[EDLING:1163] US National Security Language Initiative

[Francis M Hult]

By way of ILR...

> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: National Security Language Initiative
> 
> MEMORANDUM
> FROM:  Miriam A. Kazanjian
> RE:  President's New Foreign Language Initiative
> DATE:  January 5, 2006
> 
> In a speech at the State Department today to the U.S. University Presidents
> Summit on International Education, President Bush unveiled the "National
> Security Language Initiative."  It is a $114 million grouping of new federal
> initiatives intended to address the nation's needs for foreign language
> speakers.  Copied below is a fact sheet that outlines the programs.  More
> details are not yet available, including if or how these new initiatives
> interface with existing programs.
> 
> Also, below are the URLs for the President's speech, Secretary Rice's
> remarks, the transcript of the State Department's prior briefing on the new
> initiative, and a list of participants in the summit.
> 
> I will keep you posted as more information becomes available.
> 
> Regards,
> Miriam
> 
> -----------------------------------
> Remarks by Secretary Rice
> http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/58735.htm
> 
> Remarks by President Bush
> http://www.state.gov/r/summit/58734.htm
> 
> Briefing on the National Security Language Initiative
> http://www.state.gov/g/rls/rm/2005/58737.htm
> 
> List of Participants in the Presidents Summit
> http://www.state.gov/r/summit/58668.htm
> 
> 
> 
> Fact Sheet
> Office of the Spokesman
> Washington, DC
> January 5, 2006
> 
> see http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/58733.htm
> 
> National Security Language Initiative
> 
> 
> President Bush today launched the National Security Language Initiative
> (NSLI), a plan to further strengthen national security and prosperity in the
> 21st century through education, especially in developing foreign language
> skills. The NSLI will dramatically increase the number of Americans learning
> critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi,
> Farsi, and others through new and expanded programs from kindergarten
> through university and into the workforce. The President will request $114
> million in FY07 to fund this effort. 
> 
> An essential component of U.S. national security in the post-9/11 world is
> the ability to engage foreign governments and peoples, especially in
> critical regions, to encourage reform, promote understanding, convey respect
> for other cultures and provide an opportunity to learn more about our
> country and its citizens. To do this, we must be able to communicate in
> other languages, a challenge for which we are unprepared. 
> Deficits in foreign language learning and teaching negatively affect our
> national security, diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence communities and
> cultural understanding. It prevents us from effectively communicating in
> foreign media environments, hurts counter-terrorism efforts, and hamstrings
> our capacity to work with people and governments in post-conflict zones and
> to promote mutual understanding. Our business competitiveness is hampered in
> making effective contacts and adding new markets overseas. 
> 
> To address these needs, under the direction of the President, the
> Secretaries of State, Education and Defense and the Director of National
> Intelligence have developed a comprehensive national plan to expand U.S.
> foreign language education beginning in early childhood and continuing
> throughout formal schooling and into the workforce, with new programs and
> resources. 
> 
> The agencies will also seek to partner with institutions of learning,
> foundations and the private sector to assist in all phases of this
> initiative, including partnering in the K-16 language studies, and providing
> job opportunities and incentives for graduates of these programs. 
> 
> The National Security Language Initiative has three broad goals: 
> 
> Expand the number of Americans mastering critical need languages and start
> at a younger age by: 
> 	*	 Providing $24 million to create incentives to teach and
> study critical need languages in K-12 by re-focusing the Department of
> Education's Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grants. 
> 	*	Building continuous programs of study of critical need
> languages from kindergarten to university through a new $27 million program,
> which will start in 27 schools in the next year through DOD's NSEP program
> and the Department of Education, and will likely expand to additional
> schools in future years. 
> 	*	Providing State Department scholarships for summer, academic
> year/semester study abroad, and short-term opportunities for high school
> students studying critical need languages to up to 3,000 high school
> students by summer 2009. 
> 	*	Expanding the State Department Fulbright Foreign Language
> Teaching Assistant Program, to allow 300 native speakers of critical need
> languages to come to the U.S. to teach in U.S. universities and schools in
> 2006-07. 
> 	*	Establishing a new component in State's Teacher Exchange
> Programs to annually assist 100 U.S. teachers of critical need languages to
> study abroad. 
> 	*	Establishing DNI language study "feeder" programs, grants
> and initiatives with K-16 educational institutions to provide summer student
> and teacher immersion experiences, academic courses and curricula, and other
> resources for foreign language education in less commonly taught languages
> targeting 400 students and 400 teachers in 5 states in 2007 and up to 3,000
> students and 3,000 teachers by 2011 in additional states. 
> 
> Increase the number of advanced-level speakers of foreign languages, with an
> emphasis on critical needs languages by: 
> 	*	Expanding the National Flagship Language Initiative to a
> $13.2 million program aiming to produce 2,000 advanced speakers of Arabic,
> Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009. 
> 	*	Increasing to up to 200 by 2008 the annual Gilman
> scholarships for financially-needy undergraduates to study critical need
> languages abroad. 
> 	*	Creating new State Department summer immersion study
> programs for up to 275 university level students per year in critical need
> languages. 
> 	*	Adding overseas language study to 150 U.S. Fulbright student
> scholarships annually. 
> 	*	Increasing support for immersion language study centers
> abroad. 
> 
> Increase the number of foreign language teachers and the resources for them
> by: 
> 	*	Establishing a National Language Service Corps for Americans
> with proficiencies in critical languages to serve the nation by:
> 1. Working for the federal government; and/or 2. Serving in a Civilian
> Linguist Reserve Corps (CLRC); and/or 3. Joining a newly created Language
> Teacher Corps to teach languages in our nation's elementary, middle, and
> high schools. 
> This program will direct $14 million in FY07 with the goal of having 1,000
> volunteers in the CLRC and 1,000 teachers in our schools before the end of
> the decade. 
> 	*	Establishing a new $1 million nation-wide distance-education
> E-Learning Clearinghouse through the Department of Education to deliver
> foreign language education resources to teachers and students across the
> country.
> 	*	Expand teacher-to-teacher seminars and training through a $3
> million Department of Education effort to reach thousands of foreign
> language teachers in 2007.
> 
> 2006/12 
> 
> Released on January 5, 2006
> 
> 
>   
> 

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