When accepting a new position at university, community college, or K-12 school, you may be asked to do more than teaching a language. If you are an IALLT member or a person looking up information on the IALLT webpage – chances are that you are a language technology professional or a language instructor who has been tasked with designing or redesigning a Language Learning Center (LLC).

In the recent years, the term professional development has become a big buzzword in academic circles. As a result, Teaching and Learning Centers have been created in many institutions – to include my own. Yet, as fashionable as this term may be, professional development is nothing new. Indeed, professional development and IALLT have been synonymous for me.

This address was given by Mike Ledgerwood at the conclusion of his term as President during the IALLT 2011 banquet at UC Irvine, Friday, June 24th.

Before we get to 2011, let me share some history with all of you. I hope my reasons for doing so will be clear by the end of my address. And I apologize for reading a written text, which I never do when teaching. But I also hope to share my thoughts with those not present and have written them out to share. This address will be very hard for me and I hope not for the rest of you.

When I became Chair of World Languages and Cultures and Samford I realized I should become IALLT's affiliate representative to ADFL (The Association of Departments of Foreign Languages).  This is the US group for Chairs of Depts. of (Foreign) Languages.  At that time I was one of the very few IALLT members who was also a Lang. Dept Chair (now there are a few more, including our next President!).  As you can see in a previous blog entry, ADFL has an active listserv in which dept.

Since i care so passionately about IALLT, it is hard not to think about what I've done (or not done) as an IALLT member to help our organization.  I recently had a long talk with Stéphane Charritos, a UNC (Univ. of North Carolina) graduate school friend, who is now Language Center director at Columbia Univ.

It doesn't happen every day or even every month.  However, I do hear about Language Centers that are being threatened with being closed much too often.  The collapse of the world economy has brought more of these notices to me over the last year.  I always try to find out the details of the situation.  As IALLT President, I have written many letters of support for IALLT colleagues.  IALLT has worked on a new statement to the profession about the need for Language Centers.  IALLT is the major group in the world for Language Centers after all.