Open Architecture Curricular Design in World Language Education, by A. R. Corin, B. L. Leaver, & C. Campbell (Eds), 2025

Abstract

Open Architecture Curricular Design in World Language Education addresses a persistent challenge in language education: how to structure educational experiences that are at a student’s level(s) and tailored to their needs. Textbooks offer many benefits, particularly in terms of quality control of content, organization, and efficiencies for busy teachers. Yet they also pose considerable challenges—they can include lockstep and seemingly soulless activities, dampening student (and teacher) motivation and creativity, while simultaneously offering overly general information or mindless worksheets that fail to meet the needs of students. Open Architecture Curricular Design (OACD) was thus developed, first institutionalized at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in 2015 for use with high-beginner language students and above. Now, 10 years after the adoption of OACD, this book brings together the experiences of teachers and administrators who used this approach.