In August/September the BLC conducted a poll of language lecturers on the various services the BLC offers to the language teaching community. The attached pdf file reports in easily read tables the details of that survey, which was sent to approximately 100 lecturers teaching language courses. We had 37 responses, and not all questions were answered by each respondent.
Highlights:
- When comparing various BLC services, lecturers reported that the most important in support of teaching were BLC classrooms/labs and the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips (LFLFC); in support of professional development, lecturers cited primarily travel support to attend conferences, the lecture series, and BLC fellowships.
- At least half of respondents made use of BLC travel support, attended the BLC Lecture Series, and read L2 Journal. Moreover, these and other BLC services were cited as either “very” or “somewhat” useful both for teaching and professional development by the vast majority of respondents.
- More than 80% of respondents indicated that professional development opportunities afforded by the BLC have had an impact on their teaching.
- In the comments section, many wanted more: more classrooms, more support for travel, more computer labs, more workshops.
Action Items:
- Although most BLC services are well known, many respondents were unaware of Berkeley Online Language Testing (BOLT). We will be conducting some workshops on BOLT in the spring.
- Many respondents asked for more workshops.
Please refer to the attached PDF file for the details on the survey.