US DOE

Webinar: The Benefits of Dual-Language Learning

MATSOL Language Education Policy, National News, US DOE

White House Task Force on New Americans Offers Fourth of Educational and Linguistic Integration Webinar Series, on “The Benefits of Dual-Language Learning,”

Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 2–3 p.m.

This webinar—co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA)—explores the growing body of evidence suggesting that dual-language learners—those who are exposed to more than one language during the course of their development—have cognitive, meta-cognitive, and socio-emotional advantages over children who were exposed to only one language. Among immigrants, higher levels of English fluency and skill are also correlated with higher levels of education and longer residency in the United States. Panelists will share current research and promising practices for promoting biliteracy and increasing English proficiency in immigrant communities.

The webinar link will soon be posted on the webinar series page of OELA’s website, where you can also find materials from past webinars.

Ask Your Representative to Support the World Languages Advancement Act (WLAA)

MATSOL Language Education Policy, National News, US DOE , , ,

alert

Representatives Price (D-NC-4), Lance (R-NJ-7), Crowley (D-NY-14) and Young (R-AK-at large) have introduced the World Language Advancement Act (WLAA), a bipartisan piece of legislation that retains a vitally important, cost-effective program to ensure access to high-quality and innovative world language programming in America’s schools.

The amendment retains a vitally important, cost-effective program to ensure access to high-quality world language programming in America’s schools. The ECAA does not provide for world language programming, depriving the Federal Government of its programmatic ability to signal the importance of world languages to SEAs and LEAs.

American youth deserve to be globally competitive. Knowledge of another language, in addition to English, confers a wide range of benefits on the individual:

  • improved literacy in English, as evidenced by achievement test scores;
  • a greater likelihood of attending and finishing college, across all groups but especially for ELLs and lower SES groups;
  • higher lifelong earnings;
  • lifetime cognitive benefits, such as delaying the onset of symptoms of dementia.

Please write to your Representative asking for support for this important legislation. Your support and action are vital to our collective efforts to ensure that World Language programs remain funded by the US Department of Education. See the American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages website: http://capwiz.com/actfl/issues/alert/?alertid=67181626#sthash.nNWhHKbW.dpuf 

Schools’ Civil Rights Obligations to English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents

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The US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has released new guidance on the civil rights of ELLs and the rights of LEP parents. The resource page includes fact sheets for parents and students in multiple languages, as well as resources for schools and administrators.