ABOUT NRCAL
National Resource Center for Asian Languages (NRCAL) was established in 2014 to improve the nation’s capacity for the teaching and learning of Asian languages including Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Khmer. NRCAL is 1 of 16 language resource centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) has made a strong commitment to supporting less commonly taught languages, serving diverse student populations, and expanding research on second language acquisition. Training students to be bilingual not only enhances their cognition, employment opportunities, and cultural competency, but also improves national business development, innovation, and security.
NRCAL draws on the expertise of language scholars, educators, and community stakeholders to develop learning and teaching resources, assessment tools, and professional development opportunities for teachers, students, and faculty. Through collaboration with PreK-12 school districts, institutes of higher education, and community-based organizations, we are able to provide resources for classrooms, families, and local communities.
NRCAL is a 21st Century learning center and, as such, integrates advanced technology throughout its program. Learners are provided with opportunities to research, create, collaborate, communicate, and apply critical thinking skills to all learning experiences.
Technology such as online communities, movie-making and animation software, and video conferencing and creation software are used by learners and educators in instructional and collaborative settings.
NRCAL professional development sessions reflect a 21st Century learning environment and apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles that provide candidates with varied opportunities for accessing, engaging with and demonstrating understanding of content.
This website provides resources on workshops and seminars supported by NRCAL throughout the years. The website was developed for faculty, students, teachers, and community at-large.
Center Staff
Director
Dr. Natalie Tran is currently the Director of NRCAL and has completed her PhD in Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Tran currently serves as CSUF Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Department chair of Secondary Education and founder of the Vietnamese American Education Advisory Council, which was created to seek input from the community to develop the Vietnamese Bachelor’s degree, credential pathway, and bilingual authorization at CSUF. Dr. Tran is also a heritage speaker of Vietnamese. Currently, she serves as a Co-Principal Investigator for an NSF-funded project to develop Spanish-English dual language immersion curriculum and provide teacher training to improve math and science achievement among middle school, low income Latino students. She teaches Research Support Seminars: Linking Research to Problems of Practice and Connecting Research Questions to Scholarship in the doctoral program at CSUF. She will also provide support for NRCAL’s research activities. Dr. Tran was honored as a Community Hero Award Recipient on May 29, 2014 for her extraordinary dedication and contribution to the diverse Orange County community. Working at the intersection of research, area studies, the preservation and devotion to diversity, and public dissemination of knowledge, she understands the multiple roles necessary to be successful as the director of NRCAL, and can lead the center to marked success as an invaluable nationally-reaching resource for educators.
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Debbie Pham is the Program Coordinator of NRCAL. She taught junior high and high school students for more than 20 years. She taught various subjects such as Mathematics, Multimedia Production, Digital Animation, Video Production, Website Design, Mobile App Development, AP Computer Science, and Vietnamese Language. She built and coordinated the Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion Academy which is the first and the only secondary level dual immersion program in the nation. At NRCAL, she was an instructor teaching Vietnamese Language. Now, she leads the Virtual Vietnam Language Program with almost twenty instructors and a thousand students. She also dedicates her expertise to provide resources and development opportunities for educators across the country, and improve the nation’s capacity for teaching and learning Asian languages.
Affiliated Faculty
Dr. James Hussar will provide leadership for the development and implementation of materials and resources for post-secondary language courses. He will also work with coordinators to provide training for post-secondary education language instructors. Dr. Hussar, an Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at CSUF, earned his PhD in Literature from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. His research interests include Jewish themes in Spanish, Spanish American and Luso-Brazilian literature, contemporary Lusophone African fiction vis-à-vis Latin American fiction, and language pedagogy.
Dr. Grace Cho, Ph.D. is a Professor at the College of Education at CSUF. She is currently the Chair of the Department of Secondary Education and is the Asian Bilingual Authorization program coordinator at CSUF. Cho is trilingual in Korean, Spanish and English. Dr. Cho’s academic work includes conducting research, publishing articles, writing grant proposals, and participating in international research colloquia, national and state level conferences, and helping the Korean community in advocating bilingual education and heritage language development. Dr. Cho has been a recipient of several awards, grants and fellowships. Dr. Cho will oversee the curriculum and material development aspects of the Center. She will work with the coordinators to ensure that the curriculum is aligned with the standards and goals for the various projects.
