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September 15, 2013
Languages in the News
Letters about the U.S. Department
of Education’s International Strategy and the Office of
Postsecondary Education’s Title VI and Fulbright–Hays programs
The Presidents of the American Association of Community Colleges
(AACC), the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities (AASCU), the American Council on Education (ACE),
the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association
of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and the National
Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU)
co-wrote a letter to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Education (DOE), in response to a document
recently created by the DOE called Succeeding Globally Through
International Education and Engagement 2012-2016 International
Strategy report. Although the presidents welcomed the DOE’s
focus on international education, they articulated that they
were surprised and disappointed that “a report that details the
next four years of the Department’s international education
strategy makes scant mention of its largest and most successful
international education programs, Title VI/Fulbright Hays.” The
Title VI/Fulbright Hays programs support instruction in
less-commonly taught languages, conduct research related to
national security; and provide global learning experiences for
American students. The presidents contended that our nation’s
global competency relies on deep knowledge and expertise in
foreign language and cultures. Further, the presidents
underlined the critical role that the National Resource Centers
and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships play in
providing opportunities to study abroad and foreign languages.
The presidents conclude their letter with a request to further
discuss the Department’s international education strategy and
how Title VI/Fulbright Hays programs serve as a way to achieve
the Department’s goal.
David A. Bergeron, Acting
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Postsecondary Education in
the U.S. Department of Education, responded to the letter from
the Presidents of the five associations with a letter that
emphasized the DOE’s commitment to international education.
Bergeron stated that “promoting global competencies” is a key
component of international education and the goal for every
student. He also declared that proficiency in foreign languages
and cultures are essential for “national defense, intelligence,
homeland security, and law enforcement.” Bergeron declared that
the DOE has a variety of programs, in addition to the Title VI
and Fulbright-Hays programs, that promote global competency, and
he attached a list of those programs with brief descriptions of
them and the amount of funding they receive to his letter.
Please click on this link to read about these programs.
Click
here to read Letters about the
U.S. Department of Education’s International Strategy and the
Office of Postsecondary Education’s Title VI and Fulbright–Hays
programs.
Tips and Tools
Websites
The Jasmine Flower Song
The Jasmine Flower Song (mo li hua) was a
popular folk song in China over one hundred years ago. It is a
famous folk song that has many different versions. It
traditionally originates in the southern China provinces.
Click
here to access The Jasmine
Flower Song.
LiveBinders
This site is a helpful tool for those
that seek a way to combine files for a personal portfolio, a
classroom portfolio or a website to post information for
students and families. Visitors can use it for free, but a fee
of $100 per year is charged for those wishing to take advantage
of the many links to documents, photos and videos.
This tool is similar to capabilities of
Google Drive/Sites, where one can put multiple documents,
photos, videos and calendars for a wide variety of audiences.
The short video tutorial gives users an overview of the
capabilities of this tool.
Click
here to access LiveBinders.
Apps for iPads, iPods and iPhones
Learn
Spanish for Toddlers – Bilingual Child Bubbles Word Game
This free app is designed for toddlers can be used for
elementary age children also. Tap the correct bubbles to
practice a faster recall with no penalties for wrong answers.
Two vocabulary packs are included consisting of numbers 1-10 and
animals. Eight other vocabulary packs are available for a small
price. This app uses the written and spoken language as well as
graphics.
Click
here to see the app in iTunes.
Fun Spanish Language Learning
Games for Kids aged 3-10
The colors pack in this
app is free and consists of six games to practice vocabulary. If
purchasing the other two vocabulary packs (animals and numbers
1-10), the types of games change to add variety and include five
games each. The words spoken are always in the target language;
however the names of each game can be displayed in one of nine
different languages under settings.
Click
here to see the English app in iTunes.
Click
here to see the Spanish app in iTunes.
Click
here to see the Chinese app in iTunes.
This
issue of Newsworthy was compiled by Tammy Dann.
Send any comments, questions or information for future issues to
her at tdann@nnell.org
Thank you to Heather Hendry,
Zhihong Li, Shanon Shreffler, and
Andrea Suarez for providing the links and to
Amy Murphy for providing the apps used in this
issue.
Thank you to Amy Murphy,
Kennedy Schultz, Sally Hood and
Zhihong Li for their work writing summaries.
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