In 1990 the Language Resource Center program was created under Title VI of the Higher Education Act to fund centers focused on improving the nation’s capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages. There are currently 16 Language Resource Centers in the United States, each working under a four-year grant that runs from August 2018 – August 2022. While some centers concentrate on specific language areas and others on world languages in general, all share the common goal to develop resources that can be used broadly to improve world language education in the United States.

Each LRC has a unique story and mission, but all LRC work is organized around eight basic areas:

• Research and dissemination of new and improved teaching methods, including educational technology;
• Development and dissemination of new teaching materials;
• Development, application, and dissemination of performance testing;
• Training of teachers in the administration and interpretation of performance tests, the use of effective teaching strategies, and the use of new technologies;
• Significant focus on the needs of those who are teaching and learning the less commonly taught languages;
• Development and dissemination of materials designed to serve as a resource for foreign language teachers at the elementary school and secondary school levels;
• Operation of intensive summer language institutes.