Languages and Literacy Collaboration Center
Over the next year and a half, ACTFL will connect collaborative teams of world language
educators and colleagues from other disciplines from across the United States in a project
focused on developing learners’ literacy skills. The development of the Languages and Literacy
Collaboration Center (LLCC) will give all educators access to a multitude of resources. Through
webinars, mentoring, a virtual resource portal, and online discussions, educators will
collaborate around strategies to reinforce and strengthen learners’ literacy skills.
This project will create a meeting place for world language educators from across the United
States. Be part of this initiative by creating one or more cohort groups. Working together is
working smarter. Research proves again and again that collaboration is efficient and effective.
Literacy is a shared responsibility and no one person should do this alone.
At the Languages and Literacy Collaborative Center, educators will have continuous access to
high quality professional learning and materials, and a place to connect with other educators
not only from within the world language community but also across disciplines to share ideas.
The focus of the LLCC is to facilitate a collaborative effort of language educators and across
disciplines to develop and reinforce literacy skills for all learner. This is an initiative to connect
educators from Pre-Kindergarten through the postsecondary level, to support the development
of 21st century literacy skill with growth in learners’ first and second languages.
ACTFL envisions several Collaborative Teams from each state, comprised of 5-10 educators per
team, to collaboratively develop model units and lessons for diverse learners. These model
units and lessons may be discipline-specific or interdisciplinary depending on the site team
membership and focus. What are the benefits for participating in this initiative? Participants
will have access to:
 Webinars focused on the development and reinforcement of literacy
 Library of up-to-date resources focused on literacy
 “Helpdesk” to respond to questions related to the creation of model lessons and units.
 Resources created by all the Collaborative Teams
 Collaboration and professional learning with other teams from across the United States
Team membership may include:
 World language instructors teaching the same language but different levels;
 World language instructors of different languages, teaching the same level;
 World language instructors of different languages and different levels;
 World language instructors and instructors teaching other subject areas with an interest
in developing learners’ literacy skills
The requirements for participating are:
 Read and discuss a variety of resources on targeted areas of literacy
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Participate in online discussions and periodic surveys for input and feedback on this
project
Create literacy connected lessons
Share examples of how your team is embedding literacy into language learning,
Implement literacy strategies and evaluate their effectiveness
Document the impact on learners
If you are interested in developing one or more Collaborative Teams in your school, district or
state, campus or university system, please visit www.actfl.org/languages-literacy.
ACTFL is very excited about the potential of this ground-breaking project, which builds on and
extends ACTFL’s work to provide its membership with opportunities for professional
development, to collaborate with colleagues, to share what they have learned, and to positively
influence the growth of language learners in intercultural communicative competence.
This initiative connects language learning with the definition of 21 st century literacies of the
National Council of Teachers of English:
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared
among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy.
Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments,
the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and
competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in
the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social
trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century
global society must be able to
 Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
 Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose
and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
 Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
 Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
 Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
 Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.