>Please find below an announcment from the Center for Adult English 

>Language Acquisition (CAELA):

>

>


"Capacity-Building Training and Technical Assistance" Workshops


>Many states are experiencing a growing population of non-native English 

>speaking adults who want and need to improve their English language 

>proficiency. In September 2004, DAEL awarded a 36-month contract to the 

>Center for Applied Linguistics to establish a national Center for Adult 

>English Language Acquisition (CAELA), to assist states in meeting these 

>challenges. The purpose of CAELA is to build the capacity of states with 

>emerging English as a second language populations to provide systematic 

>training and effective, ongoing technical assistance to teachers and 

>administrators in adult English language acquisition programs. CAELA also 

>will provide and disseminate research-based resources and promising 

>practices at the national level for more effective adult English language 

>acquisition instruction.

>

>As part of its capacity-building effort, CAELA will conduct three two-day 

>regional training workshops for teams of ESL professionals from states 

>with emerging ESL populations. Each of the regional trainings will be 

>convened to create or build regional networks. The meetings will give 

>participants a chance to share ideas, research, and challenges as they 

>work on developing their individual state action plans. The following 

>regional groups will be assembled:

>    * Central: Washington, DC, April 18-19, 2005;

>    * West: Anaheim, CA, May 2-3, 2005; and

>    * South: Atlanta, GA, May 16-17, 2005.

>All travel (airfare and local transportation), hotel accommodations, and 

>food expenses, will be paid for by CAELA. Once the state teams have 

>finalized their plans, CAELA staff will draft a plan to provide 

>appropriate systematic and ongoing technical assistance to the state 

>teams. In July 2005, a schedule of CAELA s technical assistance activities 

>for the state teams will be prepared, including timelines and milestone 

>events for the contract year.

>

>For more information and for an application for your state to participate 

>in this capacity-building effort, please contact Miriam Burt, CAELA 

>Associate Director, by phone at 202-362-0700 or e-mail 

><<mailto:Miriam at cal.org>mailto:Miriam at cal.org>