Online Summer Institute for Non-native Teachers of Chinese & Japanese
June 22 —July 3 , 2009 • University of Hawai`i

This online professional development opportunity is specifically for non-native-speaking teachers of Chinese and Japanese language at the K-16 level, with a focus on teachers in underserved areas. NFLRC offers 2 concurrent two-week intensive language courses in Chinese and Japanese. The intensive courses, delivered entirely online, employ a tested and proven pedagogic model and concentrate on the development and/or maintenance of communicative language skills at the advanced level, with strong emphasis on written communication meeting high standards of literacy.

The Cultura project, pioneered at MIT by Gilberte Furstenberg and her colleagues, has inspired a variety of online cultural exchanges based on a set of principles and best practices. The Cultura: Web-Based Intercultural Exchanges pre-conference event will feature presentations by a variety of educators who have created exchanges based on the Cultura model.

Language Learning in Computer Mediated Communities (LLCMC) Conference
October 11-13, 2009

Once, computers were seen as thinking machines or electronic tutors. Now the computer has become one of many devices that people use to form virtual communities of all kinds. In the field of language education, computer mediated communication (CMC) enables students to interact with one another free of space and time constraints and to participate in communities of learning with their counterparts in the target culture. The Language Learning in Computer Mediated Communities (LLCMC) Conference explores the use of computers as a medium of communication in language learning communities.