[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 44 (Thursday, March 12, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS

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                          HON. RUBEN HINOJOSA

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 12, 2009

  Mr. HINOJOSA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Center 
for Applied Linguistics (CAL), which is celebrating its fiftieth 
anniversary this year.
  CAL was established in 1959 in Washington, DC by a grant from the 
Ford Foundation. At the close of the 1950s, issues of U.S. language 
capacity, interest in U.S. and international language policy, and the 
emergence of English as a world language created a demand for expertise 
in linguistics and language training. CAL's primary function was to 
serve as a liaison between the academic world of linguistics and the 
language-related concerns of the practical world. CAL was the first 
organization to focus on the identification of qualified personnel for 
language-related professions, professional development for language 
teachers and development of linguistically sound materials for English 
as a second language as well as foreign language instruction.
  CAL's original mandate was to improve the teaching of English around 
the world; encourage the teaching and learning of less commonly taught 
languages; contribute new knowledge to the field by conducting language 
research; and serve as a clearinghouse for information collection, 
analysis, and dissemination and as a coordinating agency to bring 
together scholars and practitioners involved in language-related 
issues. This was accomplished by convening meetings and issuing papers 
that addressed crucial language and education issues; consulting with 
ministries of education of countries that were newly independent, 
particularly in East Africa and the Middle East; working on English 
language learning among Native American populations; and developing 
materials in the less commonly taught languages.
  During the Cold War, CAL enabled Eastern European scholars to 
disseminate their work in linguistics. During the height of the civil 
rights movement, CAL developed the Urban Language Program and invested 
resources in American dialect work, beginning with African American 
varieties and expanding to other ethnic and regional dialects. When 
large numbers of refugees arrived from Southeast Asia, CAL responded 
with resources to support their orientation and resettlement. In the 
last several decades, attention to the education of child and adult 
immigrants has expanded significantly. Recently, the organization has 
addressed national security needs by expanding the availability of 
resources in critical languages, such as Arabic and Chinese.
  From its inception, CAL has grown and evolved to meet the needs of a 
changing world by providing reliable and objective information and by 
making complex linguistic issues comprehensible to students, 
researchers, teachers, parents, policy makers, and the general public. 
Central to its work is its research and seminal publications that serve 
as the basis for assessment, language education, bilingual education, 
English as a foreign/second language, language policy, and second 
language acquisition. Details of CAL's current work can be found at its 
website www.cal.org.

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