In IALLT's most recent publication, From Language Lab to Language Center and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of Language Center Design, I make the case for the Language Learning Center as the central hub for a much-needed new focus for language education in the U.S.: that of a cross-disciplinary language-for-special-purposes curriculum. The Language Center, unlike any other unit within a HE institution, is well situated to bring together the human knowledge resources, the discipline expertise, the instructional practices, and curriculum design elements necessary to make such programs robust and viable. And given the continuing decrease in language offerings, requirements, and enrollments in higher ed institutions, even despite the general growth of language learning interest external to that environment, the LLC can be poised to help capture enrollments and revive the discipline.

LeeAnn Stone

Past President, IALLT

Past Director, HIRC, UC Irvine

Current intructional technology gadabout and Dean of Instruction, The Young Americans College of Performing Arts