DAVIS -- The University of California Consortium for Language Learning & Teaching has received a prestigious $300,000 award from The Language Flagship 2009 Promoting Diffusion of Innovation grants program, sponsored by the National Security Education Program, to develop teaching materials for the advanced level in Arabic. Professor Robert J. Blake, director of the consortium, is the principal investigator, with collaboration from professor Kirk Belnap, director of the National Middle East Language Resource Center at Brigham Young University.

"Arabic Encounters: A Bridge to Superior Proficiency" is a three-year project that will design and produce audio and video materials focusing on the professions. It aims to accelerate the Arabic Flagship students' progress toward superior listening and speaking and true communicative competence. A series of interviews along with online interactive and multi-skill activities will infuse the Arabic curricula at the Arabic Flagship centers -- the University of Texas, Michigan State University, the University of Maryland -- as well as UC and BYU campuses with exciting opportunities to engage with professionals from the Arabic-speaking world who typically converse in a blend of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and vernacular speech. Via "Arabic Encounters," students will acquire linguistic skills, develop cultural sensitivity and learn strategies for processing authentic communication with the Arabic-speaking world.

The consortium is a systemwide entity, established in 2000 by the UC Office of the President to maximize the university's resources in foreign languages.

"We're very pleased to participate in this program," UC Vice Provost Daniel Greenstein said. "UC's language and teaching expertise will help us prepare students to use Arabic in careers such as business, diplomacy, engineering and medicine."

For more information about the UC Consortium for Language Learning & Teaching: http://uccllt.ucdavis.edu