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News Archive

All information on this page is for news prior to 2016.

L2TReC receives additional grants

L2TReC is excited to announce that it has received two internal grants to support our research initiatives.
The first is a Seed Grant, from the Office of the Vice President for Research, to create a pilot version of a large-scale, tagged, and searchable digital corpus of Second Language spoken and written language. This pilot project will provide  us with information about the efficacy of selected tagging software and realistic cost projections for the labor intensive transcribing and tagging work. The results of this pilot will be used to support a larger external funding request.

Funding was also received for a Language Learner Corpus workshop through the Great Ideas in the Humanities grant. This two-day intensive workshop will introduce researchers and language teachers to the discipline of corpus linguistics specifically as it pertains to learner corpora. The workshop will also provide lectures and hands-on practice with the tools used to create and use a learner corpus for research or to inform teaching practice. The dates for the workshop are the 11th and 12th of April, with a keynote on the evening of the 11th. The event is free to attend but registration is required.

Recent Language Training Center Grant linguists deployed to the Middle East

Recent Alumni's of the L2TReC language program have recently been deployed to Afghanistan, read more about it here.

Spotlight on professor Giuliana Marple

Guliana is a native Italian and faculty member for the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah. She is an active representative of Italian culture in the state of Utah and in the North West. Over the years she has collaborated with the Salt Lake City Mayor’s office, the SLC County and the Italian honorary Consulate for the organization of  Italian cultural and economic exchanges. In 2002, Giuliana worked as an attaché for the Italian National Olympic Committee in Salt Lake City. More information available here.

Do you speak French, Italian or Spanish?
Do you want to get an INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED diploma that certifies your proficiency?

L2TReC offering exams to get the PLIDA (Italian) or DELE (Spanish) diplomas.

Test Dates: Nov. 21-23

Registration Deadline:
Spanish Oct. 17
Italian Oct. 31

Register and pay here.

Contact:
Italian: Maya Grerig, maya.gerig@sci.utah.edu
Spanish: Lucía Rubio, lucia.rubio@utah.edu

TLE Spotlight on Fernando Rubio

Fernando Rubio is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Co-Director of the Second Language Teaching and Research Center at the University of Utah, where he is a leader in blended course design and technology-mediated instruction, as well as a mentor to future teachers. He has edited and authored numerous books and articles, including Hybrid Language Teaching and Learning: Exploring Theoretical, Pedagogical and Curricular Issues, Tercer Milenio: Composición y Gramática, and Juntos: Beginning Spanish. He is also the designer of Weblinks, a web-based component for four Spanish textbooks: Aventuras, Panorama (2nd ed.), Viva, and Vistas. Rubio’s service to language education extends to his work with The College Board and his professional associations. He is the current chair of the executive committee of the Division on the Teaching of Languages for the Modern Language Association as well as a current editorial board member of the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators.

Among Rubio’s many awards is the 2012 ACTFL/Cengage Learning Faculty Development Programs Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology with IALLT. Rubio says that his classroom philosophy is quite simple. “I want to create the necessary conditions to promote language acquisition,” he explains. “That means exposing students to large amounts of authentic input, creating tasks that replicate language use in real-life situation, building community and promoting interaction in the classroom, and incorporating feedback throughout the process.”

This spotlight was originally published in The Language Educator's August 2013 issue.

L2TReC Awarded $250,000 Institute for International Education Grant

L2TReC was awarded a highly competitive $250,000 grant from Institute for International Education (IIE) to fund a new Language Training Center for the Utah Cryptologic Team. The Utah Cryptologic team is made up of approximately 1400 government employees from various branches who require annual language training, including members of the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade (Linguist); 19th Special Forces Group; Utah National Guard Counter Drug Task Force; 169th Intelligence Squadron; Reach Language Support Program; and Utah Regional Operations Center.  
 
Team members are required to receive a minimum of 160 hours of language training each year.  L2TReC will provide training for Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean and advanced levels of Spanish. The center will help team members achieve their language training goals by using a combination of intensive face to face training and online supplemental work.
 
This grant and the new project will help L2TReC accomplish one of our main missions, to provide language instruction outside of the University campus.

Last Updated: 4/20/21