Partnerships

CEDAR LRC strengthens community and institutional partnerships at both the K-12 and university levels to further increase access to high-quality language curricula. The CEDAR LRC’s Summer Language Institute provides professional development opportunities for K-16 educators on curriculum development, lesson planning, and communicative language teaching, building upon existing collaborations with K-12 school districts in the tristate region and beyond. The CEDAR LRC has also partnered with Union Institute and University, a local minority-serving institution, for the creation of an innovative open-access online curriculum for the teaching of Nahuatl.

• Description: Nahuatl is an Uto-Aztecan language with over 1.3 million speakers in Mexico (Olko & Sullivan, 2014) and various speech communities Southwestern U.S. Through a collaboration with Union Institute and University, the “Developing Interactive Experiences for Nahuatl Language Learners” seeks promote and preserve this less-commonly-taught language by creating curricular materials for teaching Nahuatl, based on authentic representations of the Nahuatl speaking community in southern Mexico and its diaspora in the United States. 
• Project Director: Daniel Diaz Reyes, Ph.D., J.D.  
• Current Phase (Year 1 of 4): Creation and compilation of authentic materials for Nahuatl instruction  

• Description: The Summer Language Institute supports K-16 language practitioners seeking to employ contemporary, research-supported best practices for world language instruction in their classrooms. Specifically, the Summer Language Institute will focus on equipping pre- and in-service foreign/world language, heritage language, immersion, and ESL/EFL educators with training on how to both modify existing curricula and create new course materials that adhere to ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. The Summer Language Institute runs in person every summer for 3 days, hosted at the University of Cincinnati’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.  
• Project Director: Anne Lingwall Odio, Ph.D. 
• Current Phase: Scheduling speakers and dates for spring 2023 Summer Language Institute