Dr. Sharon Chappell served as the co-manager with Dr. Grace Cho to provide support for curriculum and material development. She is an Assistant Professor of Elementary and Bilingual Education. She is committed to research and community partnerships in diversity, bilingualism and biliteracy, and social justice. She has conducted family history research with graduate students, produced a documentary film and hosted a bilingual family night for CSUF students, faculty and community partners.
Dr. Andrea Guillaume will facilitate professional development for teachers and post-secondary language instructors. She is a Professor in the Department of Elementary and Bilingual Education at California State University, Fullerton. She is also serves as the Faculty Coordinator for Effective and Innovative Instruction at CSUF’s Faculty Development Center’s. Dr. Guillaume’s expertise is in pedagogy, particularly active engagement. Her degrees are in curriculum and instruction, and she holds a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language.
Dr. Eliza Noh will serve as a liaison to NRCAL’s community partners to promote advocacy and awareness of world languages along with strengthening the network. Dr. Noh is the Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Asian American Studies (ASAM) at CSUF. She currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Modern Societal Impacts of the Model Minority Stereotype and the Advisory Board of Healthy Asian Pacific Islander Youth (HAPIY) Program. She serves as advisor to the CSUF Asian Pacific Islander Student Association, Korean American Student Association, and the South Pacific Islander Cultural Association. Dr. Noh is nationally recognized for her research expertise in cultural competency and suicide and depression among Asian American women and cultural competency, through her scholarly publications, presentations, consultation work, and news features in international and national media.
Dr. Sam Behseta will conduct research examining the effectiveness of Vietnamese dual language immersion on student learning outcomes. Dr. Behseta earned his Ph.D. in Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University and is currently a Professor of Mathematics at CSUF. He has published numerous articles in the premier journals of statistics, neuroscience, and computer science on the statistical modeling of neurophysiological data of learning. He has experience in generalized linear modeling with mixed effects, and model-based clustering to study teacher effect on high school mathematics achievement. Moreover, he has organized a premier expert panel on value-added models at the Joint Statistical Meetings. In his role as the executive editor of CHANCE, a publication of the American Statistical Association, he has reviewed and edited a number of articles on a variety of topics, including analytical reports on k12 testing and achievement. As a co-PI of the NSF-funded project, Transforming Academic and Cultural Identidad through Biliteracy (TACIB), Behseta is closely collaborating with Dr. Tran on the development of the research models for the project.
Dr. Adrian Jung is currently a Professor in the Special Education Department at CSUF. His research interests are collaboration and inclusion, pre-service and in-service teacher training, and multicultural and bilingual issues in special education. For many years he has served as the Coordinator of the International Association of Asian Studies. He was awarded CSUF’s outstanding faculty award in teaching and research. Dr. Jung will assist with the development of curriculum and materials for Korean.
Dr. Tim Green, a former K-12 teacher, is a Professor of educational technology and teacher education in the Department of Elementary and Bilingual Education at CSUF. Together with Dr. Loretta Donovan, he co-facilitates an online MS in Educational Technology. He has been at CSUF since 1999--five of these years he served as the Director of Distance Education at CSUF. He is the author of numerous articles and books, as well as a presenter, on the integration of educational technology, instructional design, and online distance education. Some of more recent books Making Change: Creating 21st Century Teaching and Learning Environments, The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice, and Securing the Connected Classroom: Technology Planning to Keep Students Safe. He is passionate about working with schools and districts on visioning and implementing technology initiatives. He regularly consults with and provide professional develop to schools and districts. He received my PhD in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. You can follow Dr. Green on his blog http://theedtechdoctor.com/
Dr. Donovan joined the faculty of the Department of Elementary and Bilingual Education in 2005. Together with Dr. Green, she co-facilitates the online Master of Science in Educational Technology. Her research interests center around effective technology integration in elementary classrooms and teacher education. Prior to facilitating the MS program, Drs. Green and Donovan co-facilitated the university’s first 1 laptop:1 student cohort in the Multiple Subject Credential Program. In addition to planning and teaching online courses in curriculum development, learning theory and effective technology integration, they help other COE faculty to become educators who practice effective technology integration. Drs. Green and Donovan collaborate with the Orange County Department of Education Technology Services Department on identifying and meeting strategic plan goals and working on educational technology grants. They also consult with local school districts on technology planning, professional development, and program evaluation.
