Heritage Languages Initiative - Conference and Next Steps

[McGinnis, Scott]

On behalf of the organizers of the Second National Conference on
Heritage
Languages in America, we would like to express our deepest thanks to all
of
the participants in last weekend's conference. Whatever your role at
the event - a session leader, a speaker, a poster session presenter, or
an
audience member - your contributions were both significant and much
appreciated.

As many of you know, during Saturday afternoon's session, there was a
consensus that some form of organization, with a working title of the
Association (or Alliance) of Heritage Language Educators, should be
established. The mechanism suggested in order to investigate such
possibilities was the formation of an action board/planning committee to
determine what should be the next steps for the Heritage Languages
Initiative, and several people volunteered to work with us. The
conference
planners will be meeting soon to consider a plan of action, and we will
be
in communication with all of you through this list to keep you informed
of
developments and of ways you can be involved.

Once again, our heartfelt thanks for both what you have already done,
and
what we know we can do, for heritage languages in America.

Sincerely yours,

Richard D. Brecht
National Foreign Language Center

Donna Christian
Center for Applied Linguistics