LLIMU represents a growing collective of college and university language instructors and advocates in Canada and the United States, and we are drafting a new Strategic Plan for Languages 2040 — to be built from the ground up by the people who actually do the teaching. We want to throw off the old logics that are holding us back, stop making decisions out of fear and resignation, and chart a genuinely irresistible vision for why languages — all languages, not just English — need to be taught everywhere, for everyone, in massive and growing numbers over the coming decades. Not just on apps and YouTube videos, but in physical classroom settings in our own schools.
To do this, we need you and your friends. We’re asking 1,000 colleagues across research universities, comprehensive universities, community colleges, and liberal arts colleges to answer three or four open questions about the future of language teaching. The questions are substantive and narrative. You can write in any language. You can be as candid as you want. A draft Strategic Plan goes public in January 2027, updated monthly as responses come in.
This is not a survey that disappears into a database. If you would like, we will credit your ideas by name. Please also share widely with your own colleagues.
Thank you!
Beverly Weber, University of Colorado
David Gramling, University of British Columbia
Ervin Malakaj, University of British Columbia