marty abbott - american council on the teaching of … abbott actfl executive director. elevator...

Making the Case for Languages

Desa Dawson2017 ACTFL President

Marty AbbottACTFL Executive Director

Elevator SpeechWho is the most influential person who makes decisions about language programs in your community?

Envision that person – school board member; Board of Regents; governor; state legislature; other decision maker

If you had one minute with that person, how would you make the case for languages to be part of every child’s education?

Languages Benefit All Learners

Need for Careers in the Global Economy

Need for Diplomacy or Defense

Need for Functioning in Diverse Communities

Need for Cognitive and Academic Benefits

Need for Personal Growth and Development

http://www.actfl.org/news/position-statements/global-competence-position-statement

Position Statement on Reaching Global Competence

The ability to communicate with respect and cultural understanding in more than one language is an essential element of global competence.

This competence is developed and demonstrated by investigating the world, recognizing and weighing perspectives, acquiring and applying disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, communicating ideas, and taking action.

Global competence is fundamental to the experience of learning languages whether in classrooms, through virtual connections, or via everyday experiences.

Language learning contributes an important means to communicate and interact in order to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.

This interaction develops the disposition to explore the perspectivesbehind the products and practices of a culture and to value such intercultural experiences.

Strategies for Developing Global Competence – within or beyond the classroom:

• Recognize the multiplicity of factors that influence who people are and how they communicate.

• Investigate and explain cultural differences as well as similarities, looking beneath the surface of stereotypes.

• Examine events through the lens of media from different countries and cultures.

• Collaborate to share ideas, discuss topics of common interest, and solve mutual problems.

• Reflect on one’s personal experiences across cultures to evaluate personal feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and reactions.

Congressional Study Request:

Diplomatic and National Interests

Productivity of future generations

Ensure excellence in language and international education and research

Influence of language learning on economic growth

CONGRESSIONAL REQUEST- AAAS STUDY

Congress has requested that the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to conduct a report on language learning in the U.S., with a particular focus on the competitiveness of American students.

Congressional Leaders

Senator Brian Schatz

Democrat – HawaiiSenator Mark Kirk

Republican – Illinois

Senator Orrin Hatch

Republican – Utah

Senator Tammy Baldwin

Democrat – Wisconsin

CONGRESSIONAL REQUEST- AAAS STUDY

Next steps for the Commission

1st meeting: December, 15: 2015: Cambridge, MA

2nd Feb. 29 in New York

3rd June 17 in New York

4th November 14 in Boston

FourCommission

Meetings

5 Briefing papers are on the AAAS website.

Public input

Briefing Papers

Report to Congress, Early 2017

2017-18 Dissemination

of Report

Data Report Released

Winter 2016

https://www.amacad.org/Default.aspx

America’s Languages: Challenges and Promise Richard Brecht, American Councils on International Education

The Contribution of Language to Economic Interests of the U.S. William Rivers, Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL)

Foreign Language, Cultural Diplomacy, and Global Security Gail McGinn, Former Deputy Under Secretary for Defense

Language and Productivity for all Americans Judith Kroll and Paola Dussias, The Pennsylvania State University

Language and the Fulfillment of Potential for all Americans Terry Wiley, Beatriz Arrias, et al., Center for Applied Linguistics

https://www.amacad.org/content/Research/researchproject.aspx?d=21896

Briefing

Papers

“The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait” is a precursor to another report from the academy

Final report from the academy due Spring 2017: how the U.S. might build language capacity to meet the needs of the increasingly global economy and otherwise “shrinking world.”

https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/publication.aspx?d=22429

By several measures, the United States has neglected languages in its educational curricula, its international strategies, and its domestic policies. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 60 million U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home—a number that has been growing decade by decade since the 1970s. But of the more than 230 million English speakers in the United States, very few develop proficiency in a language other than English in our schools, and the numbers of school language programs and qualified language teachers appear to be decreasing. Meanwhile, American businesses have reported a need for employees who understand the nuances of communicating with the international community, and the federal government continues to struggle to find representatives with enough language expertise to serve in diplomatic, military, and cultural missions around the world. (Page 3)

30 to 51.2% (9)

21 to 29.9% (7)

17 to 20.9% (15)

13 to 16.9% (12)

Less than 13% (8)

• Language Teacher Recruitment

• Funding for Language Education

• Support for Heritage Learners and

Native American Languages

• Promotion of language learning

experiences in other countries

KEY ISSUES

ACTFL Level CEFR Language Functions Corresponding Professions/Positions Examples of Who Is Likely to Function at the Level?

Distinguished

Ability to tailor language to spe-cific audience, persuade, nego-tiate. Deal with nuance and subtlety.

