Background
Otto, Frank R. was born on October 7, 1936 in Cleveland. Son of Albert Joseph and Elizabeth Ruth (McKenna) Otto.
Otto, Frank R. was born on October 7, 1936 in Cleveland. Son of Albert Joseph and Elizabeth Ruth (McKenna) Otto.
Bachelor, Baldwin-Wallace College, 1958; Bachelor, University of Wisconsin, 1960; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 1966.
During his program there he conducted dissertation research in the area of foreign languages in the elementary school. With support from publisher Heath de Rochemont, a division of District of Columbia Heath, he investigated alternative approaches to staffing foreign language programs. His projects involved working with the publisher’s efforts to broadcast their Parlons Français program to over two million schoolchildren in the Midwest from a District of Columbia-3 airplane flying overhead.
Upon graduation from Wisconsin, he took a faculty position at The Ohio State University in one of the first programs in foreign language education in the United States.
During his time at Ohio State, Otto worked with such well-known figures in Foreign Language Education as Doctor Edward Allen and Doctor Paul Pimsleur. Pimsleur on more than one occasion agreed with Otto"s opinion that foreign language instruction was eventually "going to wind up on the computer!”
In 1972 Otto accepted the position to serve as Director of the Language Institute at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico.
He also worked with the United States embassies in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Columbia not only throughout Latin America but also in Asia, mainly in the Philippines. During that time in his career he also served on the Advisory Committee on Learning Technologies for the Developing World established by the Institute for International Research of the United States Agency for International Development.
Following his work in Central and South America, Otto was recruited by (Brigham Young University) in 1975 to help develop a program in English as Second Language (English as a second language).
While at Brigham Young University he participated in the development for the TICCIT system. of what could well be the first interactive multimedia program for teaching Spanish online. During his time at Brigham Young University, Otto was instrumental in the founding of CALICO (the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium). As an important part of his work with CALICO, he also served as the founding editor of the CALICO Journal.
Following his service at Brigham Young University and for CALICO, Otto retired and devoted full time to his company CALI for the development of ELLIS, which stands for "English Language Learning Instruction System" as an allusion to Ellis Island, the port of entry for millions of immigrants to the United States of America.
ELLIS was later purchased by Pearson Learning and is still available today from Pearson as ELLIS: A Digital Learning ELL Curriculum.
Member Homeowner's Council, Orem, Utah, since 1996. Sergeant United States Army, 1953-1963. Member National Council Teachers English, National Council Teachers Spanish, Utah Chamber of Commerce.
Married, 1958; children: Lynn, Richard, Susan, Tim, Jim.