Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning (FILL)
What is FILL?
Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning (FILL) is a learner‑centered approach that expands access to world languages by allowing students to study different languages and pursue personalized proficiency goals within a shared learning environment.
Guided by a certified World Language teacher with professional training in facilitation, students build authentic communication skills through:
- setting individual goals
- co-designing the learning experience
- collaborating with peers across languages
- engaging with native and heritage speakers from local communities
FILL supports rigorous, standards‑based learning while fostering autonomy and lifelong language learning habits.
How to Get Started
Contact Chrystal Liu, Ph.D. (chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov), and we will work with districts to help facilitate the orientation and training.
FILL Research
Three seminal publications from the Center for Applied Linguistics
- Student Voices: High Schoolers’ Insights into World Language Learning (2021)
- Facilitated interdependent language learning (FILL) in action: Increasing student autonomy (July 2022)
- Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning (FILL): Resources from the Field (January 2024)
FILL Substacks
These publications highlight how FILL supports learner agency, equitable access to languages, and transparent proficiency-based learning pathways.
- Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning – FILL: A Substack devoted to exploring innovative approaches to learning languages.
- Still Lighting Learning Fires: Drawing on nearly five decades of work with students, teachers, and school leaders, I explore how learning can become less about delivering content and more about igniting curiosity, agency, and purpose.
Facilitating proficiency growth in AI-enhanced classrooms, Liu, X. C., & Paredes Kilnoski, H. J. (2026)
This paper in the Languages are FUNdamental report (go to page 73 of the PDF to start the article) looks at how artificial intelligence can support language learning without replacing the human connections that make it meaningful. Using the FILL approach, it shows how teachers, students, and technology can work together to support real communication, student choice, and proficiency‑based learning.