22, no. 2 (Winter 1991): Back Matter
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Back Matter Winter 1991
National foreign Language Resource Centers Selected
The US Department of Education has chosen Georgetown University of Hawaii, and San Diego State University to serve as national foreign language resource centers. Awards will enable the institutions toi strengthen existing and explore innovative ideas on language intruction.
A $1.2 million grant will allow the Georgetown Unniversity School of Language and Linguistics, conjunction with the Center for Applied Linguistics, to conduct research on second-language acquisition and language-learning strategis, to develop proficiency-based tests, to provide teacher-training work-shops, and to expand the database of materials that are used in the study of less taught languages. The codirectors of the projects are James E. Alatis, dean of the school, and G Richard Tucker, president of CAL. For further information, write Victoria Chertok, Office of Public Relation, Georgetown Univ., 37th and O Sts., NW, Washington, DC 20057.
The Second-Language Teaching and Curriculum Center of the University of Hawaii, a support program in the university's College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature, was awarded a grant of $1.25 million. The money will be used to bring internationally known professors to the university to participate in foreign language projects and to teach. An intern program will provide foreign language professionals with training in language-intruction techniques and materials development. Summer institutes will be held to teachers of Asian and Pacific languages. Funding will also be used for basic research, distribution of teaching materials, and improvement of techniques and facilities for interpretation and translation. The director ofthe center is Robert Bley-Vroman. For information, write or call Richard Seymour, Office of University Relations, Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822; 808 956-8516.
The Language Acquisition Resource Center at San Diego State University will apply its award to researching the use of video stimuli; to evaluating interactive software; to creating a template for interactive multilanguage software; to investigating the feasibility of a teacher-editor software that would let instructors easily modify texts; and to training intructors in improved teaching methods. The director of the center is Paul Strand. For further information, write Language Acquisition Resource Center, Coll. of Arts and Letters, San Diego State Univ., San Diego, CA 92182-0230.
Good News and Not such Good News form the 101st Congress
The appropriations bill for the US departments of Labor, Health and Human Sevices, and Education contains $5 million for the Foreign Language Assistance Act, which mandates federal matching funds for model programs in elementary and secondary foreign language education. The law has been in existence for three years but has never been funded. The efforts by Senators Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and constant pressure from the bill's creators, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Paul Simon (D-IL) and Congressman Leon Panetta (D-CA), made this significant legislative initiative a reality.
Every year since 1987, when he saved the Foreign Language Assistance Act on the funding for this and other foreign language programs. Cindy Cisneros, Panetta's legislative aide, points out that an important factor contributing to the passage of the $5 million appropriation was the number of letters and calls members of Congress received from language professionals.
Additional good news from Washington is that funding for Title 6 of the Higher Education Act, dealing with foreign languages and area studies, will rise by $6-7 million. This increase will raise the appropriations for these programs and for the attendant Fulbright overseas components administered by the Department of Education to $6-47 million. Title 6 supports research, undergraduate programs, scholarships, sites for area studies and foreign language learning, and the new international business centers, as well as three new foreign language resource centers, in Washington, DC; California; and Hawaii.
Unfortunately, the 101st Congress did not pass any new education bills. Senate Republicans requested holds on the two bills the Senate had already passed, the Comprehensive Illiteracy Elimination Act (S 1310) and the Educational Excellent Act (S 695). The National Teacher Act (S 1676), which would have created national teacher academies in foreign languages, literacy, and other fields and provided loan forgiveness for those teaching in critical fields such as foreign languages, was not scheduled for Senate-floor action. The result was that the House, which passed the omnibus Equity and Excellent in Education Act (HR 5115) on 20 July, could not go to conference with the Senate to produce final legislation.
International Document on Language Rights
The Fédération internationale des professeurs de langues vivantes (FIPLV) has released a working document entitled Towards a Universal Declaration of Language Rights. The FIPLV hopes to have the declaration adopted by UNESCO and the United Nations and eventually incorporated in local, national, and supranational language policies. Following is a partial summary of the articles in this preliminary document, adopted by an FIPLV colloquium on 25 April 1989:
- Everyone has the rights to be taught his or her native language.
- Everyone has the rights to be taught the official language of his or her state or region
- Everyone has the right to be taught at least one additional language. Exercise ofthis right will enhance international understanding
- Everyone has the right to be educated to a level that ensures written and oral competency in the languages specified in the first three articles.
- Everyone has the right to identify with any language, irrespective of its territorial boundaries.
- Everyone has the right for the language with which he or she identifies to be respected by all public institutions of laws, health, and welfare.
© 1991 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
ADFL Bulletin 22, no. 2 (Winter 1991): Back Matter |
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