STARTALK & Heritage Languages in the United States

2010 ACTFL

Shuhan Wang, PhDCo-Principal Investigator, STARTALK

November 20, 2010

STARTALK

• Part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI)

• Summer programs for students and teachers in critical languages Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu

• Will continue through 2013

2010: 134 Programs

Student Teacher Combined TOTALArabic 19 13 1 33Chinese 47 37 7 91Dari 0 4 0 4Hindi 12 8 0 20Persian 3 6 0 9Russian 0 6 0 6Swahili 3 3 0 6Turkish 2 3 0 5Urdu 3 5 0 8

2010 Enrollments

Language Students Teachers TotalArabic 603 263 866Chinese 3026 1401 4427Dari 0 2 2Hindi 386 80 466Persian 132 50 182Russian 0 44 44Swahili 27 11 38Turkish 31 15 46Urdu 39 15 54Total 4244 1881 6125

1835: A language story

1122: Having some exposure

to STLK TL

535: Studied but not a home

language

587: TL spoken at home

460: As a NL or learned from

parents

68: Study in school but

parents & adults speak it

59: Never learned TL but parents/adults

speak it

704: No exposureSTARTALK

Students

Who are STARTALK teacher trainees? 2009 Data

• 19% list English as their native language• 91% were born outside the US• 51% were over the age of 40 • 86% are female• 53% had advanced degrees in different

fields (48% have a master’s degree)• 20% certified to teach the language; 54%

plan to become certified

What did instructors/teacher trainees want?

• More time to prep classroom• More information on standards• Background on US student culture• Differentiated classrooms• Assessment• Culture• Technology

STARTALK as Resources: 2011

• 10 Languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, and Portuguese.

• Funding is expected to increase slightly.

Teacher Development Materials Collection• 10 Teacher Training Videos • 12 Multimedia Teacher Workshops• