Arabic-L:K-16:U of Maryland Arabic High School program news release

Thu Mar 8 23:21:56 UTC 2007

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Arabic-L: Thu 08 Mar 2007
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1) Subject:U of Maryland Arabic High School program news release

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1)
Date: 08 Mar 2007
From:"Lampe, Gerald" <glampe at nflc.org>
Subject:U of Maryland Arabic High School program news release

University of Maryland/ News Release
March 8, 2007

New Natl. Program Will Immerse High Schoolers and Teachers in Arabic and
Chinese

The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland is
launching a new federally funded initiative this summer that will send
as many as 1,100 students to intensive camp and school programs to learn
Arabic and Chinese - part of an effort to teach critical, uncommonly
taught languages at an earlier age. The program will also help train as
many as 600 Arabic and Chinese speakers to teach the languages in high
schools.

The Center is awarding grants averaging $100,000 to 34 institutions in
21 states and the District of Columbia to run the so-called STARTALK
programs this summer. It is the newest program in the National Security
Language Initiative launched by the Bush administration last year. The
$4.8 million program is being funded jointly by the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Defense.

"This is a vital experiment because we need to start teaching critical
languages like Arabic and Chinese much earlier in life, if the nation is
to develop the skills needed for national security and economic
competitiveness," says Catherine Ingold, director of the University of
Maryland's National Foreign Language Center. "Right now, in most of the
country there's very little capacity to teach Arabic and Chinese to high
school students. In all but a handful of spots, we lack the programs and
teachers. And even where there are programs, a long summer away from the
language is a real setback. STARTALK is an effort to jumpstart the
process."

The 34 programs receiving funding differ widely, Ingold says, calling
this year's launch a kind of trial run. Some offer total immersion,
while others offer more modest training to give students a head start at
learning languages so different from English. Some programs offer a camp
atmosphere, while others are more traditional summer school sessions.
Many offer simultaneous programs to train both students and teachers.

"We need to do much more than just train students - we need to create a
supply of qualified teachers who can offer instruction at the high
school level," says Gerald Lampe, the deputy director of the National
Foreign Language Center and coordinator of the Arabic portion of
STARTALK. "On a national basis, we're almost starting from scratch. Most
of the instructors have only worked in a college environment, and most
need help getting certified. We'll give these teachers some of the
classroom experience they'll need for certification. For many of them,
these sessions represent a rare opportunity to work with students.
Teacher training, certification, along with curriculum and development
of teaching materials, will help to create the infrastructure we need to
sustain durable programs year-round."

"Quality is vital, and we want to make sure the programs use the best
practices in the field and the strongest curricula," Ingold says. "We
all have a lot of work to do to recruit students and teachers and get
these programs going."

A special effort will be made to recruit students from families with an
Arabic or Chinese heritage, but who lack formal education in the
languages. Many of the teachers who will receive training are proficient
heritage speakers, but lack high school classroom experience.

Plans call for the program to expand in the summer of 2008 to include
additional languages such as Hindi, Persian and Korean. In coming years,
the STARTALK program is expected to extend to Middle School Programs.

STARTALK is one of more than a dozen programs in the National Security
Language Initiative, announced by President Bush in January of 2006. The
Initiative seeks to expand and improve the teaching and learning of
strategically important world languages that are not now widely taught
in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education, the U.S.
Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence are all participating. More
information at:
http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/nsli/nsli.pdf.

The National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) is dedicated to
understanding and addressing the nation's needs for languages other than
English. The Center implements that mission through intensive and
innovative strategic planning, research and development in cooperation
with academic institutions, organizations, and enterprises in the United
States and abroad. http://www.nflc.org/

The NFLC is part of the intensive language research and education
efforts at the University of Maryland, including the university's Center
for Advanced Study of Language, the largest U.S. national language
research facility, and Department of Defense funded National Flagship
Language Programs in Arabic and Persian.

http://www.casl.umd.edu/
http://www.languages.umd.edu/AsianEastEuropean/arabic/index.htm
http://www.languages.umd.edu/persianflagship/

MEDIA CONTACT:
Neil Tickner
University of Maryland
301-405-4622
ntickner at umd.edu

Gerald E. Lampe, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
National Foreign Language Center
5201 Paint Branch Parkway, Suite 2132
College Park, MD 20742
(301) 405-9690
glampe at nflc.org
www.nflc.org

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End of Arabic-L:  08 Mar 2007