Spring 2003
|
"If you don't know the language, you don't know the culture," says Carl Falsgraf, director of the University of Oregon's Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS). "Language classes are not just drill sessions any more," he adds, "they are international learning centers that incorporate culture, society, and art as expressed through another language."
Falsgraf and others at the center are working to help educators and students accomplish those goals. In the process, CASLS has created a spinoff business, Language Learning Systems (LLS), under which a wide range of cutting edge language testing and learning tools can be marketed to educational institutions around the country. The center and its spinoff venture are housed in the UO's Riverfront Research Park.
"I feel strongly that we have to give teachers the resources so we set kids up for success, not failure," Falsgraf says.
Last August, CASLS received a $1.3 million federal education grant designed to help students in the Pacific Northwest master foreign languages and cultures. As a recipient of this grant, CASLS becomes one of fourteen National Foreign Language Centers established by the U.S. Department of Education. As such, CASLS will work with teachers in programs that range from kindergarten through university, with a focus on advanced language skills achieved through carefully developed lesson guidelines and sophisticated but easy-to-use testing.
Language skills, Falsgraf points out, used to be for what some would consider the wealthy or elite. No longer, he says, noting that in Oregon many rural areas are experiencing the impact of Spanish-speaking workers.
"It's a huge cultural clash," he says. "If people can speak the language, there is the potential for understanding, instead of a cultural war. It's important for educators, law enforcement people, medical professionals—anyone dealing with the public."
At the heart of the tools CASLS has developed is an assessment program that combines computerized testing according to set standards, with materials that teachers can download and customize for their specific needs. This testing is sophisticated enough to evaluate writing skill levels as well as simpler vocabulary and grammar understanding. When combined with a focus on the culture and people who speak the language, it offers what Falsgraf calls a "better way to learn."
As a spinoff of CASLS, Language Learning Systems is licensed through the UO, and markets to a wide range of educational institutions with the same focus on the kind of standards-based teaching that saves time and money.
"This licensing agreement will benefit CASLS, the university, and the language teaching community by allowing distribution of the excellent products that CASLS has developed to a much wider audience than would otherwise be possible," says Don Gerhart, UO director of technology transfer.
While technology transfer traditionally takes place in the sciences, Language Learning Systems is the first offshoot business on the UO campus to be based in the social sciences and education.
"We may be one of the few spinoffs from the Oregon University System not to come out of the sciences or engineering," Falsgraf notes. "It's a whole new way of looking at technology transfer."
In addition, it is a new way of looking at avenues for educational products, especially the teaching of foreign languages. With three districts in Oregon on contract and interest shown in Japan, Falsgraf and his associates have their eyes set on the business world.
Dow Jones, he says, is interested in a program that would combine teaching English with reading the Wall Street Journal.
| Inquiry © 2003; University of Oregon Office of Research, Eugene OR 97403
Questions? Commments? Contact Jim McChesney, (541) 346-3017 |
 |