The Secretary assists projects designed to develop or improve programs in modern foreign language or area studies at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary level by supporting overseas projects in research, training, and curriculum development by groups of individuals engaged in a common endeavor. Projects may include, as described in §§ 664.11 through 664.14, short-term seminars, curriculum development teams, group research or study, and advanced intensive language programs.

A short-term seminar project is—

(a) Designed to help integrate international studies into an institution's or school system's general curriculum; and

(b) Normally four to six weeks in length and focuses on a particular aspect of area study, such as, for example, the culture of the area or a portion of the culture.

(a) A curriculum development project—

(1) Is designed to permit faculty and administrators in institutions of higher education and elementary and secondary schools, and administrators in State departments of education the opportunity to spend generally from four to eight weeks in a foreign country acquiring resource materials for curriculum development in modern foreign language and area studies; and

(2) Must provide for the systematic use and dissemination in the United States of the acquired materials.

(b) For the purpose of this section, resource materials include artifacts, books, documents, educational films, museum reproductions, recordings, and other instructional material.

(a)(1) A group research or study project is designed to permit a group of faculty of an institution of higher education and graduate and undergraduate students to undertake research or study in a foreign country.

(2) The period of research or study in a foreign country is generally from three to twelve months.

(b) As a prerequisite to participating in a research or training project, participants—

(1) Must possess the requisite language proficiency to conduct the research or study, and disciplinary competence in their area of research; and

(2) In a project of a semester or longer, shall have completed, at a minimum, one semester of intensive language training and one course in area studies relevant to the projects.

(a)(1) An advanced overseas intensive language project is designed to take advantage of the opportunities present in the foreign country that are not present in the United States when providing intensive advanced foreign language training.

(2) Project activities may be carried out during a full year, an academic year, a semester, a trimester, a quarter, or a summer.

(3) Generally, language training must be given at the advanced level, i.e., at the level equivalent to that provided to students who have successfully completed two academic years of language training.

(4) The language to be studied must be indigenous to the host country and maximum use must be made of local institutions and personnel.

(b) Generally, participants in projects under this program must have successfully completed at least two academic years of training in the language to be studied.