Minnesota’s state seals of biliteracy program recognizes students who have achieved a high level of proficiency in a language other than English. About 2,000 graduating high school students receive a seal each year, but there are large gaps in what types of students earn the award.

A four-year project led by the University’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) aims to address those gaps and help districts offer more equitable access to seals of biliteracy.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) has received its eighth round of funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRC) program, totaling more than $750,000 over the next four years.

The purpose of the competitive Title VI LRC grant program is to establish, strengthen and operate centers to improve the nation’s capacity for teaching foreign languages.

CARLA is one of only 16 centers in the country funded by the prestigious program.

Developing literacy in a language is more than just learning to write, speak, and understand, according to Rachel Dodson, a graduate instructor of German at the University of Minnesota. Using language texts to develop cultural knowledge is also key.

Dodson came to this realization after attending a summer institute, “Foreign Language Literacies: Using Target Language Texts to Improve Communication,” hosted by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) in 2021.