Innovative Models for New Instructional Materials in Less Commonly Taught Languages

An online brown bag for LCTL and other language educators

Friday, February 14, 2025, 12:00 – 1:00 pm CST, on Zoom

Recording HERE.

Description: Authors of innovative instructional materials in three languages—Indonesian, Russian, and Yorùbá—will showcase their work and discuss how these projects can serve as models for other less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). These free resources are available as open-access or open educational resources (OERs).

About the projects:

Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration (co-authors: Anna Tumarkin and Shannon Donnally Quinn). Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration is an online OER textbook for ACTFL Intermediate-level learners of Russian to explore the diverse Russian-speaking communities across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North America. The textbook highlights the rich cultures and histories of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Indigenous populations of Russia, the Baltic states, Georgia (Sakartvelo), and Russian-speaking communities in the United States. Supported by the Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the textbook provides a unique, immersive experience that seamlessly integrates cultural understanding with practical language skills.

Intermediate Indonesian (co-authors: Sapta Abimanyu, Hany Noviya, Erlin Barnard, and Ellen Rafferty). Intermediate Indonesian is an interactive, theme-based online textbook designed for intermediate-level students of Indonesian to reach ACTFL Intermediate High proficiency. The 8-chapter book explores the rich diversity of Indonesia, with each chapter focusing on different cultures and customs. The development of the book is funded by a U.S. Department of Education International Research and Studies Program grant for the project, LCTLs OER Collaborative: Enhancing Language Teaching through OER Language Textbook Development and Partnerships, co-directed by Rajiv Rajan and Siddharth Chandra at Michigan State University. Please see this website for links to OER digital textbooks in many Asian languages created with support from the Michigan State University Libraries, the International Research and Studies Program, and the MSU Asian Studies Center.

Proficiency-Based Dictionary of Yorùbá Language (author: Adeola Agoke). Existing LCTL dictionaries have been instrumental in supporting the linguistic needs of language users who are either proficient in the language or have the tools to navigate the language. There has not, however, been much attention in the design of such dictionaries to the pedagogical needs of language learners in terms of their developing language proficiency. An innovative project in Yorùbá, the Proficiency-Based Dictionary of Yorùbá Language, provides contextualized language learning for Yorùbá learners  by using the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Language (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines as a core organizing principle for the presentation of lexical items in a dictionary. The vocabulary in the Proficiency-Based Dictionary of Yorùbá Language is supplemented with interactive learning activities, recordings of lexical items, and contextualized sample sentences that reflect the ordinary, everyday linguistic creativity of speakers of Yorùbá. The online dictionary, which constructs digital technology as a critical tool and space for methodic documentation of Yorùbá vocabulary and representation of the attending cultures of the language in the global space, can serve as a template for learning materials tailored to the proficiency levels of LCTL learners. Funding for the project is from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Language Institute, Department of African Cultural Studies, and African Studies Program, through its Title VI National Resource Center grant. 

About the panelists:

Sapta Abimanyu, co-author of Intermediate Indonesian, is a former Indonesian language instructor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has also taught Indonesian for the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute, and at Ohio University and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from Ohio University. He is currently working as an Indonesian instructor at Global LT.

Adeola Agoke, author of the Proficiency-Based Dictionary of Yorùbá Language, is Teaching Assistant Professor and Director of the African Languages Program in the Department of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research interests are language use and practices, language pedagogy, and educational linguistics. She holds a PhD in African Cultural Studies from UW–Madison. 

Hany Noviya, co-author of Intermediate Indonesian, is an Indonesian language lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has also taught Indonesian for the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute at UW–Madison and at the Universitas Negeri Malang. She holds an MA in English Language Education from the Universitas Negeri Malang.

Shannon Donnally Quinn, co-author of Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration, is Associate Professor of Russian at Michigan State University. She has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Slavic languages and literature and a master’s degree in instructional design from the University of Massachusetts. 

Anna Tumarkin, co-author of Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration, is Teaching Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she directs the Russian Language Program and serves as Associate Director of the Russian Flagship Program. She holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literature from UW–Madison. 

Sponsors: University of Wisconsin–Madison Language Institute, with the Department of African Cultural Studies and African Studies Program; Michigan State University Asian Studies Center, Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership, and the National LCTL Resource Center.

Contact: Dianna Murphy

The UW-Madison Language Institute is committed to inclusive and accessible programming. To request an accommodation for this event, please contact Language Institute associate director Jana Martin at least three business days in advance.