International Education and Foreign Languages Keys to Securing America's Future (2007) / Chapter Skim
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12 Looking Toward the Future
12 Looking Toward the Future
Pages 228-248
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From page 228... ...
will go a step further by focusing on critical language needs, particularly in K-12 education, and several agencies have taken steps to implement aspects of the proposal. At the same time, a reinvigorated and expanded focus on foreign languages will accentuate current issues and create new demands for foreign language assessment.
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From page 229... ...
Corrections have to start earlier in the education system. Nevertheless, universities can play key roles regarding 21st-century challenges by extending access to foreign language instruction to more students, by contributing to deepening the level of instruction to more advanced levels, and by collaborating with the K-12 system so that students begin to learn foreign languages much earlier in their education.
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From page 230... ...
National Flagship Language Initiative K-16 pilot programs. • reate a new scholarship program at the State Department for summer, academic C year/semester study abroad, and short-term opportunities for high school students studying critical languages.
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From page 231... ...
• xpand the State Department's Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant E Program, to allow 300 native speakers of critical languages to come to the United States to teach in universities and schools in 2006-2007. Other components of the initiative, aimed at increasing the number of advanced-level speakers of defined critical languages, include • xpand NSEP's National Flagship Language Initiative to a $13.2 million program E aiming to produce 2,000 advanced speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009.
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From page 232... ...
ED Role As part of the K-12 component of the NSLI, ED implemented a competitive priority for critical languages in the FY 2006 FLAP competition and awarded 12.9 million in grants to school districts in 22 states to help increase the number of Americans learning foreign languages deemed critical to national security and commerce (October 13, 2006, ED press release)
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From page 233... ...
As the federal agency with clear responsibility for education issues, ED should have a more visible presence in directing efforts aimed at education, particularly K-12 education. ED's priorities have changed over time, with international education and foreign languages just beginning to reemerge as a national priority.
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From page 234... ...
With the increasing requirements for government employees, particularly in DoD, to develop proficiency from elementary to more advanced levels in a range of foreign languages, government language schools will face an increasing need for language assessments to diagnose students' strengths and challenges and to make decisions about achievement and progress. As universities seek to train more students to more advanced levels, they will also require more refined and accurate assessment tools.
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From page 235... ...
This will necessitate the development of assessments of foreign language proficiency that meet accepted professional standards. New Approach to Language Assessment Needed The most common approach to language proficiency assessment in both government and academia is an oral interview.
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From page 236... ...
In others, given their very limited funding, they may have to rely on faculty and staff who are also busy working on other projects in language teaching or curriculum and materials development, in addition to language assessment. These recent ED-funded efforts to improve foreign language proficiency assessments have suffered from both a lack of adequate resources and a diffusion of the Title VI/FH resources available.
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From page 237... ...
Technology and Instruction Over the past 50 years, Title VI has helped build a national human infrastructure for retaining expertise and delivering instruction in foreign languages, particularly less commonly taught languages, and in area and international studies. These instructional programs and expertise, however, are still largely confined to the physical locality of university campuses.
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From page 238... ...
In addition, once less commonly taught language courses are made available online, it is expected that more students will become aware of those languages and the chances of more students learning less commonly taught languages will likely increase. In fact, our review found that some Title VI/FH programs have al
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From page 239... ...
Expense and limited availability: Although some NRCs reported to the committee that they use certified ACTFL OPI testers to assess their students' language proficiency, among those that do not, the most common reasons given included the expense and resources involved (see Malone, 2006, for more about the financial burden)
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From page 240... ...
In addition, research and development efforts in technology and language instruction over the past two decades have accumulated sufficient insights about effective ways to deliver language learning using technology. The opportunity is thus ripe to develop large-scale language learning platforms that can be adapted to support learning and instruction of many languages.
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From page 241... ...
While that is an understandable business decision, it means that the less commonly taught languages of most concern to Title VI/FH programs are left out. In addition, very often the proprietary platform of commercial software developers is not publicly available, so the Title VI/FH community cannot take advantage of their systems.
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From page 242... ...
C onclusion: Given the recognized lack of knowledge about foreign cultures and foreign languages, additional resources are needed for an integrated and articulated approach in multiple systems, includ ing K-12, higher education, and business, to help address this critical shortcoming. The federal government has begun efforts to stimulate introduction of foreign languages at an earlier age, with a particular focus on what are considered critical languages, through NSEP's National Flagship Language Program and the Bush administration's proposed National Security Language Initiative.
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From page 243... ...
The person appointed to this new position also should coordinate ED programs with those of other federal agencies, such as the State Department and DoD, and have lead responsibility for developing and implementing a new strategic vision and overseeing the biennial report recommended below. Raising the status of the programs is vital to demonstrate clearly the importance of foreign languages and other area and international education to ED and put direction and oversight of the programs at a level more comparable to the level of oversight at other key agencies.
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From page 244... ...
Implementing such a plan requires the involvement of a leader with the authority to leverage all appropriate departmental resources. In establishing the duties of this office, particular attention should be paid to support for integrated and articulated approaches that support long-term acquisition of advanced levels of foreign language competency and knowledge about language acquisition and related cultures, consistent with the goals of the proposed NSLI.
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From page 245... ...
Although the committee strongly supports the need for language education beyond a set of critical languages defined at any particular point in time, the federal government may not need to be involved in supporting capacity in all 171 languages on the current list of critical Title VI languages. This task would be one for the agencies to consider in conjunction with experts in foreign languages, area, and international studies, perhaps as part of the continuous improvement process discussed in the previous chapter.
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From page 246... ...
Foreign Language Assessment, Instruction, and Technology New demands resulting from increased federal interest in international education and foreign languages as well as new instruction and assessment opportunities provided by advancements in technology should push relevant federal agencies to think about new approaches. Foreign Language Assessment Title VI/FH programs have stimulated multiple and varied efforts to address the lack of common measures of language proficiency for use by NRCs, particularly for the less commonly taught languages.
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From page 247... ...
For example, concerted efforts must be made to develop comprehensive language learning and teaching platforms that can effectively take advantage of the possibilities of technology to enhance the instruction of foreign languages, especially less commonly taught languages. While not replacing the need for an instructor, these platforms can serve as the primary content development and delivery systems for Title VI/FH language programs.
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From page 248... ...
A project aimed at these opportunities might be advanced by collaboration among a consortium of multiple universities or organizations. Over the longer term, the project might be tasked with coordinated investment in technologies aimed at advancing teacher training, materials development, and language instruction, particularly for languages with low enrollments, as discussed earlier in this report.
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