International Education and Foreign Languages Keys to Securing America's Future (2007) / Chapter Skim
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4 Infusing a Foreign Language and Area Studies Dimension and Conducting Outreach and Dissemination
4 Infusing a Foreign Language and Area Studies Dimension and Conducting Outreach and Dissemination
Pages 89-112
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From page 89... ...
Outreach by National Resource Centers (NRC) and Language Resource Centers (LRC)
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From page 90... ...
Both historically and today, NRC program grants have been awarded primarily to the nation's leading research universities in order to provide advanced training and research in foreign languages and area studies. The Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL)
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From page 91... ...
for business school programs has had a similar effect, adding an international component to the business curriculum. In comparison with non-CIBER schools, business schools with CIBER status were likely to have more international business courses in their core program, to integrate language instruction into the curriculum, and to offer a greater variety of languages, especially less commonly taught languages (Folks, 2002)
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From page 92... ...
New York University was engaged in efforts to tap the strengths of NRC-funded area studies centers and its network of study abroad sites to develop new, more rigorous area studies undergraduate majors. In addition to these more general curriculum development efforts, some site visit universities were using Title VI funds to create and disseminate specific courses and instructional materials for use beyond the home university.
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From page 93... ...
and uni versity project websites (San Diego State University, 2006a, 2006b)
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FLAS Fellowships for intensive language study, either in the United States or abroad, are designed to provide enough language proficiency to carry TABLE 4-2 NRC Master's "Graduates" by Discipline, 2002-2004 Discipline Graduates Percentage Foreign languages and literature 1,159 9.07 Area studies 1,077 8.43 Global/international relations and studies 884 6.92 International/area studies 830 6.50 Education 792 6.20 Health sciences 774 6.06 Business administration and management 671 5.25 History 559 4.38 Political science 461 3.61 Law 344 2.69 Anthropology 341 2.67 English 286 2.24 Economics 253 1.98 Public policy 252 1.97 International business 235 1.84 Art/art history 229 1.79 155 other disciplines 3,626 28.39 SOURCE: Data provided by U.S. Department of Education [EELIAS]
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From page 95... ...
The fellowship program is not focused on advanced language study for its own sake. Committee site visits provided some support for the contention that NRCs provide opportunities for interdisciplinary work that would probably not occur otherwise.
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From page 96... ...
The university's coordinated structure for international education also facilitates collaboration between the area studies centers and the professional schools. Although each center has its own outreach coordinator, there is also a coordinator in the Office of International Affairs who facilitates the work of them all.
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From page 97... ...
. According to an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages study of public school enrollments in foreign languages, only 34 percent of U.S.
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Program supports groups of students, faculty, and teachers (including K-12 teachers) in overseas travel for training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies.
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From page 99... ...
. Outreach Priorities In recent years, ED has used grant competitions both to encourage NRC outreach activities and to target those activities toward K-12 education.
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From page 100... ...
Although other LRCs also conduct activities relevant to the K-12 system, this LRC has a specific focus on K-12. In keeping with its mandate, it is engaged in an array of local, regional, and national outreach activities, including summer teacher training institutes, supporting certification of foreign language teachers, and research on teaching strategies, language proficiency assessment, and new technologies for foreign language teaching (Iowa State University, 2006)
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From page 101... ...
. Review, Development, and Dissemination of Instructional Materials The Council of Middle East Outreach Directors conducted a comprehensive review of social studies textbooks, compiled recommended K-12 textbooks and websites, and developed new curriculum units (Friedlander, McGinley, and Metzler, 2003)
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From page 102... ...
three searchable databases including the instructional materials described above, contact information on all NRC-funded area studies centers, and a national calendar of professional de velopment events; (2) images and articles about the winners of the 2006 African Studies Association Africana book awards, the Americas award titles for 2005, and the Middle East Outreach Council book award; and (3)
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From page 103... ...
In addition, about half of the teacher educators reported other activities to strengthen preparation of future K-6 foreign language teachers, such as developing a Spanish minor for elementary education majors, planning for a formal K-6 language teacher prepara tion program, and launching a foreign language practicum and student teaching at the elementary school level. Finally, 19 of the teacher educators said they had developed or taught new courses, workshops, or in-service teacher training ses sions related to K-6 foreign language instruction.
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From page 104... ...
In 2003, the NRC outreach coordinators put it this way (Friedlander, Marshall, and Metzler, 2003) : "We are 114 NRCs and 14 LRCs attempting to serve approximately 3.8 million teachers nationwide in diverse geographical locales and settings -- from the inner city to the rural schools." Meeting the diverse international education and foreign language needs of teachers and schools across the nation will require a strategic approach that coordinates and expands Title VI/FH programs with other federal programs and financial resources, as the committee recommends in Chapter 12.
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From page 105... ...
Outreach Activities As evidenced by the information available to the committee, NRC outreach activities tend to focus on the culture, politics, and geography of a world region, whereas LRC outreach focuses on languages. The Council of Directors of National Foreign Language Resource Centers reported that the LRCs conducted 299 training activities between May 1998 and September 1999 and were attended by slightly more participants from K-12 (5,550)
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From page 106... ...
Similarly, faculty and staff from Africa centers have joined together in the Outreach Council of the African Studies Centers, an affiliate of the African Studies Association. Outreach professionals employed by Latin American centers have created the Consortium in Latin American Studies, which sponsors meetings and promotes collaboration.
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From page 107... ...
In another example, the SDSU Center for Latin American Studies (an NRC) has collaborated with the LRC and local heritage speakers to develop instruction in Mixtec.
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From page 108... ...
For example, the Africa Center, which conducts an array of outreach activities targeted to K-12 education and the public, initially ignored requests for help from film and television producers. Later, however, the center decided to respond.
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From page 109... ...
Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (part of the NRC-Middle East that also includes the Project for Jewish Civilization, the Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and the Laungier Library) offers public seminars on current political topics of interest to U.S.
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From page 110... ...
The Public In addition to this array of outreach activities targeted to specific audiences, LRC and NRC grantees support outreach for the public. For example, many NRC-funded area studies centers at Indiana University collaborate to support the city of Bloomington's annual Bloomington Multicultural Festival, with foods, entertainment, and art from their respective world regions.
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From page 111... ...
However, as discussed below, to make this effective, ED must support these efforts by working with state and local education authorities, helping them to recognize the importance of developing future teachers' knowledge of foreign languages and world regions and to create demand for teachers with appropriate education and training. Incentives that ED might use to encourage these collaborations include adding a competitive priority that awards additional points to NRC or LRC applications that can demonstrate a formal collaboration agreement recognized by both the applicant and a school(s)
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From page 112... ...
• Creating a clearinghouse for information on best practices in the field or incorporating foreign language learning as a topic area of ED's What Works Clearinghouse. • Convening a national conference to showcase positive examples of integrating foreign language and area studies into the K-12 curriculum, including the results of language immersion schools.
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