International Research and Studies Program Grant
Award years: 2020-2023
Award: $173,168
Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Title VI, International Research and Studies (IRS) Program
Description: The grant will fund a groundbreaking study, which responds to national calls for research on the proficiency outcomes of U.S. foreign language programs (Winke & Gass, 2019). The study documents the speaking proficiency outcomes of intensive summer programs offered through Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI) in both face-to-face and online/remote instructional contexts in 14 less and least commonly taught languages: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Kazakh, Persian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Urdu, Uyghur, and Uzbek.
Key personnel
- Principal Investigator: Dianna Murphy, Director, Language Institute
- Lead Researcher: Felecia Lucht, Director, Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes
- Outside Evaluator: Meg Malone, Director of Assessment, Research and Development, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL); Director, Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center; Research Professor, Georgetown University
- Associate Researcher: Jana Martin, Associate Director, Language Institute
- Statistics Consulting and Services: Dr. Sonya Sedivy, Associate Research Scientist, Testing and Evaluation Services
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Russian Flagship Program grant
Award years: 2020-2024
Award: $1.3 million
Funder: The Language Flagship, part of the National Security Education Program in the U.S. Department of Defense
Description: The grant is funding the Russian Flagship Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which provides opportunities for UW-Madison undergraduates of any major to reach a professional level of competence in Russian by graduation. The program combines intensive and rigorous study of Russian on the UW-Madison campus and overseas, including a capstone year abroad in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The program not only strives to increase students’ Russian language proficiency and intercultural competencies, but also links students’ intensive language study with their other academic interests and professional aspirations. The program welcomes applications from students of all majors and at any level of prior experience in Russian.
Key Personnel:
- Principal Investigator and Co-Director: Karen Evans-Romaine, Professor of Russian, Department of German, Nordic, & Slavic
- Co-Director: Dianna Murphy, Director, Language Institute
- Associate Director: Anna Tumarkin, Faculty Associate, Department of German, Nordic, & Slavic
- Assistant Director: Laura Marshall, Language Institute
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STARTALK Korean Language & Culture Academy Grant
Award years: 2020-2022
Award: $82,651
Funder: STARTALK is a national project funded by the National Security Agency
Description: The grant will fund the University of Madison-Wisconsin 2021 STARTALK Korean Language and Culture Academy, a 4-week four-week, non-credit, non-residential program for high school students interested in exploring Korean language and culture. Through engaging, interactive learning activities, students will learn to communicate in Korean while exploring Korean cultural practices and traditions.
Key Personnel:
- Principal Investigator and Director: Byung-Jin Lim, Associate Professor of Korean Linguistics, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
- Jaerin Ahn, Lead Instructor, Faculty Associate, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
- Kristin Dalby, Program Coordinator, Language Institute Assistant Director