languages in francophone, lusophone, or germanophone parts of Africa that are spoken alongside such European languages. 2005 was a very productive year for NALRC publications, and our increased catalog made for a very appealing visual display.
On Saturday, November 19th, the NALRC and the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) held a joint session presenting “Material Development for Less Commonly Taught Languages.” |
After the exhibition hours of Saturday, November 19th, all the Language Resource Center directors and coordinators convened to discuss issues in the LRC community. The focus of the evening’s discussions centered on grant proposals and initiatives submitted just weeks prior to the conference.
Going beyond solidifying its position in the language teaching community, the NALRC has increased its visibility and made new contacts in order to expand its role.
Following the vast support and interest shown at the conference, the NALRC has been emboldened to continue promoting the teaching and learning of African languages throughout the US. ₪ |
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Bezza Tesfaw Ayalew with the NALRC booth at the ASA 2005 Conference. |
Mutual benefits at the 48th ASA Conference |
While Antonia, Doyin, and Andrew were at ACTFL, Sookyung Park Cho and Bezza Tesfaw Ayalew were exhibitors for the NALRC at the 48th African Studies Association annual conference, held under the theme of “Health, Knowledge, and the Body Politic in Africa and the African Diaspora” at the Marriott Hotel, Washington DC, Noc. 17–20, 2005.
The NALRC booth attracted all kinds of visitors—those familiar with the NALRC and new. Sookyung and Bezza handed out brochures and copies of ULIMI (the NALRC |
bulletin), answered questions and received comments from the visitors, gave brief descriptions about the NALRC, and sold NALRC publications.
Most visitors picked up the language brochures of their interest; some collected bundles of them to introduce the languages to students at their universities. Some visitors gave critical and useful comments about some of the pictures and information in the brochures, which will be considered when revising the old brochures and when developing new ones. |
The conference was a huge success in terms of disseminating information about the activities of the NALRC to a wider array of scholars from all areas of African Studies. The conference was also helpful in that the NALRC could directly hear about the needs of students desiring to study African languages. One visitor discussed the importance of the Mandinka language and strongly recommended that the NALRC develop material for it. ₪ |
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© 2006, The National African Language Resource Center @ The University of Wisconsin-Madison |