Dr. Trang Le will support the curriculum and material development for Vietnamese at post-secondary language courses. Trang Le earned an Ed.D. from Columbia University (New York), a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Deakin University (Australia), and a Graduate Diploma in TESOL from University of Canberra (Australia). She also received a B.A. in English from Hue University, where she taught English as a Foreign Language for 24 years after graduation. She also taught Vietnamese to English-speaking faculty and students who came to Vietnam to teach English or to do internships. Before coming to CSUF, she taught Vietnamese at UC, Davis. At CSUF, she developed the curriculum and prepared the proposal for the minor program in Vietnamese and an International Business Concentration in Vietnamese within the Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Fall 2009 to Spring 2012. She currently teaches Vietnamese language and culture courses in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. She also serves as an advisor to the Vietnamese Student Association and the Vietnamese Catholic Student Association. Her research interests include language teaching, cross-cultural communication and applied linguistics.
Dr. Jack Liu will assist with the development of curriculum and materials and teacher training for Chinese language courses. Dr. Liu is the Chinese Program Coordinator for the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at CSUF. He also directs the Summer Language Intensive Program (SLIP), a California State University consortium program. Dr. Liu earned his Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education from Purdue University.
Dr. Setsue Shibata will support curriculum and material development and teacher training for Japanese. She coordinates the Japanese program and Japanese International Business programs for the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at CSUF. Dr. Shibata teaches Japanese language, Japanese language education, and Japanese studies. Her research focuses on Japanese pedagogy, Japanese cultural studies, assessment of language learning, and second language acquisition.
Dr. Tu-Uyen Nguyen provides support for community engagement. Dr. Nguyen is an Associate Professor at CSUF in Asian American Studies. She has published numerous papers on Asian American Women and has received various honors and acknowledgements for her stellar contribution to education and the community. She is a board member for the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance and a member of the Asian Pacific American Community Research Roundtable.
Assistant
Nguyen Quynh Chau Bui serves currently as an assistant for NRCAL. She is a current doctorate graduate at the Department of Educational Leadership. She has been a bilingual French teacher in Vietnam. Bui is trilingual in French, English, and Vietnamese.
Consultants
Ms. Elizabeth Jimenez will provide consultation for heritage language curriculum development and teacher training focusing the Common Core State Standards. She is the CEO of GEMAS Consulting, which focuses on K–12 professional development and the coaching of administrators and teachers of English Learners. A true pioneer in bilingual education, Ms. Jimenez contributed to the What Works portion of the Reparable Harm study on LTELs. She also delivers professional development as the Lead Consultant for CABE Professional Development Services.
Ms. Gia Ly is the President of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County and will provide input for training employees of community-based organizations and local businesses.
Mr. Chuc-Van Bui will assist with the curriculum and material development and teacher training for the Vietnamese in K-12 classrooms. Professor Van-Chuc Bui (penname Quyên Di) teaches Vietnamese language and cultural classes and training programs at UCLA, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal State Los Angeles. He is also a University Supervisor for pre-service teachers.
Advisory Board
In addition, NRCAL will be supported and evaluated by an advisory board, which will consist of members of CSUF faculty and administration, K-12 district administration, and community stakeholders. The Advisory Board members will meet once a semester to provide updates on NRCAL’s activities and seek guidance to advance the Center’s work. Members of the Advisory Board include:
- Dr. Claire Cavallaro, Professor of Early Childhood Special Education at CSUF ;
- Dr. Sheryl Fontaine, Dean of College of Humanities and Social Sciences;
- Dr. Marian Kim Phelps, Superintendent of Westminster School District;
- Ms. Kelly McAmis, Assistant Superintendent of Garden Grove Unified School District;
- Dr. Renae Bryant, Director of English Learner and Multilingual Services of Anaheim Union High School District;
- Mr. Bernard Koontz, Language Learning Director of Highline Public Schools;
- Ms. Jan Gustafson Corea, CEO of California Association for Bilingual Education;
- Dr. Tam Nguyen, In Board of Governors at California State University,Fullerton;
Former Center Leaders
Dr. Stephanie Wang Campbell earned her Ed.D in Educational Leadership in spring of 2015 from CSUF. Dr. Campbell currently serves as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Elementary and Bilingual Education. After earning her B.A. in Economics from UC Irvine and worked for 5 years in the retail merchandising industry, she returned to UCI for a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and was an elementary classroom teacher in Cypress School District for 8 years. Dr. Campbell joined the CSUF family when she earned her M.S. in Educational Technology in 2010.
