President's Report Masthead
March 31, 2013

Languages Across the Curriculum

Binghamton’s Language Across the Curriculum (LxC) program recently received national recognition when Suronda Gonzalez, LxC director, was invited to co-present the webinar, “What Does an Internationalized Curriculum Look Like: The Promise of Languages and Cultures Across the Curriculum (CLAC)” with former LxC Director Diana Davies, now vice provost for international initiatives at Princeton University, and C.K. Kwai, director of international programs at the University of Maine-Orono.

The session, which focused on developing strategies for integrating language learning and use based on approaches used by CLAC programs, was seen by faculty and staff from nearly 100 universities across the United States and abroad. It was sponsored by NAFSA: The Association of International Educators.

Begun in 1991, LxC is a curricular enrichment program that provides students with the opportunity to apply existing language skills in courses outside of language departments.  Collaborating with internationally-minded faculty, LxC enlists international and multilingual students as Language Resource Specialists (LRSs) to prepare target language materials for use in courses that would not usually include such materials. With more than 6,000 participants in courses that range from management to environmental studies, LxC’s long-term goal is to establish a campus-wide expectation that students will be able to make meaningful use of any language they know, in any class, at any level and anywhere in the University curriculum.

Binghamton’s LxC program has been a national model and has influenced educational debates and new programs at universities across the country. The program was recognized with the prestigious Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education in 2004, and is a founding member of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum Consortium (http://clacconsortium.org).