The National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC), a consortium of The George Washington University, Georgetown University, and the Center for Applied Linguistics, manages the DesiLearn initiative. The NCLRC is one of fifteen U.S. Department of Education Title VI-funded Language Resource Centers).
Programs to develop the language proficiency and cultural knowledge of heritage language speakers take place in K-12, university, and community-based program settings and include programs for U.S.-born students, immigrants, and refugees.
DesiLearn, a three-year research grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education (Title VI International Research & Studies program), collects information about K-12 and community-based programs involved in the teaching of fifteen South Asian languages. The goal is to describe all of the South Asian language programs for school-age students in the United States.
Through a comprehensive survey, the research will identify currently used resources and areas of need, and is designed to answer the following questions:
- What is the current state of language programs in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Nepali, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu for K-12 school-aged students in the U.S.?
- What do teachers and administrators involved in these programs report as the needs of their programs?
The NCLRC will develop and maintain a national network and website providing teachers of K-12 South Asian languages with a directory of programs in the United States, research, teaching materials, resources, and professional development opportunities.
Visit the DesiLearn website.
