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Anonymous.
Rob_Hugo@PortNWDear All,
New National Security Language Initiative was launched
by President Bush on Jan. 5, 2006. Significant amount of
funding is allocated to develop language (Chinese one of
the selected) programs in the next two years. For
details, visit:
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/01/01052006.html
President Bush today announced a national initiative on the teaching of critical foreign languages. Below is a fact sheet on the U.S. Department of Education's role in the initiative along with an attached fact sheet from the U.S. Department of State:
Teaching Language for National Security and Global Competitiveness
American students must master critical need foreign language skills for our nation to remain competitive and continue the progress in securing our nation. Together with the Departments of State and Defense and the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Education is proposing to establish grants and train teachers under President Bush's National Security Language Initiative.
Critical need foreign language skills are necessary to advance national security and global competitiveness.
More than 200 million children in China are studying English, a compulsory subject for all Chinese primary school students. By comparison, only about 24,000 of approximately 54 million elementary and secondary school children in the United States are studying Chinese.
According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, only 31% of American elementary schools (and 24% of public elementary schools) report teaching foreign languages.
79% of those schools focus on giving introductory exposure to a language rather than achieving overall proficiency.
Only 44% of American high school students are enrolled in foreign language classes as reported by the 2002 Digest of Education Statistics. Of those students, 69% are enrolled in Spanish and 18% in French.
Less than 1% of American high school students combined study Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Russian or Urdu.
Less than 8% of United States undergraduates take foreign language courses, and less than 2% study abroad in any given year. Foreign language degrees account for only 1% of undergraduate degrees conferred in the United States.
Federal partners have outlined national goals and are sharing resources to achieve those goals. The National Security Language Initiative will:
Increase the number of Americans mastering critical need languages and start at a younger age
Increase the number of advanced-level speakers of foreign languages, with an emphasis on critical need languages
Increase the number of teachers of critical need languages and resources for them
The Department of Education and its partners will focus resources toward educating students, teachers and government workers in critical need foreign languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and increasing the number of advanced-level speakers in those and other languages. The Department of Education's FY 2007 budget proposal will include:
$57 million for this initiative, a $35 million increase over FY 2006.
The Department of Education is proposing $24 million to create incentives to teach and study critical need languages in K-12 by refocusing the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grants.
Twenty-four school districts in partnership with colleges and universities will create programs in critical need languages in 2007 through a proposed $24 million Department of Education program. The program will likely expand to additional schools in future years to ultimately build continuous programs of study from kindergarten through university.
The Department of Education is proposing $5 million to create a Language Teacher Corps with the goal of having 1,000 new foreign language teachers in our schools before the end of the decade.
A proposed $1 million nationwide Department of Education E-Learning Language Clearinghouse would deliver foreign language education resources to teachers and students across the country.
The Department of Education would expand Teacher-to-Teacher seminars through a proposed $3 million effort to reach thousands of foreign language teachers in 2007.
[Edit by="jwchen7 on Jan 7, 7:54:34 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="jwchen7 on Jan 7, 9:19:03 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousNPR's Marketplace is broadcasting from China for most of this month. I heard an interesting story this morning about how some Chinese have become disillusioned about their housing market. I guess the housing market went public less than a decade ago, and many people are upset because their real estate has depreciated. Many home owners weren't told of this possibility; they thought their investment would only appreciate. Some even were demanding their money back.
Check out their website for more interesting stories about the Chinese economy:
AnonymousThat seems so unfathomable to the US who have been able to own homes for a long time. Not that homes are affordable, but at least the opportunity is there. It is bizarre that China of all places only jumped on that bandwagon 10 years ago. How funny that they want their money back. I would too if it were possible. They have no idea the extent of it all. Very interesting.
AnonymousWow Interesting article and statistics. It is a shame that the US has such a poor reputation abroad and I'm sure that our lack of alternate linguistic fluency is partly to blame. It would be wonderful if our schools, at all levels, could put more emphasis on foreign language acquisition.