International Education Washington

World Language Profile Group

This website hosts updates, meeting summaries, and information about the World Language Survey project of the Washington State Coalition for International Education in conjunction with the University of Washington, OSPI, and WAFLT (Washington Association For Language Teaching).

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WAFLT | Proposal Title VI | Meeting 6/15/2005 | Resources

Presentation at WAFLT Conference

Michele Anciaux Aoki and Caleb Perkins prepared a presentation on the 2004 World Languages Survey for the WAFLT Conference in Spokane, October 14-15, 2005. Here are links to information about the presentation:

Michele repeated the presentation at the 2006 World Languages Day at the University of Washington.

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Proposal for Title VI Grants

Mapping Language Studies in Washington State

What schools in Washington teach Japanese (Chinese, Arabic, etc.)? According to Caleb Perkins, Social Studies and International Education Supervisor at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia, this is the most frequently asked question he receives at OSPI. Washington businesses want to know where critical world languages are being taught in our state. Yet, no one in our state is currently collecting that information.

Background

In spring, 2004, OSPI, in collaboration with WAFLT (Washington Association For Language Teaching), the West European Center of the UW Jackson School, and with partial funding from a State Innovations grant to the Washington State Coalition for International Education, developed and disseminated a survey of current World Language programs in Washington state public schools. The online survey was sent out to principals in all elementary, middle, and high schools in the state. Although the return rate of 19% was not high, it is enough to begin creating profiles of language offerings in the state.

With funding from a new State Innovations grant in 2005, the Coalition, OSPI, and WAFLT plan to make the school profiles available on the web by fall, 2005, with functionality to allow schools to update their information or add new entries. Still, these profiles will offer only a "snapshot" of the current situation, not a longitudinal look at how World Language offerings change over time.

Proposal

We propose that the Jackson School Centers include in their Title VI grant applications a small allocation of money to fund a project focused on "Mapping Language Studies in Washington State." The Language Studies Map would be the source for both a current snapshot, plus archival of data for longitudinal analysis. This tool will make it possible to see the impact of language learning and teaching practices at the UW.

Examples of questions the Language Studies Mapping Project could answer:

  1. If the UW begins graduating more students who become teachers of critical languages, such as Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and Russian, do we see a concomitant increase in language offerings in the public schools in subsequent years?
     
  2. If the UW increases its language graduation requirement, do we see an increase in higher level language courses (4th and 5th year) in the schools?
     
  3. Is language instruction in the early years increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?
     
  4. How are middle and high schools responding when they have feeder schools that are elementaries offering language immersion?
     
  5. How is the latent demand for language instruction being met? (What languages are taught OUTSIDE the school day, before or after school, evenings, weekends?)
     
  6. How are language programs in the schools meeting the needs of heritage language speakers? If heritage speakers receive better language instruction in K-12, can they achieve better results (in their heritage language) in college?

The Language Studies Mapping Project could be a joint effort, involving collaboration of UW Jackson School, Arts & Sciences, Humanities, OSPI, WAFLT, and the Coalition for International Education. The K-12 oriented organizations (such as OSPI and WAFLT) would focus on communicating with schools and encouraging them to keep their data current, while the UW would would focus on housing the information, disseminating it (via the web), and possibly analyzing it for research purposes or program planning.

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Meeting  6/15/2005

Present:
UW: Paul Aoki (LLC), John Keeler (EU Center and French & Italian), Caleb Perkins (OSPI), Michele Anciaux Aoki (Washington State Coalition for International Education)

Goals for the meeting:

  1. For John's benefit, explain what the Coalition and OSPI (Caleb) are aiming to do regarding World Language Survey and Standards this year.
  2. For Caleb's benefit, explain what the Language Requirement Committee is recommending for UW.
  3. Talk about if and how K12 (OSPI/WAFLT) and higher ed (UW) might collaborate.

Handouts:

(A) Coalition Website & Listservs (project)

Enhance the website to link to schools with language offerings; provide interface for update. Grant (total) $1000.

(B) State Leadership in World Languages (project)

Provide voluntary World Language Standards; give language credit based on proficiency. Grant includes $750 for this.

Here are some documents that may provide some perspective on the issue of World Languages standards in Washington (and even how they fit historically into the goals of Education Reform).

(C) Education Vision Team June 1990

This was a joint effort of the major education associations that provided input into the education reform effort in 1992-3. Note that it recommends that Knowledge include: "International awareness" and "Command of English language" and "Proficiency in additional language."

(D) House Bill 3034 Relating to Foreign Language Instruction (2/4/2000)

Bill that got dropped (then got "dropped" :) in 2000. We should check to see if it's still out there somewhere and whether any original sponsors (include Kenney, McIntire, Santos) would consider supporting it next year.

(E) World Languages Minimum Admissions Standards (1999?)

This was the final version of the ASAC (Admission Standards Action Committee) Recommendations that was provided in a presentation to the GRAD (Graduation Requirements and Diploma) Committee of the State Board of Education by WAFLT. It had been reworked under the influence of Carl Falsgraf from Oregon based on how they documented their world language standards.

(F) World Language/Culture Input email (May 26, 1999)

This was my response to the GRAD committee (I was on the committee too) regarding the WAFLT proposal for a one credit graduation requirement for language and culture

(G) State Standards: Connecting a National Vision to Local Implementation (Paul Sandrock, ACTFL)

A very readable explanation of standards; helps distinguish Content, Performance, Proficiency, and Program Standards.

(H) Foreign Language NAEP Framework (from their website - 1999-2000)

Memo encouraging our state to reengage on foreign language and connect with larger national effort.

(I) PTA Memo to Terry Bergeson re Foreign Language NAEP (Michele Anciaux Oct. 22, 1999)

Memo encouraging our state to reengage on foreign language and connect with larger national effort.

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Resources

Language Resources page on National Coalition website:
http://internationaled.org/language.htm

Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Public High Schools, 1934-2000 | 1-page Word document
Excerpted from "Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Public High Schools, 1890-2000" American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, http://actfl.org.

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