Professional Development for African Language Educators
A) Annual Summer Institute for African Language Instructors
The NALRC organizes an annual intensive summer institute for African language scholars and instructors. Funds are provided for participants to attend on a competitive basis. The funds provide travel, room and board. All the institutes are free of charge for the participants who are selected. Those who are not selected in the competition can still attend with support from their language programs. These institutes are lead by experienced African language pedagogists or language pedagogists in general and they serve as a pre-service or in-service development programs for instructors.
During the summer of 2002, the following institutes were organized:
1. African language program development and evaluation by Eyamba Bokamba (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
2. African language curriculum development and evaluation by Antonia Folarin Schleicher (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
3. African language material development and evaluation by Antonia Folarin Schleicher, Olusola Adesope & Anand Prithivathi (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
This summer (2003), the following institutes were organized:
1. African language program, administration, & evaluation; Curriculum Development & evaluation by Eyamba Bokamba (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
2. Teaching speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills by Sandra Arfa & Gail Ibele (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Each institute lasted for a week except for the Teaching Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing Skills institute, which lasted for two weeks. See the report of our past summer institutes.
B) Annual ALTA Conference Workshop
As part of its professional development activities, the NALRC sponsors and organizes an annual workshop for all African Language Teachers' Association (ALTA) members who attend the annual ALTA conference. The purpose of organizing an annual workshop during this conference is to reach as many African language instructors as possible. This workshop is usually the most well attended NALRC workshop. The NALRC also annually provides funds for African language graduate teaching assistants to attend this conference on a competitive basis. Many of these teaching assistants have benefited greatly from the training received through these workshops and would not have attended with the support of the NALRC. See the report of the ALTA 2004 conference.
C) Workshops for Different African Language Programs
If many African language instructors from a particular program cannot attend some of the workshops or institutes organized by the NALRC at the national level, each program can request a separate local workshop for its instructors. Similar workshops led by the NALRC during the 2000/2001 funding cycle are:
1. Material Development Workshop for LCTL Instructors at the University of Kansas, African Studies Program, Lawrence, KS.
2. African Language and Culture Workshop for K-12 Teachers at the Ohio State University, African Studies Program, Columbus, OH.
Please contact the NALRC if your program needs such local workshops. It should be noted that a fee is charged for such local workshops.
* Teacher Talk: A web-based resource and archive of traditional and innovative language teaching techniques and activities.
* African Language Teachers Forum: A web-based forum where language teachers and teacher educators discuss topics of interest.
