News & Events
EVENTS
| MLJ Perspectives Panels: Institutionalizing Foreign Language Education You are invited to attend a series of four moderated panel discussions that have been organized by Leo van Lier, Editor of The Modern Language Journal, and Heidi Byrnes, Associate Editor of Perspectives, in order to lay the ground work for a Perspectives special feature of the Modern Language Journal that will appear in December 2008 (MLJ 92,4). The topic for that issue of Perspectives and the panels is: "Modeling Representation of Foreign Language Education at the Federal Level in the United States." Open sessions will take place at the following conferences:
For details on this initiative, please visit: http://www3.georgetown.edu/departments/german/faculty/byrnes/perspectivespanels/ |
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CALPER at ACTFL (San Antonio), November 16-18 2007 We will be exhibiting teaching materials and professional development materials at our booth in the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center. |
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Division of Applied Linguistics at MLA in Chicago Applied Linguistics will have three sponsored sessions in Chicago. The themes of the sessions are: 1) Applying Applied Linguistics in Foreign Language Programs, 2) Linking Form and Meaning in the L2 Classroom and 3) Corpus-based Applied Linguistics Research. Dates: December 27-30, 2007. The Division of Foreign Languages of the Modern Language Association will also sponsor three sessions at the convention. Those themes are: 1) Heritage Speakers of More and Less Commonly Taught Languages, 2) The Foreign Language Committee Report: What to do now? and 3) Critical Pedagogy in Foreign Language Education. Modern Language Association |
NEWS
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| Ohio Language Roadmap for the 21st Century | ||
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H.R. 1469 - Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2007 This bill passed unanimously in the House of Representatives on June 5, 2007 This bill would authorize establishing a program to encourage U.S. students to study overseas. The purposes of this Act are-- 1) to significantly enhance the global competitiveness and international knowledge base of the United States by ensuring that more United States students have the opportunity to acquire foreign language skills and international knowledge through significantly expanded study abroad; 2) to enhance the foreign policy capacity of the United States by significantly expanding and diversifying the talent pool of individuals with non-traditional foreign language skills and cultural knowledge in the United States who are available for recruitment by United States foreign affairs agencies, legislative branch agencies, and nongovernmental organizations involved in foreign affairs activities; (3) to ensure that an increasing portion of study abroad by United States students will take place in nontraditional study abroad destinations such as the People's Republic of China, countries of the Middle East region, and developing countries; and 4) to create greater cultural understanding of the United States by exposing foreign students and their families to United States students in countries that have not traditionally hosted large numbers of United States students. This bill was considered in committee which has recommended it be considered by the House as a whole. [posted 7/17/07] | ||
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H.R. 2111 - Foreign Language Education Partnership Program This bill was introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) on May 2, 2007. Representing a consensus position of K-12 and higher education foreign language communities, the bill addresses the urgent need to enhance the teaching and learning of foreign languages at the K-12 level in the United States. HR 2111 would create a new program under the existing Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP), providing incentives to create model programs of articulated foreign language instruction with the goal of graduating high school students with an advanced level of proficiency. The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education on July 17, 2007. [posted 9/20/07] | ||
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30 Critical Language Scholarships Awarded As part of the National Security Language Initiative, which was introduced last year, the Department of State and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) offer scholarships to students for intensive study in the critical need foreign languages of Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu. U.S. citizen undergraduate, Master's and Ph.D. students participate in beginning, intermediate, and/or advanced level language programs at American Overseas Research Centers and affiliated partners. Recipients of these scholarships are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period and later apply their critical language skills in their professional careers. 30 scholarships were awarded for study in Summer 2007. 
U.S. Dept of State Critical Language Scholarship
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H.R. 747 - National Foreign Language Coordination Act of 2007 Introduced January 31, 2007 S. 451 - National Foreign Language Coordination Act of 2007 Introduced January 31, 2007 | ||
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| The International System of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SICELE) was formally presented just before the beginning of the International Congress of the Spanish Language which was held in March 2007 in Medellin, Columbia. The new test was developed over four years by language experts from Spain and Latin America. It is to measure language proficiency in Spanish and is expected to become a reference test accepted world-wide, similar to world-wide tests such as TOEFL®. | ||
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New M.A. in Chinese at Middlebury The Middlebury College Language Schools introduced a new M.A.program in Chinese for 15 students in the summer of 2007. The degree is the first new M.A. program offered by Middlebury in 23 years. For more information about the program visit the Web site at www.middlebury.edu. | ||
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| Creating a Chinese Language Program in Your School: An Introductory Guide. Asia Society is pleased to announce this new publication. It offers information for schools and districts on how to plan, launch and sustain new program in Chinese langauge and culture. For additional information or to order a copy, please visit this website. | ||
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| The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP), U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, provides grants to Local
Education Agencies (LEAs) and State Education Agencies (SEAs) to establish,
improve, or expand innovative foreign language programs for elementary and
secondary school students. In awarding grants under this program, the secretary
of Education supports projects that: (a) show the promise of being continued
beyond their project period and (b) demonstrate approaches that can be dissemniated
and duplicated by The LEA program supports foreign language instruction in elementary school, immersion programs, curriculum dveelopment, professional development, and distance learning; while the SEA project promotes systematic approaches for improving foreign language learning including development of state foreign language standards, development of foreign language assessments, professional development, and distance learning. View the list of 2006 LEA and SEA Grantees [PDF]View more program specifications
posted: 10/09/06
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Project-based Learning. The George Lucas Foundation began publishing a series of weekly e-newsletters for K-12 teachers. While not specifically addressing L2 teaching and learning, the newsletter might still be of interest to educators working with a project-based approach.
Go to the GLEF Newsletter sign-up space and subscribe to this free resource.
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