Update on the Center for Language Study

November 2, 2022

[Summary: This message announces the retirement of Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, Director of the Center for Language Study (CLS), and the appointment of an advisory committee which will provide recommendations on the future of the CLS.]

To: FAS and SEAS faculty; FAS Steering; FAS Dean’s Office; SEAS Dean’s Office; Yale College Dean’s Office; GSAS Dean’s Office; FAS chair’s assistants, lead administrators, and operations managers; Center for Language Study staff; Center for Language Study Graduate Students; MacMillan Center faculty and staff; President’s Office; Provost’s Office; Registrar’s Office

Dear colleagues,

I write with the bittersweet news that Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl will be retiring from her role as Director of the Center for Language Study (CLS), Associate Dean in Yale College, and Professor Adjunct of Linguistics at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. To provide guidance as we navigate Nelleke’s departure, I have appointed an Advisory Committee who will provide me with recommendations on the future of the CLS, both in the near-term and beyond.

Nelleke is an internationally recognized leader in language education, and I encourage you to read reflections on the impact of Nelleke’s work from her colleagues at Yale and beyond, published here.

Since Nelleke assumed the CLS directorship in 2007, the center has grown and flourished. Nelleke has developed and fostered programs that support students in Yale College, the Graduate School, and, increasingly, Yale’s professional schools. In particular, she has focused on expanding opportunities for heritage language learners (that is, students who have knowledge of a language through cultural or family connections, but have not received formal training in the language), for students for whom English is a second language, and for faculty development. As Professor (Adjunct) in the Department of Linguistics, Nelleke has taught an annual graduate seminar on Principles of Language Teaching and Learning and developed a graduate certificate in Second Language Acquisition, providing avenues for graduate students teaching language to hone their skills among the broader community of language instructors. As Associate Dean of Yale College, she oversees the language requirement and advises on related academic regulations. Through CLS programs such as the Instructional Innovation Workshop, Professional Development Fellowship, and Pedagogy Workshops, she has empowered a generation of language instructors at Yale to advance their teaching skills and excel in the classroom. Thanks to these efforts, the CLS has become a vital community hub for language lectors from across the FAS and the MacMillan Center, providing them with a professional home.

Nelleke’s work has resonances far beyond Yale. She is a highly-regarded author and editor — her two books and dozens of published papers are widely read in the field of language education, and she co-edits the series Language Learning and Language Teaching for John Benjamins Publishing, which includes 60+ volumes to date. As Catherine Baumann, Director of the University of Chicago Language Center, observed, “Nelleke has been one of the most profoundly productive contributors in the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and second language teaching and learning.”  

Nelleke has served as a governing board member of the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning since 2001 and, from 2010-2013, was the consortium’s president. With colleagues at Columbia and Cornell, and support from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, Nelleke helped launch the Shared Course Initiative (SCI), which enables students at participating institutions to take credit-bearing courses in less-commonly taught languages offered at other schools via interconnected in-person classrooms. This collaboration gives Yale students access to a wide range of language-learning opportunities. Through participation in the SCI, the CLS has emerged as a leader in remote education, and faculty from across Yale benefited from their expertise during the pandemic. Nelleke’s collaborative vision for the CLS has made this possible.  

I hope you’ll join me in thanking Nelleke for her service to Yale.

I am grateful to the members of the CLS Advisory Committee for agreeing to provide recommendations on the future of the CLS. The committee roster is below; as you’ll see, the committee comprises faculty and staff who are deeply involved in the work of the CLS. I am glad to be able to draw on their expertise and I look forward to their recommendations.

Warmest wishes,

Tamar

Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science

Center for Language Study (CLS) Advisory Committee

• Angela Lee-Smith | Senior Lector II of Korean, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
• Kathryn Lofton | Dean of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies; Professor of History and Divinity
• John Mangan | Committee Co-chair; Senior Associate Dean and Dean of Faculty Affairs, Faculty of Arts and Sciences  
• Theresa Schenker | Senior Lector II of German, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Co-chair, Language Study Committee
• Pamela Schirmeister | Senior Associate Dean and Dean of Undergraduate Education, Yale College; Deputy Dean and Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences  
• Kevin van Bladel | Committee Co-chair; Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
• Steven Wilkinson | Vice Provost for Global Strategy; Director, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies; Nilekani Professor of Political Science
• Suzanne Young | Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Professional Development, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; former Director, Graduate and Postdoctoral Teaching Development, Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning; former Associate Director, Center for Language Study
• Jason Zentz | Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences