Language Learning Receives Boost
It is often said that immersion is the only real way to learn another
language. In 1999, Rice’s Language Resource Center (LRC) took
that philosophy to heart, developing ExTemplate, Internet-based
language-learning software that incorporates audio, video, and Web
links as well as text to immerse students as fully as possible in
the language they are studying. The LRC has not only made Rice a
national leader in language instruction, it recently attracted a
$1 million endowment from Suderman & Young Towing Co. to help
keep its technological needs updated.
“This magnificent gift will make it possible for the Language
Resource Center to maintain the cutting-edge technology that already
has made it nationally known as a creative innovator in the delivery
of language instruction,” says humanities dean Gale Stokes.
“Over the past few years, the Language Resource Center has
pushed the use of technology in the classroom to entirely new levels.”
Claire Bartlett, director of the LRC and associate director of Rice’s
Center for the Study of Languages, notes, “The gift will allow
us to maintain and expand our digital collection while enabling
our instructors to further increase the integration of technology
into their language curriculum.” The LRC is part of the Center
for the Study of Languages, which was created four years ago to
improve foreign language instruction and cross-cultural learning.
The center is housed in Rayzor Hall, Rice’s new focal point
for classes in foreign languages and literature. The 1962 building
recently underwent renovations and was reoccupied in December. J.
Newton Rayzor, for whom Rayzor Hall is named, was the former president
of Suderman & Young Towing Co. The company is co-owned by his
daughters, June Rayzor Elliott and Evelyn Rayzor Nienhuis, and it
also included his nephew, the late N. Claxton Rayzor.
For more information about the center, go to www.ruf.rice.edu/~lrc/.
—Ellen Chang
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