STARTALK, an organization whose mission is to increase the number of United States citizens learning, speaking and teaching critical need foreign languages, has awarded Northeastern Illinois University a $57,328 grant for a new Multilingual Learning Center (MLC) program. The intensive teacher training summer program, STARTALK: Summer 2018 Language Teacher Training Institute, will train a group of 20 to 25 Arabic-language speakers and educators to teach elementary-age students by equipping them with curriculum development and foreign language instruction pedagogy.
The program will be developed and implemented by the Multilingual Learning Center, a collaboration between Northeastern’s Department of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), the Department of World Languages and Cultures, and the Department of Teacher Education. The program officers include World Languages and Cultures Department Chair Denise Cloonan, Instructor Sanaa Rahman, and several alumni and faculty members from TESOL. The summer program, which will run from June 4-22, will focus on curriculum development and instructing teachers in foreign language instruction pedagogy.
The desired outcomes of the program are twofold. First, the candidates will participate in 60 instructional hours of teacher training activities spread out over three weeks. Second, participants will develop standards-based material ready to implement in their Arabic-language classrooms. They will ultimately learn how to integrate culture, content and language in Arabic instruction at various proficiency levels and needs.
