University of Colorado Denver CIBER
The University of Colorado Denver CIBER initiated the collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education’s CIBER Business Language Committee and the International Symposium for
Language for Specific Purposes’ Advisory Committee to host biannual joint conferences that build on two previous biannual International Symposia for Language for Specific Purposes and numerous annual CIBER Business Language Conferences. This collaboration increases the reach and language faculty participation at the joint conferences. It also encompasses a peer-reviewed volume of articles that expand on conference presentations.
A March 17-19, 2016 conference was held at Arizona State University Phoenix with 110 participants formally registered, bringing together local, national, and international Language for Specific Purposes and Business Language practitioners and scholars. A volume presenting select articles from this conference is currently underway.
CU Denver CIBER also was instrumental in co-sponsoring the 2nd International Symposium on Languages for Specific Purposes held at the University of Colorado-Boulder in April 2014, prior to the initial joint conference. An important publication outcome from CIBER support of this 2nd International Symposium is the forthcoming Trends in Languages for Specific Purposes Research and Curriculum Development (Georgetown University Press, 2017).
This collaboration also continues the CIBER Business Language Research and Teaching (BLRT) grants to successful applicants teaching less commonly and more common taught languages. For 2016 these awards went to the University of Washington for the “Hybrid/Online Business Portuguese Class”, Indiana University for “Swahili Business Language 2.0: An online learning resource for Swahili Business Language”, and Georgia State University for “Evaluating the effectiveness of business Chinese teaching in terms of workplace socialization processes”. Two of the three faculty proposal reviewers were CIBER representatives from the University of Colorado.