Mandate
The mission of the Centre for Intercultural Language Studies (CILS) is to facilitate, coordinate, enhance, and promote the study of intercultural communication and the teaching and learning of languages in an intercultural context.
The Centre’s main goals are to contribute to the study of intercultural communication and the professionalization of language and culture instruction both at UBC and more broadly in British Columbia through research, teaching, and outreach.
History
CILS arose from a sabbatical conversation in the Bavarian Voralpen in the winter of 1994 between Jörg Roche and Ken Reeder. Roche shared his dream to create a forum in which the various researchers across the UBC campus could exchange ideas, work together in research and development initiatives regarding language teaching and learning.
In the Fall of 1994 Roche and Reeder were joined by Norma Wieland of Germanic Studies, Patsy Duff of Language Education, and later by Mackie Chase of Continuing Studies along with many other like-minded scholars who cared deeply about language teaching and learning. Thus, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Education, and Continuing Studies became sponsoring partners of CILS.
It soon became evident that CILS was making an impact on the language teaching and learning community of UBC. As a result of the Centre’s contribution and exemplary work of the ‘founding’ members of CILS, UBC Senate passed the motion tomake CILS an official UBC Centre in 1999. The UBC Board of Governors approved the motion later that year, thus making CILS an interdisciplinary research centre. Soon after, Senate also endorsed the sponsoring role of UBC Continuing Studies. In addition,CILS was later included in the Faculty of Education’s Network of Centres and Institutes in Education (NCIE).
Today CILS is supported by the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Education, and Continuing Studies. As a working centre in the Faculty of Education CILS receives administrative support from the Office of Graduate Research Programs.
Twenty Years of Achievement: A Brief Historical Sketch of CILS by Ken Reeder
Historical Documentation
January 20, 1999
UBC Vancouver Senate passes a motion to make CILS an official UBC Centre
March 24, 1999
The UBC Board of Governors gives approval to the Senate motion
Directors
2014- present
Stefka Marinova-Todd, Assistant Professor
School of Audiology and Speech Sciences
2012-2014
Samuel Navarro-Ortega, Professor
Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies
2010-2012
Andrew Scales, Academic Director of the English Language Institute in Continuing Studies
2008-2009
Monique Bournot-Trites, Professor
Department of Language & Literacy Education
2006-2008
Ken Reeder, Professor
Department of Language & Literacy Education
2005-2006
Co-directors
Christine Rouget, Professor
Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies
Ken Reeder, Professor
Department of Language & Literacy Education
2001-2005
Patricia Duff, Professor
Department of Language & Literacy Education
2000-2001
Ross King, Associate Professor
Department of Asian Studies, Korean Program
1999-2000
Ken Reeder, Professor
Department of Language & Literacy Education
1994-1999
Jörg Roche, Professor
Institute for German as a Foreign Language
Ludwig Maximilans University, Munich, Germany
Formerly: Professor, Germanic Studies, UBC.
Past Advisory Committee Members:
Francis R. Andrew (UBC Continuing Studies)
Indy Batth (Faculty of Arts, UBC)
Mackie Chase (Centre for Intercultural Communication, Continuing Studies)
Diane Dagenais (Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University)
Patricia Duff (Department of Language & Literacy Education)
Duan Duan Li (Department of Asian Studies)
Samuel Navarro-Ortega (Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies)
Christine Rouget (Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies)
Andrew Scales (English Language Institute, UBC Continuing Studies)
Sandra Zappa-Hollman (Department of Language & Literacy Education)