• Foreign Service: Diplomat, Contract Negotiator, International Specialist, Intelligence Specialist

• Highly articulate, professionally specialized native speakers

• Language learners with extended (17 years) and current professional and/or educational experience in the target culture

Superior C2Discuss topics extensively, sup-port opinions, hypothesize. Deal with linguis-tically unfamiliar situation

• University Language Professor, Lawyer, Financial Services Marketing Consultant, Foreign Area Officer, Court Interpreter, Judge

• Well-educated native speakers • Educated language learners with extended

professional and/or educational experience in the target language environment

Advanced High

Advanced Mid

C1

B2+

Narrate and describe in past, present and future and deal effectively with an unanticipated complication

• Physician, Human Resources Communication Consultant, Financial Services Senior Consultant, Quality Assurance Specialist, Marketing Manager, Financial Advisor, Broker, Military Linguist, Translation Officer

• Banking/Investment Customer Service Representative, Fraud Specialist, Account Executive, Medical Interpreter, Court Stenographer, Benefits Specialist, Technical Service Agent, Collection Representative, Estimating Coordinator

• Language learners with graduate degrees in language or a related area and extended educational experience in target environment

• Heritage speakers, informal learners, non-academic learners who have significant contact with language

• Undergraduate majors with year-long study in the target language culture

Oral Proficiency Levels in the Workplace

© ACTFL, Inc., 2012View the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 at

http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-

manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012 /

http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012

ACTFL Level CEFR Language Functions Corresponding Professions/Positions Examples of Who Is Likely to Function at the Level?

Advanced Low B2Narrate and describe in past, present and future and deal effectively with an unanticipated complication

• K-12 Language Teacher, Customer Service Representative, Social Worker, Claims Processor, Police Officer, Maintenance Administrator, Billing Clerk, Legal Secretary, 911 Dispatcher, Consumer Products Customer Services Representative, Retail Services Personnel

• Undergraduate language majors

Intermediate High

Intermediate Mid

Intermediate Low

B1+

B1

A2

Create with language, initiate, maintain and bring to a close simple conversations by asking and responding to simple questions

• Firefighter, Utilities Installer, Auto Inspector, Aviation Personnel, Missionary, Tour guide

• Cashier, Sales clerk (highly predictable contexts), Receptionist

• L2 learners after 6-8 year sequences of study (AP, etc.) or 4-6 semester college sequence

• L2 learners after 4 year high school sequence or 2 semester college sequence

• L2 learners after immersion program K-6

Novice High

Novice MidNovice Low

A1 Communicate minimally with formulaic and rote utterances, lists and phrases

• L2 learners following content-based language program K-6

• L2 learners after 2 years of high school language study

Oral Proficiency Levels in the Workplace

View the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 at

http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-

manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012 /

http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012

Time as a critical component for developing language performance

What challenges are facinglanguage programs today?

Both Positive and Challenging

News

89%

Findings from My College Options®/ACTFL research study (2015): National sample includes 69,870 high school language learning students.

Future Use of Language Learning(69,870 language learning high school students)

Copyright 2017 by the American Council on the Teachings of Foreign Languages. Any reproduction, distribution or sharing of these materials in part or in whole is prohibited by ACTFL.

of students believe that they will use the languages

they are learning after high school.

Findings from My College Options®/ACTFL research study (2017): National sample includes 71,060 language learning high school students.

Importance of Language Learning(71,060 language learning high school students)

of students believe that language study is

important to their abilities to get jobs in the future.76%


Language Learning Lifecycle of 2017 Graduates (8,224 language learning seniors)

Elementary School

K-6th Grade - 26%

High School

9th Grade - 48%

10th Grade - 61%

11th Grade - 72%

Seniors

Findings from My College Options® /ACTFL research study (2017): National sample includes 8,224 language learning high school seniors.

Middle School

7th Grade - 23%

8th Grade - 27%

College Classes

34% are planning to

take courses in college.


Findings from My College Options®/ACTFL research study (2017): National sample includes 8,224 language learning high school seniors.

.

Early Language Learning When asked if they wished they

could have started to learn a

foreign language earlier in school,

59% of seniors said yes and 22%

said maybe.



Early Language Learning Impact on Future Plans

Seniors who study a foreign language for multiple years in middle school

and high school are more likely to report plans to study a foreign language

in college, major in a foreign language and use a

foreign language in their careers.



96%

Top Three Skills Seniors Gained from Their Language Studies (8,224 language learning seniors)

of seniors report gaining various soft skills as a result

of their foreign language studies.


Growing our Enrollments

National K-16 Foreign Language Enrollment Report (2016)• New K-12 National Enrollment Survey (based on 2014-15 Data)

• Conducted by American Councils with ACTFL, NCSSFL, MLA, CAL

• K-12 enrollments: • 18.5% of K-12 students in 2007• 21.5% of K-12 students in 2014-2015• 10.9m of 54.1m students (2014-15)

• Showing an increase of 3 percentage points

• Higher education enrollments:• 2009: 1.61m enrollments in higher education• 2013: 1.52m enrollments in higher education• Higher education enrollments have declined from 8.7% to 8.1 % of

overall enrollments in higher education

What is Our Response: Growth in immersion programs ?

Early start? Proficiency outcomes? Articulation?

Addressing Teacher Shortages

Teacher shortages Vary by Subject Area

44 + DC

World Language or Bilingual Teacher Shortage

2016-17

States not listing world language or bilingual teacher shortage

EDUCATORS RISING

National organization whose mission is to guide young people on a path to becoming accomplished teachers, beginning in high school and extending through college and into the profession.

“Over 60 percent of teachers teach within 20 miles of where

they went to high school. Right now — today — in every

community, the next generation of educators is sitting on the

student side of the desks. We’re all counting on homegrown

teachers to be highly skilled, well-prepared professionals

and our existing pipeline isn’t doing the job well enough.”

Dan Brown, Co-Director, Educators Rising

What is ACTFL doing?

• Partnering with Educators Rising

• Piloting a project to engage high school students

(Spring 2017)

• Developing a suite of materials to spark students’

interest:

• Online platform to access video testimonials from

language educators

• Discussion guides to lead activities with high school

students

• Suggested experiences for students (tutoring, mentoring,

community service)

• Online submission of teacher and/or student projects

Common Guidelines for State and Local Implementation of

Seal of Biliteracy

12

4

9

6

1

STA

TES

LEVELS

PROFICIENCY REQUIREMENT COUNT

6

19

State Board ofEducation

Legislation

METHOD OF PASSAGE

TOTAL: 25 States Seals

Proficiency Level State Method of Passage

Advanced-Mid • Wisconsin (Distinguished Seal) • State Board of Ed

Advanced-Low • Kansas (Platinum)• Utah (Platinum) • Minnesota (Platinum)• District of Columbia• Louisiana• Oregon

• State Board of Ed• Legislation• Legislation• State Board of Ed• Legislation• State Board of Ed

Intermediate-High • Wisconsin (Seal)• Minnesota (Gold)• Georgia• Illinois• Texas• Maryland• New Mexico• New York• Virginia

• State Board of Ed• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation

Intermediate-Mid • Kansas (Gold)• Utah (Gold) • New Jersey• Washington

• State Board of Ed• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation

Intermediate-Low • Minnesota (Certificate)• North Carolina

• Legislation• State Board of Ed

No proficiencyrequirement

• California • Legislation

Proficiency Level State Method of Passage

To Be Determined(7)

• Arizona• Florida – will include Silver and Gold Levels • Hawai’i• Indiana – aiming for Intermediate High• Nevada• Ohio• Rhode Island – aiming for Intermediate Mid

• Legislation • Legislation • State Board of Ed• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation• Legislation

Under Considerationor Early Stages

(15)

• Alabama• Alaska• Arkansas • Colorado• Connecticut • Delaware• Iowa• Kentucky• Massachusetts• Michigan• Missouri• New Hampshire • Oklahoma• Pennsylvania• Tennessee

No Seal of Biliteracy yet

(11)

• Idaho• Maine• Mississippi• Montana• Nebraska• North Dakota• South Carolina• South Dakota• Vermont• West Virginia• Wyoming

Support for Illinois Students’ Language Proficiency

Recently enacted state legislation:

• AP tests must be given credit at the university level

• Seal of Biliteracy (Intermediate High for Illinois) must be given 2 years equivalent credit at the university level whether in formal language studies or a language acquired by other means

• Proficiency is translated into course equivalencies at the college level

New York students receive Seals of Biliteracy in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Bangla, Turkish, Polish and Swahili

Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages

New York Seal of Biliteracy Recognition

June 2016: Several schools award the very first New York State Seals of Biliteracy

Coding Bills in Four States

• Allows Computer Science courses to count as World Language credits

• An “either/or approach”

• Replaces one skill for the other

EXPLORING TEACHER

PRACTICEPEER-REVIEWED CORE PRACTICES

EDUCATOR-

DRIVENSHAREABLE

What is Advocacy?

Advocacy the act of promoting a

policy or idea and encouraging others

to adopt that policy or idea.

Why Do Language Professionals Need Advocacy?

Current challenges facing the language community:• Budget cuts targeting education

• Increased emphasis on STEM, computer science and other subject areas leading to more competition for less funds

• Declining college enrollments in language study

• Worsening world language teacher shortages

• A population with very few bilingual individuals

What Does Successful Advocacy Look Like?

What Does Successful Advocacy Look Like?

Juice

Keys Steps to a Successful Advocacy Campaign• Analyze the landscape and potential obstacles

• Build on program strength and strategize proactive responses to challenges

• Enlist partners and stakeholders

• Identify tactics and lay out a path and size of steps

• Take action

State Advocacy Goals w/ a focus on supporting learners

• State Supervisor for Languages (#3)

• National Board Certification (#4)

• Early Language Learning (#5)

• K-16 Agreements (#6)

• HS Graduation Requirements (#9)

• Seal of Biliteracy (#10)

https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/state-advocacy-goals

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES

OF LEAD WITH LANGUAGES?Increase enrollment and language options in world language programs at all grade levels

Strengthen and expand language programs and their funding

Engage leaders from business, education, government and other stakeholders

Build awareness among heritage populations

Former Mayor of

Philadelphia

Opportunities for Advocacy

What’s Your Message to Make the Case for Languages?

marty abbott - american council on the teaching of … abbott actfl executive director. elevator...

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