Center for Accelerated Language Acquisition
Partnerships
CALA is pleased to partner with various local, state, and international organizations to meet the language and teacher training needs of our educational institutions and communities. CALA offers its gratitude for the following organizations for their support and cooperation.
Command Performance Language Institute (CPLI)
CALA uses comprehensible input language-learning materials from CPLI, a publishing house directed by long-time publisher and author, Contee Seely. Contee’s generous intellectual and financial contributions to CALA have been invaluable to its growth and continued success.
Doors of Hope
Doors of Hope is a mentoring and training program for men and women nearing release from incarceration in Rutherford County, TN. CALA is proud to provide this fine organization with language and yoga training as a part of its educational programming. >> Read about CALA’s stress management (yoga) program at the Rutherford County Correctional Work Center.
Free for Life International
Free for Life International is an organization committed to the identification, assistance, and restoration of human trafficking victims and survivors. It partners to meet these needs by focusing on the areas of prevention, rescue, and restoration. Current program locations include the United States, Nepal, India, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. CALA provides stress management classes and language classes to Free for LIfe staff and clients.
Hispanic Family Center
CALA has provided training and teaching materials to the Hispanic Family Center, a non-profit organization that provides education, childcare, and general support to Nashville’s Hispanic communities.
Isha Yoga Center
CALA founder, Dr. Shelley Thomas, has traveled to India, where she delivered ESL classes to children in the rural tribes of Coimbatore (watch the video). The Isha Foundation’s Hatha School is the teacher training program from which CALA instructors offer classical Indian yoga, the foundation of its stress management classes.
Jennings & Rebecca Jones Foundation
The generosity of the Jennings & Rebecca Jones Foundation has allowed CALA to provide free language and teacher training to Rutherford County, TN high school students and teachers at its CALA Language Institute (see Scholarships on the left-hand pane of this site).
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)
CALA was founded in 2003 with the help of an MTSU Special Projects grant. Since that time, various sources of financial and administrative support from MTSU have been vital to CALA’s growth and development.
MoreTreesBoro
CALA’s founder, Dr. Shelley Thomas, is a member of this organization dedicated to protecting and growing the tree population in Murfreesboro, TN.
MTSU University Honors College
Housed at the MTSU Honors College, CALA has enjoyed the continued support of University Honors as it provides scholarships for its students, including Fulbright Scholars, to attend its Language Institute. The first-rate facilities at the Honors College provide the setting for almost all CALA classes.
Sadhguru School
CALA has provided teacher training to instructors at the Sadhguru School in Uganda (Western Africa). The school’s mission is to inspire the youth of the area to make positive changes in their communities and to their environment.
Salvation Army
CALA is pleased to support the Salvation Army’s mission of “doing the most good” by providing translation services so that the organization can better communicate with and provide services to Spanish-speaking communities.
Save Soil
CALA’s founder, Dr. Shelley Thomas, is part of the Educational Outreach Team for Save Soil, the largest global non-profit organization seeking to prevent our planet’s rapidly advancing soil extinction. Save Soil’s founder was invited to the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) to present solutions to its 193 member nations. You’re invited to learn more about the problem, the history of this organization, and the policy handbooks offering practical solutions for revitalizing the soil for every nation.
Smyrna High School
Home of the Bulldogs, Smyrna High School has supported CALA by graciously hosting graduate-level internships for MTSU foreign language graduate students in the school’s ESL classrooms.
TN Department of Children’s Services (DCS)
CALA had the privilege of contracting with DCS to provide accelerated Spanish training to frontline case management staff all across the state of Tennessee. DCS strives to meet the safety, permanency, and well-being needs of vulnerable TN children and families.
Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (TFLI)
CALA has provided teacher training and materials to TFLI instructors and values its collegial relationship with this well-respected language-learning and teacher-training organization.
TN Schools (In-Service Workshops)
- Franklin Special School District
- Rutherford County
- Warren County
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Contact Us
Center for Accelerated Language Acquisition (CALA)
c/o Shelley Thomas
Middle Tennessee State University
Honors Box 267
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Shelley Thomas, Ph.D.
CALA Director
shelley.thomas@mtsu.edu
Brian Roberts, M.A.T.
CALA Associate Director
brian.roberts@mtsu.edu