Lessons Learned From STARTALK Building learner communities and promoting collaborations between communities and universities

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2 Lessons Learned From STARTALK Building learner communities and promoting collaborations between communities and universities Catherine Ingold, Ph.D. Director Na+onal Foreign Language Center University of Maryland

3 STARTALK is a national program that provides critical language education for students in K-16, professional development for critical language teachers, and resources for the language teaching and learning field.

4 STARTALK Languages Arabic Chinese Dari Hindi Persian Portuguese Russian Swahili Turkish Urdu 4

5 Students # of Students Arabic Chinese Dari 0 5 Hindi Persian Portuguese Russian Swahili Turkish Urdu Total 874 2,608 4,455 5,489 7,670 6,239 8,171

6 Teachers # of Teachers Arabic Chinese Dari Hindi Persian Portuguese Russian Swahili Turkish Urdu Total 448 1,038 1,193 1,451 1,589 1,433 1,359

7 Overview Building learner communi+es Involving language teachers from heritage communi+es (HC) 7

8 Motivating and Empowering Students Meaningful and memorable opportunities available to learn languages that students often don t learn or build proficiency in Conducted in the summer, when there are no distractions, with significant hours using the language Students engage in fun activities while learning Students are together with others who share interests, curiosity, and connections

9 Motivating and Empowering Students There is A LOT of support for programs to offer excellent learning opportunities: Standards and guidance on use of the target language in camps Curriculum and lesson templates Assessments Can Do statements, LinguaFolio

10 Voice-Program-Hindi-Summer-Camp.pdf

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13 Why the U.S. Needs HC Teachers U.S. higher education produces few majors in critical languages. Proficiency levels of traditionally educated foreign language learners are often relatively low. Heritage community (HC) members bring rich knowledge of the language and culture.

14 Why the U.S. Needs HC Teachers Many states have a documented shortage of WL teachers. Every state has adopted alternative routes to certification (ARTC) for teachers in at least some disciplines. Mid-career changers are a primary source of U.S. teachers across disciplines.

15 Challenges to Building the HC Teacher Pool U.S. credentialing of teachers is determined state by state. Only a few states have reciprocity. Most state requirements assume that WL teachers have learned the TL as a second/ foreign language. Fewer states have ARTC for world languages and may not include profiles of heritage speakers.

16 STARTALK Teacher Profile 14% native English speakers;13% born in the US 84% list the target language as their native language 30% have BA; 51% MA; 6% doctorate (In most cases the target language is not the focus.) 65% female 64% of 2013 teachers returned in % live in CA; 7% in VA; 6% in NY Teaching experience includes heritage communitybased schools, private tutoring, and some K-12 and higher education

17 Training Needs of HC Teachers Ways to integrate language and culture in instruction Curriculum design Communicative teaching methods Assessment approaches and tools Language for professional purposes (heritage language and English) Classroom management in a U.S. school culture Most do not need 30 credit hours in the target language.

18 What can we do to build this talent pool? Educators can propose appropriate alternatives to traditional teacher preparation/certification models. State certification boards can tap into national expertise on preparing and credentialing these teachers. Teacher preparation programs can form alliances with heritage communities.

19 What can we do to build this talent pool? Build multi-state consortia for teacher preparation and licensure tailored to heritage community members. Provide HC members with meaningful, effective preparation, including Mentored clinical experience Observing and working with other teachers Content/subject matter support

20 Useful Centers Na+onal Foreign Language Center at UMD hsps://startalk.umd.edu/ Na+onal Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) hsp:// Go to the State Report page for cer+fica+on requirements; also has the contact informa+on of the state supervisor of the states listed 20

21 STARTALK Resources Classroom Videos Lesson Planning Template Lesson Planning Guide Model Lesson Plans Principles and Characteristics of Effective Language Learning Online Multimedia Teacher Development Workshops

22 Thank you! Catherine Ingold 22