Scott McGinnis Appointed Executive Director of The Council

Monday, August 2, 1999

Scott McGinnis, Senior Associate for Projects at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington, D.C., has been named as Executive Director of the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL). Dr. McGinnis' appointment comes on the recommendation of NCOLCTL President John Schillinger and Vice President Frederick Jackson, and with the approval of the NCOLCTL Executive Board. The Board moved to appoint Dr. McGinnis after the current Executive Director of NCOLCTL, Dr. Richard Brecht, was named Director of the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC).

In discussing the impact of Dr. Brecht's new role with NFLC, he and the NCOLCTL officers agreed that it would be best to appoint a new Executive Director, both in view of his additional commitments to NFLC and in order to maintain the distinctiveness of the two closely-related organizations. Dr. McGinnis was the unanimous choice to succeed him.

Dr. McGinnis has fourteen years of Chinese language teaching experience, including positions as supervising instructor in summer immersion Chinese programs at Middlebury College and Indiana University, and three years as director of the Chinese language program at the University of Oregon. Professor McGinnis has authored or edited three books and over a dozen articles on language pedagogy and linguistics for the less commonly taught languages in general, and Chinese and Japanese in particular.

Within the Chinese language teaching profession, Dr. McGinnis has worked to bring about greater interaction and cooperation among the various settings within which Chinese language teaching is carried out-- K-12, colleges and universities, and heritage schools. He has twice served as President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and has regularly worked in advisory capacities for major national projects on standards, articulation, teacher training and materials. Since 1995 he has served as a member of The College Board Chinese Language Test Development Committee for the Educational Testing Service.

An important component of Dr. McGinnis' role will be to maintain the close collaboration that has existed between NFLC and NCOLCTL since the former was instrumental in the founding of NCOLCTL in 1990 by Dr. Brecht and the late Dr. Ronald Walton.