Author: MATSOL

Diversity Needed in the Foreign Service.

MATSOL National News , , ,

U.S. foreign policy is informed and improved by a wider range of experiences, understandings and outlooks. To represent America abroad and relate to the world beyond our borders, the nation needs diplomats whose family stories, language skills, religious traditions and cultural sensitivities help them to establish connections and avoid misunderstandings. For some of our international allies that are themselves facing diversity issues, American diplomats of diverse backgrounds can help them build bridges. For others, diversity in the American diplomatic corps makes the United States seem more approachable.

The Washington Post: The Foreign Service is too white. We’d know, we’re top diplomats.

Who are Dual Language Learners?

MATSOL Language Education Policy ,

New America’s EdCentral is publishing a part of a 10-week series on research, policies, and practices pertaining to the education of dual language learners (DLLs) in U.S. public schools.

Children between the ages of zero- and eight-years-old are the most diverse age group in the United States. Compared to other age groups, they are more likely to be racial and/or ethnic minorities, be born to immigrant parents, and speak a language other than English. Many of these young children are considered dual language learners (DLLs). Yet despite this fact, it is somewhat difficult to find a good estimation for just how many DLLs there are.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.

New America EdCentral: http://www.edcentral.org/dllreader2/

Children exposed to multiple languages may be better natural communicators

MATSOL Scientific Research ,

Researchers discovered that children from multilingual environments are better at interpreting a speaker’s meaning than children who are exposed only to their native tongue. The most novel finding is that the children do not even have to be bilingual themselves; it is the exposure to more than one language that is the key for building effective social communication skills.

UChicago News: Children exposed to multiple languages may be better natural communicators

America’s Lacking Language Skills

MATSOL Language Education Policy

Kirsten Brecht-Baker, the founder of Global Professional Search, recently told me about what she calls “the global war for talent.” Americans, she said, are in danger of needing to import human capital because insufficient time or dollars are being invested in language education domestically. “It can’t just be about specialization [in engineering or medicine or technology] anymore,” she said. “They have to communicate in the language.”

From The Atlantic: America’s Lacking Language Skills

Hearing of the Joint Committee on Education

MATSOL Coalition News

alertSupport the LOOK Bill and the Seal of Biliteracy Bill

Hearing of the Joint Committee on Education
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 10 a.m.
Massachusetts State House, Room 2A

  • See our Legislation page for information about the bills.
  • Let us know via the Contact Us page if you plan to testify.
  • Instructions on how to take action – testify and contact your legislators: English / Spanish

 

The Value of Language Diversity

MATSOL Language Policy ,

We can do more Massachusetts — Support Language Opportunity!

Language diversity brings many benefits: each tongue contains a wealth of knowledge, often reflecting rich spiritual and cultural traditions, critical medicinal and agricultural practices and unique understandings, all providing a lens into how different groups of people view the world. Language is intrinsic to a people’s identity, so to lose a language may mean to lose a people.

We need to take seriously the proposition that languages are part of a person’s – and a society’s – identity and we need to value languages as we do other precious resources.

What would this look like? Local schools would teach in multiple tongues…

LOOK Bill – Letters to the Editor

MATSOL Coalition News, Community News , , ,

Two Letters to the Editor were published in The Boston Globe in support of the March 31 Globe editorial on the LOOK Bill:

Monolingual Ph.D.’s?

MATSOL Language Education Policy

Most US doctoral programs have dropped their foreign language requirements.

Being monolingual is a concrete drawback for today’s science professors, too, given that scientists in most other nations are capable of working in multiple languages. Foreign-language proficiency is not essential to get research done, but it does increase one’s options. Most U.S. scientists might believe that knowing multiple languages is not critical, however, I imagine we might get a different answer if we ask their current and potential research collaborators for whom English is a second language. While internationally visible scholarship is primarily published in English, many of the laboratories that generate this work do not necessarily use English on a day-to-day basis in the lab.

 

Boston Globe Editorial Supports the LOOK Bill

MATSOL Coalition News, Community News , ,

A Boston Globe editorial endorses the LOOK Bill filed by Rep. Sánchez and Sen. DiDomenico:

… the solution may lie beyond the Boston school system — more specifically, on Beacon Hill. Massachusetts’ school districts have been restricted in the way they teach English learners since 2002, when a ballot question crippled bilingual education. Districts were required to use “Sheltered English Immersion,” a method that focuses on teaching academic content in English, limiting the help students can receive in their native language…

… Sánchez’s bill represents the best opportunity to offer better instruction for students learning English — and a chance at a better educational future.

Different Programs for Different Contexts

MATSOL Language Education Policy ,

A new report from Education Commission of the States on State Level English Language Learner Policies examines issues of finance, identification of ELLs, educator quality, and more.

In the section on recognizing the implications of different ELL program approaches, the report states:

State leaders should recognize that different programs will be effective in different contexts. For example, rural school districts with few ELLs and urban districts with high concentrations of ELLs will need different program approaches. Likewise, long-term ELLs, students exiting ELL programs in the early grades and ELLs with interrupted education, for example, all need different kinds of supports and services.

From Education Commission of the States: State Level English Language Learner Policies