AELRC

📷 We’re excited to share a snapshot of our ‘Rubrics for Classroom Language Assessment’ project!

Held this past spring semester, the month-long professional development course included 16 instructional hours and brought together language teachers interested in strengthening classroom-based assessment practices through the use of rubrics.

👤36 participating teachers
💬 7 languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), German, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
🇺🇸12 U.S. states

Together, we explored how rubrics can support more transparent, fair, and meaningful classroom language assessments.

👀 Stay tuned for a new call for applications in the fall!

🎉 Congratulating to our student researchers earning degrees this year!! We’re proud of your accomplishments and will continue to cheer you on in your next endeavors:

🎓 M.S. in Linguistics: Andrew Acs, Eunae Kim, Evelyn Diaz-Iturriaga, & Sunny Lee

🎓 Ph.D. in Linguistics: Hannah Fedder Williams

From our partners at : We are excited to announce a new, free Korean speaking assessment resource!

The Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA) uses a natural conversational format to assess PreK-8 students’ speaking and listening skills. The accompanying training program will let you become an expert SOPA administrator at your own pace—for free.

AELRC researchers Eunae Kim and Yoon Hee Nho have translated and adapted the SOPA tasks into Korean, making it easier than ever to assess your students’ speaking and listening skills.

💻 To learn more, click here: https://www.cal.org/sopa-training-program-landing-page/sopa-training-program-form/

Last Saturday at the Washington Association of Korean Schools (WAKS) Spring Seminar, AELRC graduate student researcher, Eunae Kim, led a SOPA (Student Oral Proficiency Assessment) workshop with 25 Korean heritage language teachers. They explored proficiency-based speaking assessment and practical ways to support students’ real-world language use.
We were so encouraged by the thoughtful discussions and energy in the room and are excited about more collaboration and growth for Korean heritage language education!

AELRC director, Dr. Meg Montee, and student researcher, Caitlyn Pineault, are looking forward to sharing their recent co-authored article with Frank Yang, "State policy requirements for K-12 world language education", at next week's Not Your Average Book Club with ACTFL. Join Wednesday (2/18) to hear about their research on the U.S. policy landscape!

🗓️ Wednesday, February 18
⏰ 5-6pm EST
💻 Zoom

Register through ACTFL at the link below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pha5w8QjQiqv7u0ln6LA4g #/registration

✈️ 🚞 🚘This week, many of our staff members are headed to New Orleans for the convention. It's always a highlight of our year to share about our projects and build partnerships with U.S. K-16 world language educators.

📣 Come learn about the center's recent work and get connected with the many free resources and PD opportunities through the AELRC!

🎉 FREE Online PD Opportunity for World Language Teachers! 🇺🇸🌎
Want to design better, clearer, and more effective rubrics for your language classroom? Join us this January for a 4-week online course hosted by the AELRC at Georgetown University — and optionally take part in a research study that supports the field!

🗓 January 5–26
💻 Four online modules + weekly live sessions
📍 For U.S.–based world language teachers (Pre-K to Higher Ed)
🔗 Apply here: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/aelrcrubrics/home

Don’t miss this chance to strengthen your assessment practice! ✨📚

Planning to attend the 23rd annual ECOLT conference? Register now for the early bird rate! We hope to see you at Georgetown University for a day of continued learning and networking within the language testing community this fall. Visit our website for more information: https://sites.google.com/view/ecolt

The Routledge Handbook of Language Program Development and Administration, edited by Brown, Crane, Dupuy, and Ene, is out in press! Check out the chapter on program evaluation by AELRC director Meg Montee and collaborator Francesca Di Silvio.

New summer reading! Our current and past directors recently published a chapter on program evaluation in The Handbook of Research in World Language Instruction. Check it out and find even more (free!) resources on program evaluation at http://aelrc.georgetown.edu

Led by Dr. Meg Montee and Caitlyn Pineault, the AELRC welcomed K-16 language educators representing over six different languages at the first in-person institute of the summer. After an inspiring day of rubric development, we look forward to hosting this programming again in the future in a virtual format!