LMP releases the first phase of a three-year enhancement to its authoritative resource for foreign language materials.
The recent increase of federal interest in foreign languages has kindled a language renaissance in K-12 schools across the nation. The number of classes for less-commonly taught languages such as Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Russian, even in the primary grades, has increased substantially.
Since receiving Department of Education funding last summer, the UCLA Language Materials Project (LMP) has augmented its offerings for K-12 teachers. The first new tool, the Audience pull-down menu, allows website visitors to search for materials based on their target audience (e.g., elementary, secondary, post-secondary or heritage learners.)
The Audience pull-down menu joins three other menus on the Project's search panel:
- Language (over 150 to choose from)
- Material (textbook, dictionary, audio, maps, etc., 26 categories in all), and
- Level (beginning, intermediate, advanced, and beyond)
The LMP has also added detailed citations of several hundred items for younger audiences. For example, visitors seeking materials in Arabic for elementary school pupils will find sixty-one references to bilingual readers, a picture dictionary, vocabulary games, and authentic materials from Arabic-speaking countries. Due to the lack of published textbooks on Arabic for this age group, the materials identified on the Project's website are of particular value to teachers at that level.
We invite you to try out the new Audience menu at www.lmp.ucla.edu. Watch for other new K-12 features in the coming year.