Explicit and Tacit Missions of the Berkeley Language Center

Rick Kern, UC Berkeley

To support the learning and teaching of foreign and heritage languages on the Berkeley campus and, where appropriate, in the University of California system.

• Provide language instructors with opportunities to learn of new developments in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, language pedagogy, and second language acquisition theory;

• Support language research and its dissemination at professional meetings and in professional journals;

• Provide faculty and students with learning resources and facilities;

• Support faculty production of new language learning materials.

The BLC’s mission

To INTELLECTUALIZE language learning and teaching

To build an intellectual COMMUNITY of language teachers

The BLC’s tacit mission

Language Centers implicitly foster new ways of thinking

• About the status of languages on the campus

• About language teaching as an important and valued

enterprise

• About collaboration in resolving issues, developing materials,

etc.

• About colleagues from different languages as intellectual

partners

Four Key Objectives

1.Outreach/Inreach

2.Internationalization

3.Research

4.Resources

The BLC in relation to…

UC Berkeley’s mission

National trends in language education

Future Directions

Partial stand-in for former UC Language Consortium

Title VI funding work-arounds

Centralized FL pedagogy courses?

Undergraduate courses?

Service learning initiatives

2013-14 BLC Revenue & Carry forward

560

371511

29

304

29

270

Annual allocation

TAS

Student employment

Operations

Summer sessions

Common good

Recharge

Mellon

2011-12 Carry forward

Total Resource = $1,012,000

2013-14 BLC Expenses

Total Expenses = $995,000

277

337

23

65

130

11

15 5

Academic Salaries

Staff Salaries

Temporary Staff

Operations

Classroom renovation

Lecture series

Travel support

Films & books