The FLTC funded three projects this year that incorporate the use of latest technologies into existing foreign language and culture courses to achieve specific learning objectives.

Recipients of the FLTC Mini-Grants typically begin and complete working on their project during the Spring/Summer semester and implement their projects in the Fall semester.

Each year the FLTC selects proposals that involve innovative use of technology in teaching and awards each proposal up to a maximum of $2000. All full-time and part-time faculty and graduate teaching assistants teaching foreign languages are eligible to submit a proposal. A description of funded projects, in the words of the recipients, follows:

The primary purpose of this project is to create an initial database of interviews that will help students understand the diversity of legal opinions concerning Islamic personal law. This project aims to videotape five separate interviews with prominent Islamic legal scholars; one from each of the five major schools of law - Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Ja’afari. These interviews will query the legal position taken by these various schools on personal law cases, such as inheritance, divorce, and child custody. The scholars will also be asked to comment on the importance, applicability, relevance, and possible adaptation of this law to Muslim-minority communities in the United States. The interviews will be used to enhance the curriculum of the 5000 level Muslim Personal Law course offered in the Fall 2009 to a mix of undergraduate and graduate students.

The underlying idea behind this project is to teach students a variety of learning strategies and techniques for learning a foreign language, and appropriate study habits. While instructors usually provide some guidance about useful strategies for learning a foreign language, this is not a major component of Italian courses. This project aims at bridging this gap. Ultimately, the project aims at improving retention of students who are identified by their instructors as scoring a C- or below
in the Early Academic Assessment by offering targeted online resources. These students would be enrolled in a Blackboard site specifically designed to offer resources for learning a foreign language, online tutoring, and a variety of listening, reading, grammar activities as well as self-check assessments.

The goal of this project is to videotape seven interviews with Russians in Russia from a variety of backgrounds and then create accompanying online exercises in Respondus. The interviews would then be broken down into 14 segments (one for each week of the semester). The proposed interviewees are a rural veterinarian, a handicapped female artist, a physical therapist, a small business owner, an athlete, an accountant and a survivor of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad during WWII. The interviews and exercises would be used in intensive/advanced Russian language classes to develop listening comprehension skills and cultural knowledge. Students would watch the interviews online, at home or elsewhere, and then complete the exercises on Blackboard. These materials would be geared more toward the comprehension of ideas than of specific words by students. These interviews would also include a valuable cultural component as it would introduce students to contemporary Russians in a variety of walks of life.