The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is supporting the participation of American high school students in intensive, substantive foreign language study to further strengthen national security and prosperity in the 21st century as part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), launched by President Bush in January 2006.
Foreign language skills are essential to engaging foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical world regions, to promote understanding and convey respect for other cultures. Americans will use these skills to support the nation’s foreign affairs priorities, its economic competitiveness, and its educational institutions as they prepare future citizens for full engagement in the global environment. The broad NSLI initiative focuses resources on improving language learning for U.S. citizens across the educational spectrum and emphasizes the need to achieve mastery of critical languages. NSLI-Y programs support the participation of American high school students and those who have just graduated in intensive, substantive educational exchange programs that will promote language learning, as well as engage the successor generation in a dialogue for greater understanding.

For further information go to http://exchanges.state.gov/education/rfgps/junho5rfgp.htm

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is seeking linguists to conduct telephone language tests and / or participate in other test development, test review, and translation projects in the following languages: Afrikaans, Akan, Algerian, Arabic-Iraqi, Arabic-Lebanese, Arabic-Libyan, Arabic-Yemeni, Arabic-MSA, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cebuano, Chavacano, Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Mandarin, Chinese-Shanghi Dialect, Czech, Dari, French, Ga, Gan, Georgian, German, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Ibo, Ilonggo, Indonesian, Japanese, Javanese, Korean, Kurdish, Kurmanji, Lao, Malay, Mong, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian Croatian, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, Tausug, Teluga, Tha, Turkish, Twi, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Wu, and Yuruba.

Successful candidates will receive paid training. Tester training and certification involves two 4-day trainings followed by a testing practice and certification process. Training for other projects involves an initial 4-day training followed by specific project training. Certified testers do work from their home or office and are paid on a per test basis. Other projects may also involve work at the ACTFL office in White Plains, NY. There are currently 100 openings on a project-by-project basis. To apply, please send your resume by email to Nataly Kelly: natalyekelly@yahoo.com. Read more about ACTFL testing at www.actfl.org.

The Fall 2008 conference on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) provides an opportunity for faculty, graduate instructors, and administrators to share expertise in building and managing post-secondary CLAC programs.  A special focus this year will be on the implications of the May 2007 MLA Foreign Language Report (http://www.mla.org/flreport) on CLAC initiatives nationwide.

CULTURES AND LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM (CLAC)

The CLAC movement intends to make global competence a reality for students and to create alliances among educators to share practices and methods for incorporating an international dimension in curricula, and, more generally, to achieve internationalization goals. General principles of CLAC include:

1. A focus on communication and content;
2. An emphasis on developing meaningful content-focused language use outside traditional language classes;
3. An approach to language use and cross-cultural skills as a means for the achievement of global intellectual synthesis, in which students learn to combine and interpret knowledge produced in other languages and in other cultures.

Within this large framework, CLAC can take many forms, depending on specific content and curricular goals within a discipline.

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Proposals for 30-minute papers or 90-minute panels on any issue relating to CLAC are welcome, although the following topics are of particular interest:

• Institutional, professional, and practical obstacles to CLAC
• CLAC: in competition or collaboration with foreign language departments?
• Innovative interdepartmental or interinstitutional links
• CLAC models for less commonly taught languages or heritage languages
• Preparing graduate students and faculty to implement CLAC
• The role of Title VI Centers and other funding agencies
• CLAC evaluation and assessment
• Sample teaching materials: syllabi, classroom activities, lesson plans
• The use of technology in CLAC
• The implications of national foreign language standards on CLAC
• Languages for special purposes / professional use / service learning

To submit a proposal, please email an submission form (available on the web at http://www.unc.edu/clac) and a one-page abstract (max. 350 words) to clac2008@unc.edu by May 15, 2008.

Selected papers will be published on the CLAC conference website. Submission of a proposal constitutes agreement to online publication. This in no way limits the author’s rights to publish the paper elsewhere.

For additional information, please visit the conference website at http://www.unc.edu/clac.

PaCIE’s Board of Directors is now accepting nominations for the David Portlock Award for Outstanding International Educator and Bringing the World to Pennsylvania K-16 Collaboration Award.

The David Portlock Award recognizes international educators in mid-career who have exhibited evidence of on-going mentoring of colleagues in the field, exemplary leadership in international education on their campuses, and consistent contribution to the field as seen in presentations, papers, publications or other academic enterprises.
Bringing the World to Pennsylvania: K-16 Collaboration Award gives support and visibility to international/multi-cultural collaborative projects between K-12 and higher education institutions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The recognition of such programs is intended to encourage educators and administrators to offer similar programs in their own school districts and communities, to build partnerships among educational institutions and to demonstrate to state officials the energy and creativity that is available to further the international interests of the state.

Visit http://www.pacie.org/award/index.html to learn more about the awards and to obtain nomination forms. Submit your completed nominations to Christina Good, ceagood@comcast.net. The deadline is February 15

The Glendale School District (Northern Cambria and Southern Clearfield Counties in Pennsylvania)  is piloting a new Chinese program. Currently, K-6 and one junior high and one senior high school course are offered. Go to WJACTV-Channel 6 News and view video at http://www.wjactv.com/news/14707506/detail.html 

“Mündliche Kompetenz im Unterricht amerikanischer High-Schools: Theorie, Praxis, Evaluierung und Didaktik”

AATG announces funding for a seminar at the University of Leipzig from June 28-July26, 2008. Deadline for application: February 1, 2008.

Please consult the website of the American Association of Teachers of German at http://www.aatg.org

Middlebury College is pleased to announce The Kathryn Davis Fellowships for Peace: Investing in the Study of Critical Languages . Now in the second year of this program, these fellowships are made possible as part of a $1 million gift from Kathryn Davis to address today’s critical need for more effective language proficiency.

Fellowships will cover the full cost of a summer of language study from beginner to graduate in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian at the Middlebury College Language Schools during the summer of 2008. Each individual grant covers the full comprehensive fee (tuition, room, and board) for one summer at the Middlebury Language Schools, plus a stipend to assist in defraying program-related expenses.

One summer of intensive immersion language at Middlebury is the equivalent of a full year of language study taken during the regular academic year. (Applicants who are interested in transferring academic credit should check with their home institution regarding transferability.)
The Davis Fellowships are merit-based and intended for exceptionally qualified individuals with demonstrated interest in one or more of the following areas: international, global, or area studies, international politics and economics, peace and security studies, and/or conflict resolution. Individuals in other fields, including working professionals, are also encouraged to apply if their field of expertise requires them to study one of the critical languages listed above.

To qualify for consideration for one of the Davis Fellowships, please submit, POSTMARKED by January 14, 2008.

More information: http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ls/fellowships_scholarships/kwd.htm

CALL FOR PAPERS.

The 20th annual conference of the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese (CATJ) will take place May 31 - June 1, 2008 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The theme of the conference is “Towards Advanced Japanese Language Proficiency”. Together we will explore the following questions:

• How can we conceptualize advanced language proficiency?
• How can we assess and assist learners’ development of advanced language proficiency?
• How can linguistic features of Japanese and sociocultual factors surrounding learners of Japanese influence their development of advanced language proficiency?

Plenary Lectures:

“New Media Literacies and the 21st Century Language Learner”

Professor Steven L. Thorne

Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research, The Pennsylvania State University

“Advanced Language Training and Study Abroad”

Professor Mari Noda

National East Asian Language Resource Center, The Ohio State University

President-Elect, The Association of Teachers of Japanese

Presentations of research-based studies on Japanese language pedagogy, Japanese linguistics, second language acquisition, as well as reports on innovative teaching are welcome. Proposals that underscore the connection to the central theme of the conference will be given preference. The time allocated for each paper will be 20 minutes followed by a 10 minute question/answer session. Proposals should be sent as an email-attachment (MS Word or PDF) to <catj20@mailplus.wisc.edu> by February 15, 2008. The submission form and further information can be found at http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/catj2008

Sent inquiries to <catj20@mailplus.wisc.edu> or the conference organizer Junko Mori <jmori@wisc.edu>.

The conference is organized by the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Center for East Asian Studies at UW-Madison, the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (a National Language Resource Center at the Pennsylvania State University), and the National East Asian Language Resource Center at the Ohio State University.

November 12-16, 2007 has been declared as this year’s International Education Week.

This is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States. The Departments encourage the participation of all individuals and institutions interested in international education and exchange activities, including schools, colleges and universities, embassies, international organizations, businesses, associations, and community organizations.

2008 International Education Week - November 17 - 21

2009 International Education Week - November 16 - 20

To read more, go to Web site at http://iew.state.gov

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:

• ACTFL (San Antonio): Friday, Nov. 16, 3 – 5 p.m.
• MLA (Chicago): Saturday, Dec. 29, 8:30 – 9:45 a.m.
• Northeast Conference (New York): 2 hour panel, Friday, March 28, TBA
• AAAL (Washington): 3 hour panel, date and time TBA.

Each panel features experts representing various constituencies and education policy experiences and interests. They are charged with imagining forms of institutionalization for foreign language education policy-making at the federal level of the U.S. that assure the development of encompassing, coherent, and long-term policies and practices. Following panelists’ brief opening statements, the sessions will feature a moderated discussion and seek commentary from attendees.

For details on this initiative, please visit: http://www3.georgetown.edu/departments/german/faculty/byrnes/perspectivespanels/