Beyond its core focus of supporting CU-Boulder's five foreign language departments on campus, CU-Boulder's Anderson Language Technology Center has existing outreach programs and several new ones planned for fall 2001 to expose Coloradans to foreign language offerings not widely available in Colorado.
ALTEC Director Kuan-Yi Rose Chang believes the CU programs will help schools throughout the state improve their foreign language instruction and help the state gradually expand foreign language offerings in public schools.
Some of the new and existing outreach and foreign language support programs include the following:
o CU undergraduate students in Italian have worked this semester at West High School in Denver to help language teachers in their high school classes. The CU students get credit for their work through CU's Foreign Language Service Learning Program, and they gain valuable teaching experience on the side.
In fall 2001, CU students will provide teacher assistance in Japanese and Chinese at public schools along the Front Range through the Service Learning program. And Japanese students will begin visiting Japanese-speaking residents of nursing homes this fall, Chang said.
o Through CU in Residence, Chang and other faculty members and students have visited schools in Montrose and Buena Vista for daylong "exposure course" presentations of Japanese, Chinese and Italian. The CU students teach high school, middle school and elementary school students basic language communication skills to get them interested in foreign languages. Sterling will be added to the program next year.
"What we're trying to do in those short presentations is to pique the students' interest in taking language courses in high school," said Chang. "We do a lot of activities focusing on cultural awareness and the kids get quite a lot out of it in the short time we have."
The cultural awareness comes not only from learning a smattering of new words in Japanese or Chinese, but also from the very presence of people from another culture.
"In Montrose, some of the students may never have seen an Asian face in person and, by the same token, some of our graduate students from foreign countries have never been to an American public school before," Chang said. "So for both the schoolkids and the university students, CU in Residence is a great experience. It mutually benefits both parties."
o All foreign language audio tapes, now available only at ALTEC on campus, are being converted from analog to digital format, which will make the tapes available via the Web over the next year to two years, Chang said. The conversion will mean that students taking foreign language classes will be able to listen to the tapes through their own computers in the comfort of their homes instead of physically going to the lab to listen to tapes.
Currently, foreign language students must go to the lab in the Hellems Arts and Sciences building Monday through Saturday and the lab is open only until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. most days of the week. Once the Web tapes are available, students will be able to access them at any time of the day.
Tapes already converted for Italian classes are being tested this semester so that improvements can be made before more language tapes are made available via the Web this fall. Japanese and Italian will be available in the fall with Spanish, German and French Web tapes to be made available later.
Students will be given passwords in order to be able to access the tapes, due to copyright restrictions, Chang said. Eventually tapes for about 35 courses will be converted so they can be accessed on the Web, she said.
o In fall 2001, ALTEC will have a new PC classroom available for foreign language classes. Faculty will be able to reserve the "smart" classroom, which will be equipped with VCR and DVD equipment, in addition to the latest model PCs.
For more information about the ALTEC Lab and its programs call (303) 492-6217.