LANGUAGE CONFERENCE GRANTS
Supporting You in Your Professional Development
The Center for Urban Language Teaching and Research (CULTR) continues to support teacher professional development by providing early-career teachers access to regional and national conference attendance through grants. First-time attendee grants to the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ), American Association of Teachers of Korean (AATK), Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), Foreign Language Association of Georgia (FLAG) and Southern Conference On Language Teaching (SCOLT) conferences will be offered to teachers who are currently employed as language instructors in a K-16 setting, and have been teaching for five (5) years or fewer years.
Scroll below to learn more about the grants and the application process.
CULTR is pleased to announce our 4-year sponsorship (through 2026) of a special AATJ 2025 Conference grant! This exciting opportunity is for teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended an AATJ conference. This grant will provide $300 to offset expenses for two recipients. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the two recipients will receive $300 to offset expenses of their choice.
Application is now closed.
Application Deadline: Coming 2026
CULTR is pleased to announce our 4-year sponsorship (through 2026) of a special AATK 2025 Annual Conference grant! This exciting opportunity is for teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended an AATK conference. This grant will provide $300 to offset expenses for two recipients. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the two recipients will receive $300 to offset expenses of their choice.
Application Form: Coming 2025
Next Application Deadline: Coming 2025
CULTR is pleased to announce our 4-year sponsorship (through 2026) of a special CLTA 2025 Conference grant! This exciting opportunity is for teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended a CLTA conference. This grant will provide $300 to offset expenses for three recipients. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the three recipients will receive $300 to offset expenses of their choice.
Access the application form for all information and requirements.
Application Deadline: March 31, 2025
CULTR is pleased to announce our 4-year sponsorship (through 2026) of a special FLAG 2025 Conference grant! This exciting opportunity is for teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended a FLAG conference. This grant will provide $250 to offset expenses for two recipients. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the two recipients will receive $250 to offset expenses of their choice.
Application is now closed.
Application Deadline: Coming 2026
CULTR is pleased to announce our 4-year sponsorship (through 2026) of a special SCOLT 2025 Conference grant! This opportunity is for teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended a SCOLT conference. This grant will provide $250 to offset expenses for two recipients. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the two recipients will receive $250 to offset expenses of their choice.
Application is now closed.
Application Deadline: Coming 2026
Grant Recipient Videos
Ready to Get Started?
Please review the following for recording your testimonial video:
- For the video size, we ask that it be 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 widescreen (not vertical, please). Please do not add any text or images to your video.
- For video formatting, please save your video as a .mov, .mp4, or .wmv. Other formats will not be accepted.
- Open your video with the following information:
- Your Name, School, and Location;
- Subject(s) taught;
- Number of years teaching this/these language/s; and
- Name of the conference attended.
- Next, address all three of the following items in your response:
- How has CULTR’s (pronounced “culture”) sponsorship of this conference impacted your professional development as a teacher?
- What were your key takeaways from the conference you attended?
- How can this grant (and similar initiatives) help to improve language teacher retention?
- End the video by thanking CULTR (“culture”) for supporting your attendance and professional development.
Use your phone or computer to record a 2-minute video. With your audience in mind, please follow the guidelines below in your video.
Special notes for a phone recording:
- Record in horizontal video
- Keep the phone stabilized throughout the recording.
- Try to be centered in the frame.
Video Best Practices
- Video Format
- Before recording, please have your video formatted as 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720. Also, before recording, please make sure your video format setting is for the following approved video files: .mp4, .mov, or .wmv. Other video files (such as .webm) will not be accepted.
- Sound Quality
- Working with these concise videos, paying attention to the sound quality is essential to achieve a successful production. Please emphasize the following points during your video.
- Experiment with your microphone and settings for a clear sound.
- Feel free to use a microphone outside of your computer’s mic. An external microphone or headphones that have a built-in mic may offer a better option during recording. Investigating these options will help with your finished product.
- Make sure background noises are minimized. Additional sounds beyond the speaker’s voice may distract the audience.
- Choose a room and time where background noise from family, pets, and outside is absent or discreet.
- Lighting
- Lighting doesn’t need to be complicated, but it needs to be addressed in any video. Since most of these videos will be created using webcams or phone cameras, lighting will make even a low-quality camera produce a much better look.
- One best practice is to have an indirect light source. To keep distraction at a minimum while presenting, it is helpful to have a lighting source in front of you with a reflector or something over it to not simply have a direct beam of light on you at all times.
- Background
- Before recording from your camera, remember to check what is located in the background. Vibrant works of art, personal mementos, or open windows will detract from your message. To help the audience focus on you and not your surroundings, make sure there is nothing to distract the eye. Oftentimes, a solid wall will offer the ideal solution.
- We ask you to not use a blurred background for your video.
Please complete this form. After clicking “Submit”, you will be directed to a page where you can upload your video. You will also receive an email confirmation after successfully completing the form below.