This volume comprises of chapters that deal with language proficiency relating to a wide range of language program issues including curriculum, assessment, learners and instructors, and skill development. The chapters cover various aspects of a broad-based proficiency initiative, focusing on numerous aspects of foreign language learning, including how skills develop, how assessments can inform curriculum, how learners and instructors view proficiency and proficiency assessment, and how individual use of technology furthers language learning. The concluding chapter points the way forward for issues and questions that need to be addressed.

This volume comprises of chapters that deal with language proficiency relating to a wide range of language program issues including curriculum, assessment, learners and instructors, and skill development. The chapters cover various aspects of a broad-based proficiency initiative, focusing on numerous aspects of foreign language learning, including how skills develop, how assessments can inform curriculum, how learners and instructors view proficiency and proficiency assessment, and how individual use of technology furthers language learning. The concluding chapter points the way forward for issues and questions that need to be addressed.

International Education and Foreign Languages reviews the Department of Education's Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs, which provide higher education funding for international education and foreign language programs. This book offers a timely look at issues that are increasingly important in an interconnected world. It discusses the effect of the nation's lack of expertise in foreign languages and cultural knowledge on national security and global competitiveness and it describes the challenges faced by the U.S. educational system and the federal government in trying to address those needs. The book also examines the federal government's recent proposal to create a new National Security Language Initiative, the role of the Department of Education, and current efforts to hold higher education programs accountable. This book provides information and recommendations that can help universities, educators, and policy makers establish a system of foreign language and international education that is ready to respond to new and unanticipated challenges around the world.

This book offers new understanding of the implications of pluralism and of transnational movements to higher education and the construct of a “native speaker” within contemporary globalization processes. Theoretically, it calls for a revisioned English as an International Language (EIL) pedagogy and a wider acceptance of EIL and of World Englishes. It challenges the postsecondary education sector to change the discourse around language proficiency to one that engages the “pluralism of English.” As for the applied significance, the book contributes to the work on neo-racism which means racism goes beyond color to stereotypic foreign cultures, nationalities, and exotic accents based on cultural distinctions instead of merely skin differences. The book contributes to higher education policy and practice, pushing a revisioning of ESL in conceptual and pedagogical ways, such as designing more culturally oriented curriculum, implementing culturally responsive pedagogy, and valuing the teaching proficiency more than the language proficiency.

Foreign language teaching in America today falls into three distinct fields of influence and interest: public and private schools, college and other post-secondary programs, and courses for adult learners. At a time when academics and instructors in each of these fields seek to answer similar questions, too few published resources recognize and address the parallels among them. In response, Foreign Language Education in America is an edited book with contributions that represent the diversity in foreign language education today, including perspectives from elementary, middle schools, high schools, university-level courses, summer programs, federal government, and international learning. This is a practical guide to the state of the field that fills a much-needed gap for scholars, researchers, administrators, and practitioners who are looking for a resource that describes effective practices across the field.

In February 1992, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in Washington, D.C., convened a 2-day roundtable meeting of education leaders with expertise in foreign language education and community college teaching and administration in order to formulate a foreign language education policy statement for AACC. This report presents the results of the roundtable. Following a preface by David R. Pierce, and a foreword by James Herbert, the "AACC Foreign Language Education Policy Statement" is offered, underscoring the critical responsibility that community colleges have in meeting the nation's new need for citizens who can function in a multi-linguistic world. The statement also details recommendations to community college leaders related to making foreign language education a priority; and strengthening related programs, faculty development efforts, and articulation agreements. Next, the following roundtable background papers are presented: (1) "Foreign Language Education at Community Colleges" by David A. Berry; (2) "Making the Most of the Articulation Process," by Fe Pittman Brittain; (3) "Uses of Technology To Teach Foreign Languages at Community Colleges," by John Underwood; (4) "Foreign Language Instruction Across the Curriculum: A Strategy and Model," by Joyce S. Tsunoda; and (5) "Proficiency Goals and Teaching of Literature in the Foreign Language Classroom," by Bette G. Hirsch and Chantal P. Thompson. Finally, a directory of participants, along with selected quotes from several participants is provided. (MAB)

This volume addresses critical challenges and issues facing foreign language departments in colleges and universities across the U.S. It presents the insights of individuals who have built or are in the process of building foreign language curricula during a major transition period in postsecondary institutions. The authors of this volume come from various language departments and institutional experience from across the U. S., including private and public postsecondary foreign language teachers, researchers and administrators. The chapters address issues and provide templates for curricular change at all learning levels. The five sections of this book explore: Changing Perceptions about Foreign Language Learning; The Case for a Multi-literacy FL Curriculum in Concept and Assessment Praxis; Curricular Transformations: Historical Hurdles and Faculty Heuristics; Rethinking the Graduate Curriculum; Foreign Languages' Integration into the Interdisciplinary University. “This thought-provoking and timely volume addresses the question of how historic and current disciplinary, institutional and political conditions affect curricular transformation in collegiate foreign language programs. Responding to the issues raised in the 2007 MLA Report, this collection of nine essays presents a diversity of curricular models and approaches from different theoretical perspectives focusing on the integration of language and content. The book will undoubtedly be of great interest to a broad audience, such as foreign language educators, curriculum designers, administrators, graduate students and researchers.” Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, Yale College, CT, USA.