Conference Plenary Speakers

University of Sydney, Australia 

Biography: Dr. Ken Cruickshank is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has taught languages and TESOL in elementary and secondary schools and universities for many years. He has also worked with heritage language schools since the 1990s. He is Director of the Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education (SICLE), which supports heritage language schools  https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/centres-institutes-and-groups/sydney-institute-community-languages-education.html. SICLE has developed key resources to support heritage language schools www.openlanguage.org.au and also pathways for heritage language teachers to gain accreditation for mainstream schools www.mteach.org.au.

His latest research book, Community and Heritage Language Schools: Transforming Education https://www.routledge.com/Community-and-Heritage-Languages-Schools-Transforming-Education-Research-Challenges-and-Teaching-Practices/Cruickshank-LoBianco-Wahlin/p/book/9781032287126, is the first book to look at these schools worldwide. 

Presentation: Community and Heritage Language Schools Transforming Education: Research, Challenges, Teaching Practices, and Next Step

Co-Director, American Councils Research Center; Co-Founder & Chief Language Officer, Jeenie Augmented Interpretation

Biography: Dr. Richard Brecht, Harvard Ph.D, is University of Maryland Professor Emeritus and currently serves as co-director of the American Councils Research Center. As one of those dedicated to forming heritage language education as its own field in the 1990s and 2000s, he has continued collaborating with the Coalition of CBHLS over the years. As Co-Founder and Chief Language Officer of Jeenie, an augmented interpretation company, in recent years he has focused on immigrant and foreign-born communities, their locations and languages. 

As an academic entrepreneur, he has been a leader in building and leading numerous academic organizations, including American Councils for International Education, the Center for Advanced Study of Language (now the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security, ARLIS), the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, and the National Foreign Language Center. He serves on multiple boards, including the National Heritage Language Center at UCLA. Dr. Brecht has testified multiple times before Congressional committees; made many academic presentations; and authored and edited numerous scholarly books, textbooks, manuals, articles, and reviews on language policy, second language acquisition, and Slavic and Russian linguistics. He has testified multiple times before Congressional committees and received numerous awards from national and international organizations in the language field.

Presentation: Expanding Heriatge Language Education in the U.S.: Historic Immigration & Renewed opportunities