The Center for Language & Culture Learning

The Center for Language and Culture Learning has been extraordinarily busy in 2021-22. We received three large Student Technology Fund grants to develop spaces and programming for innovative teaching and learning practices; we supported peer tutoring in eight languages taught in the Division and eight less commonly taught languages; we piloted a program to help student achieve a micro-credential in language learning; we spearheaded a community-based multilingual narrative project; we invited a member of the Meskwaki Tribe to speak about their language revitalization project (about which we made a short film); we promoted language and culture learning through social media, and we hosted many events in our dynamic, including Dia de los Muertos altar, conversation clubs, film and game nights, and more.

New Spaces

CALL lab

The Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Lab was created with a $180,000 University grant, which was used to completely remodel an out-of-date audio lab. We installed 24 computers equipped with Sanako software, which enables faculty to work with students on a range of innovative teaching activities, from discrete pronunciation exercises to communicative language learning drills. The Lab can also be used for film-editing, other multi-media projects, and assessment.

Area 651 VR Studio

Area 651 is a space where faculty can develop Virtual Reality projects for use in the teaching and learning of language and culture. Faculty can make use of 10 Oculus and 2 Vive headsets to lead their students on virtual tours or engage them in other kinds of extended reality opportunities. They can also learn to create their own VR experiences in the Studio.

Peer Education

The CLCL supports peer tutoring in the following languages taught in the DWLLC, and we saw over 1100 tutor visits over the course of the last year.

American Sign Language Arabic Chinese Japanese Korean Portuguese Russian Swahili

Peer tutoring helps both tutee and tutor. Through a personalized learning experience, peer tutoring can help motivate learners and improve their attitudes towards learning, and help them achieve academic success. Tutors develop leadership, interpersonal, and time management skills.

Through the Directed Independent Language Study program, we provide opportunities for faculty, staff, or students to work with a native speaker to develop basic oral proficiency skills in less commonly taught languages; in 2021-22, we supported learning in the following languages:

Norwegian Hindi Modern Greek Dutch Vietnamese Romanian

Turkish Ukrainian

Global seal of Biliteracy

A nationally recognized micro-credential that students can earn by taking a series of proficiency assessments, the tests measure the four skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing). Students can earn one of two levels of fluency —Functional (Intermediate Mid) or Working (Advanced Low). In Fall 2021, we piloted a program testing 17 students, who now have a credential that they can add to their LinkedIn profiles as a digital badge.

Iowa Intersections

Iowa Intersections is a communitybased digital storytelling project in which team members work with local partners to collect stories from recent immigrants and refugees in Iowa City.

In Fall 2021, we collected twelve videos from students studying English at Kirkwood Community College, and will be working with Open Heartland in

Summer 2022 with the Latinx families that organization serves. This initiative is a first step in creating a

Division-wide Humanities Lab that will seek to engage graduate and undergraduate students in publicly engaged humanities work.

Meskwaki Language Revitalization

In an effort to educate the University of Iowa community about the languages and cultures in Iowa, the CLCL invited Wayne Pushetonequa to give a presentation on the language revitalization efforts on the Settlement. Working with a Cinema Arts student, we made a short documentary interviewing members of the Tribe about the importance of language for cultural preservation.

Workshops, Events, and More

We conduct technology workshops for faculty on a range of tools and support their projects and outreach initiatives, including the Anne Frank Sapling Project, Spanish Open Educational textbooks, VR videos for Spanish for medical interpretation, websites, and more. We also support student engagement through events in the CLCL (conversation hours, karaoke, game nights, celebrations, etc.) and through our fantastic social media. Follow us on Spotify (clcluiowa) for constantly updated international playlists and on Instagram for fun language and culture learning activities.