National Security Language Initiative

**************************************************************
NetHappenings Mailing List ©1993
Subscribe - Unsubscribe - Email Preferences
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html

Educational CyberPlayGround Community Mailing Lists
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/
Advertise NetHappenings Guidlines
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html
**************************************************************


**************************************************************
LITERACY - WHY IS ENGLISH SO HARD TO LEARN?
Integrate literacy (Language Arts), the arts (music) and
technology into the classroom using Interdisciplinary,
thematic, collaborative Online Curriculum, Readability Tools
Resources about American Dialects.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/dialect.asp
**************************************************************

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
January 5, 2006  2006/12
Fact Sheet
National Security Language Initiative

President Bush today launched the National Security Language
Initiative (NSLI), a plan to further strengthen national security and
prosperity in the 21st century through education, especially in
developing foreign language skills. The NSLI will dramatically
increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign
languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi,Farsi, and others
through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through university
and into the workforce. The President will request $114 millionin FY07
to fund this effort.

 An essential component of U.S. national security in the post-9/11
world is the ability to engage foreign governments and peoples,
especially in critical regions, to encourage reform, promote
understanding, convey respect for other cultures and provide an
opportunity to learn more about our country and its citizens. To do
this, we must be able to communicate in other languages, a challenge
for which we are unprepared.

 Deficits in foreign language learning and teaching negatively affect
our national security, diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence
communities and cultural understanding. It prevents us from
effectively communicating in foreign media environments, hurts
counter-terrorism efforts, and hamstrings our capacity to work with
people and governments in post-conflict zones and to promote mutual
understanding. Our business competitiveness is hampered in making
effective contacts and adding new markets overseas.

To address these needs, under the direction of the President, the
Secretaries of State, Education and Defense and the Director of
National Intelligence have developed a comprehensive national plan to
expand U.S. foreign language education beginning in early childhood
and continuing throughout formal schooling and into the workforce,
with new programs and resources.

 The agencies will also seek to partner with institutions of learning,
 foundations and the private sector to assist in all phases of this
initiative, including partnering in the K-16 language studies, and
providing job opportunities and incentives for graduates of these programs.

 The National Security Language Initiative has three broad goals:

- Expand the number of Americans mastering critical need languages
and start at a younger age by:

-· Providing $24 million to create incentives to teach and study
critical need languages in K-12 by re-focusing the Department of
Education's Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grants.

-· Building continuous programs of study of critical need
languages from kindergarten to university through a new $27 million
program, which will start in 27 schools in the next year through DOD's
NSEP program and the Department of Education, and will likely expand
to additional schools in future  years.

-· Providing State Department scholarships for summer,
academic year/semester study abroad, and short-term opportunities for
high school students studying critical need languages to up to 3,000
high school students by summer 2009.

-· Expanding the State Department Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching
Assistant Program, to allow 300 native speakers of critical need
languages to come to the U.S. to teach in U.S. universities and
schools in 2006-07.

-· Establishing a new component in State's Teacher Exchange
Programs to annually assist 100 U.S. teachers of critical need
languages to study abroad.

-· Establishing DNI language study "feeder" programs, grants
and initiatives with K-16 educational institutions to provide summer
student and teacher immersion experiences, academic courses and
curricula, and other resources for foreign language education in less
commonly taught languages targeting 400 students and 400 teachers in 5
states in 2007 and up to 3,000 students and 3,000 teachers by 2011 in
additional states.

- Increase the number of advanced-level speakers of foreign
languages, with an emphasis on critical needs languages by:

-· Expanding the National Flagship Language Initiative to a
$13.2 million program aiming to produce 2,000 advanced speakers of
Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009.

-· Increasing to up to 200 by 2008 the annual Gilman
scholarships for financially-needy undergraduates to study critical
need languages
abroad.

-· Creating new State Department summer immersion study
programs for up to 275 university level students per year in critical
need languages.

-· Adding overseas language study to 150 U.S. Fulbright
student scholarships annually.

-· Increasing support for immersion language study centers
abroad.

- Increase the number of foreign language teachers and the
resources for them by:
Establishing a National Language Service Corps for Americans
 with proficiencies in critical languages to serve the nation by:


 1. Working for the federal government; and/or
 2. Serving in a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps (CLRC); and/or
 3. Joining a newly created Language Teacher Corps to teach languages
in our nation's elementary, middle, and high schools.

This program will direct $14 million in FY07 with the goal of having
1,000 volunteers in the CLRC and 1,000 teachers in our schools before
the end of the decade.

Establishing a new $1 million nation-wide distance-education
E-Learning Clearinghouse through the Department of Education to
deliver foreign language education resources to teachers and students
across the country.

Expand teacher-to-teacher seminars and training through a $3 million
Department of Education effort to reach thousands of foreign language
teachers in 2007.


<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
Copyright statements to be included when reproducing
annotations from NetHappenings the largest
and oldest K12 Education Mailing List
exploring and using the World Wide Web.

The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when
reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com
NetHappenings copyright
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html


FREE EDUCATION VENDOR DIRECTORY LISTING
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Directory/

HOT LIST REGISTRY OF K12 SCHOOLS ONLINE
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>

Other related posts: