Present:
UW: Paul Aoki (LLC), Hedwige Meyer (French), Manfred Bansleben
(German), Paloma Borreguero (Spanish), Hussein Elkhafaifi (Arabic)
Bridget Yaden (PLU and WAFLT), Jennifer Geist (teaches Spanish in
elementary and is involved with iEARN (www.iearn.org),
Yolanda Cieters (teaches French in the community), Michele Anciaux Aoki
(Washington State Coalition for International Education)
Summary
Lots of interesting conversation, resulting in the following action items:
1. Early Language Learning Symposium
Plans for a one-day symposium on Early Language Learning sponsored by
the UW Language Board (with WAFLT, Coalition, and others?) -- planned
for Veterans Day, Friday, November 11, hosted in Denny Hall.
Purpose would be to educate language programs in the UW about the need
for early language learning, what are effective approaches, what is the
role of higher ed in teacher preparation, what are opportunities for
language students to get involved, etc. Invite general PK-12 teachers
(and parents, such as new bilingual/bicultural support group) to
participate, as well. Rather than bringing in an outside speaker, try to
focus on sharing efforts that are already happening in our schools and
communities, such as language immersion programs, One World Now!, and
the Spanish Passport program that Jennifer has been developing.
Hedwige is heading this up (with help from others). (This could be
kind of a "kick-off" event for International Education Week and
highlight Year of Languages.)
2. Meeting with Mimi Met of National Foreign Language Center
Mimi Met is coming to WA to work with Sunset Elementary Spanish
immersion program in August. Michele will contact her (and
Sunset) to see if Mimi could meet with this group when she's here to
help us identify strategic directions for the UW in support of early
language learning.
3. Title VI Center Grants
Several Jackson School Title VI Centers are working on grant
reauthorization proposals to be submitted in September. There's interest
in including Early Language Learning as part of outreach (we think).
We'd like to help define that part of their grants. Not sure who is
coordinating. Hedwige is going to contact John Keeler from
European Union Center (and French/Italian Chair) to see if we can meet
with him before July 20 to talk about the grants and what this section
might look like.
4. Related World Language Projects
We also talked about several other related world language initiatives
that are unfolding right now in conjunction with UW, WAFLT, OSPI, and
the Coalition:
* World Language Survey -- getting the data on to the web for viewing and update by schools; long-term John Keeler is proposing that UW manage the school profiles so UW can capture longitudinal data about what languages are taught where for how long to what level, etc. (See related project on Coalition website.)
* Voluntary World Language Standards -- as a follow-up from last year's WL Survey, work with WAFLT, OSPI, and Coalition to develop and disseminate voluntary standards for WL; this could be of interest to UW because of issues,such as how to offer credits for language proficiency (separate from seat time). (See related project.)