National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCLOCTL)

The National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCLOCTL) was officially established in 1990 with support of the Ford Foundation, following a series of meetings organized by the NFLC since the NFLC's founding in 1986. Throughout its history the Council has focused on the strengthening of the architecture of language fields, particularly in the Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL). In addition, it has consistently adopted an operational philosophy of "collective solutions to common problems," seeking to develop projects which serve the broadest possible range of its constituent member LCTL organizations. The Council is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization governed by officers elected by its membership.

Since its founding, the Council has had a large impact on the language teaching field and has achieved the following accomplishments:

• Created a strong identity and unified the LCTL field in the U.S.
• Helped organize individual LCTL fields and founded national language-specific organizations
• Defined common problems and organized collective solutions among the LCTLs, including field-wide learning frameworks to guide the development of curricula, materials, and teacher training
• Developed a national communication and resource sharing system for the LCTLs via the CouncilNet listserve
• Influenced federal legislation to support the LCTLs

In Fall 2003, the Secretariat of the Council moved from the NFLC to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, under the leadership of Antonia Folarin Schleicher, Executive Director, and through the support of the Dean of International Studies and Programs, Gilles Bousquet. Following the decision to accept individual members into the Council, the name was modified to the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages. Despite the change, the Council's core mission remains to support the teaching and learning of the LCTLs through the strengthening and representation of the field and the professional organizations and their members.

Presently, the Council comprises 18 member language teaching associations that represent individual languages or geographically defined language groups. Below is a list of these member organizations. For information on the NCLOCTL, visit www.councilnet.org.