20 U.S.C. § 1123 — Language resource centers

(a) The Secretary may make grants to, and enter into contracts with, institutions of higher education or consortia of those institutions. The purpose is to establish, strengthen, and operate a small number of national language resource and training centers. These centers must serve as resources to improve the capacity to teach and learn foreign languages effectively. (b) The activities carried out by the centers described in subsection (a)—(1) must include effective dissemination efforts whenever appropriate; and (2) may include—(A) conducting and sharing research on new and improved teaching methods, including the use of advanced educational technology; (B) developing and sharing new teaching materials that reflect the use of that research in effective teaching strategies; (C) developing, applying, and sharing performance testing that is appropriate to an educational setting and can be used as a standard and comparable measurement of skill levels in all languages; (D) training teachers to administer and interpret performance tests, use effective teaching strategies, and use new technologies; (E) giving significant attention to the teaching and learning needs of the less commonly taught languages, including assessing the strategic needs of the United States, determining nationally how to meet those needs, and publishing and sharing instructional materials in the less commonly taught languages; (F) developing and sharing materials designed to be resources for foreign-language teachers at the elementary and secondary school levels; and (G) operating intensive summer language institutes to train advanced foreign-language students, provide professional development, and improve language instruction through preservice and inservice language training for teachers. (c) Grants under this section must reflect the purposes of this part and must be made on the conditions the Secretary decides are necessary to carry out this section. This section does not define the quoted terms “institution of higher education,” “consortia,” “foreign languages,” “effective dissemination efforts,” “advanced educational technology,” “performance testing,” “educational setting,” “standard and comparable measurement,” “skill levels,” “less commonly taught languages,” “strategic needs of the United States,” “preservice and inservice language training,” or “necessary.”