The Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (CALPER) at the Pennsylvania State University is one of fifteen Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRCs) in the United States which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Congruent with the charge of the LRCs, CALPER conducts research to inform foreign language pedagogy, it develops language teaching and learning materials and assessment procedures and it provides an array of educational opportunities for language professionals. CALPER's particular focus is to improve the environment of advanced-level foreign language teaching and learning, and assessment.


What's New?
Teaching German Modal Particles: A Corpus-based Approach by Nina Vyatkina and Karen E. Johnson is now available.

This text offers an approach to the challenges of teaching the usage of modal particles to learners of German that emphasizes awareness raising activities. The worksheets and handouts are sequenced to move learners through a gradual process of inductively noticing patterns of modal particle use, to defining modal particle meanings and usages, to analyzing modal particle use in context, and finally, to deductively using modal particles in extended communicative interactions. All worksheets are followed by answer keys which offer additional explanations about appropriate modal particle usage.

Go to our publications page for further details.

12.10.07

Dynamic Assessment in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Teacher's Guide by James P. Lantolf and Matthew E. Poehner is now available as an E-Book on DVD. Go to our publications page for further details.

04.19.07

SCMC, Blogs and Wikis by Jonathon Reinhardt and Steven L. Thorne.

A concise manual designed for use by teachers at the secondary and post-secondary levels in pre- and in-service professional development workshops and events on the use of Internet communication tools. Includes links to examples (video and audio clips) on the CALPER Technologies web space.

Can be downloaded as a PDF document from our Technology Web Space .

12.11.07

Advanced Language Proficiency (ALP)Bibliography - We began to develop and compile a searchable bibliographic database that contains references on a wide variety of aspects and features addressing the development of advanced language proficiency. It is our hope that language professionals find the database a valuable tool when trying to locate research and non-commercial materials on ALP. If you have comments or would like to suggest a reference for potential inclusion in the database, please contact Gabriela Appel

Go to CALPER's ALP Searchable Bibliography

10.29.07

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