CRCL Inc.

Annual Report, 2005

This year’s activities included:

· The SEAlang Library proposal, submitted  to the Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program of the US Department of Education, was granted 4 year funding (Oct. 2006 – Sept. 2009).  Because TICFIA eligibility is limited to academic institutions, the submission was made the auspices of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

    CRCL will subcontract to UW-Madison, with CRCL Executive Director Doug Cooper serving as project co-director (with UW Professor Robert Bickner) and technical lead.   The proposal commits CRCL to providing nearly $200,000 in mandatory cost-sharing over four years.

· The CRCL Inc. Outreach Program assisted the following projects:

o Began initial preparation of the HL Shorto manuscript Comparative Dictionary of the Mon-Khmer Languages, in cooperation with Paul Sidwell, editor.  We are grateful to Anna Shorto for providing original unpublished materials to the project.

o Initiated the Chuon Nath Dictionary Project.  We will support the Buddhist Institute of Phnom Penh in digitizing this important work (the most recent unabridged Khmer-Khmer dictionary), and have purchased and donated a copy of the 1,900 page original text to them.  We are grateful for the assistance of Javier Sola of the Khmer OS Initiative in organizing this effort.

o Initiated the Maha Sila Dictionary Project.  We will support Dr. Souneth Phothisane (formerly Director of the Lao National Museum) in preparing a digital copy of this important work (the most recent unabridged Lao-Lao dictionary).  We are grateful for the assistance of  Douangdeuane Bounyavong, Director of the Maha Sila Viravongs Library, in providing us with the Maha Sila texts.

· CRCL contracted with McNeil Communications (parent of the Dunwoody Press) to prepare extended Thai-English and Burmese-English glossaries of agricultural and medical vocabulary related to avian influenza (‘bird flu’).  These are being freely released as a public service.

· Executive Director Doug Cooper gave a series of presentations on CRCL research:

o April:  Association of Asian Studies Conference, Chicago; presentations discussing the SEAlang Library project to the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) executive board, the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL), the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA), and an Asian Information Access panel organized by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).

o July:  Interagency Language Roundtable Showcase, Maryland:   SEALANG Lab: 3/3/3+ Surge Capacity for Southeast Asian Languages;  National Library of Thailand Centennial, Bangkok, Thailand:  Beyond Borders:  the SEAlang Library

o August:  Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison; presentation to SEASSI faculty and staff.

o September:  Invited plenary speaker, Interagency Language Roundtable, Washington, DC:  New Tools for non-Roman L2s: Extensive Reading (and writing), Intensive Vocabulary Acquisition, and Basic Research.

o October:  Presentations and visits to the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL), the NSA, the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) and others re advanced tools for complex-script languages and the overall CRCL program.

Funding   In 2005 CRCL income was nearly $35,000, primarily as the result of the TICFIA – SEAlang Library contract.

Staffing   CRCL has opened a field office in Bangkok.  Key contractors include Noosai Inthimas, SEA Project Manager, Thai/Lao issues; Lwin Moe, hardware/software systems, Burmese/Mon issues; Dr. Paul Sidwell, e-lexicography projects.

Proposals  We have submitted a proposal to the highly competitive International Research and Studies program of the US Department of Education to fund a three-year project:  The SEAlang Lab: Assistive Technology for Reading, Writing, and Vocabulary Acquisition in Complex-Script Languages.  The SEAlang Lab proposal received agreements for collaboration from every major US institution with a stake in intensive Southeast Asian language instruction:

o the Foreign Service Institute (FSI),

o the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI/FLC), and

o the UW-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS, home of SEASSI).

as well as letters of support from the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL), the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL), the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), and the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI).

2006   Our agenda for 2006 is focused on meeting our obligations to the SEAlang Library, and continuing to press for Southeast Asian resource development.  We will be notified of the reviewer’s decision in the IRS proposal by mid-year.  A busy schedule of meetings is also in store, including the annual AAS, COTSEAL, CORMOSEA, and TICFIA meetings, as well as return trips to the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh and the Maha Sila Library in Vientiane.

Submitted January 31, 2006

Doug Cooper

Executive Director, CRCL Inc.