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
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.
STARTALK Languages Arabic Chinese Dari Hindi Persian Portuguese Russian Swahili Turkish Urdu 4
Students # of Students 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Arabic 193 431 820 632 803 905 750 Chinese 681 2079 3143 4242 5786 4099 5798 Dari 0 5 Hindi 57 255 386 580 489 516 Persian 29 139 132 156 122 30 Portuguese 28 215 630 Russian 0 135 190 178 Swahili 9 27 30 32 36 Turkish 37 31 77 48 23 Urdu 12 52 39 75 134 210 Total 874 2,608 4,455 5,489 7,670 6,239 8,171
Teachers # of Teachers 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Arabic 156 293 317 263 323 248 158 Chinese 292 702 776 991 1001 912 915 Dari 2 2 6 Hindi 35 48 60 47 38 30 Persian 2 29 50 41 38 34 Portuguese 22 47 73 Russian 44 83 104 98 Swahili 9 11 14 14 11 Turkish 1 15 41 11 16 Urdu 6 13 15 17 19 18 Total 448 1,038 1,193 1,451 1,589 1,433 1,359
Overview Building learner communi+es Involving language teachers from heritage communi+es (HC) 7
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
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
http://www.cal.org/heritage/pdfs/heritage- Voice-Program-Hindi-Summer-Camp.pdf
http://www.cal.org/heritage/pdfs/heritagelanguage-summer-camp.pdf
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.
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.
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.
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 2014 14% live in CA; 7% in VA; 6% in NY Teaching experience includes heritage communitybased schools, private tutoring, and some K-12 and higher education
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.
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.
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
Useful Centers Na+onal Foreign Language Center at UMD hsps://startalk.umd.edu/ Na+onal Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) hsp://www.ncssfl.org 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
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
Thank you! Catherine Ingold cwingold@nflc.org 22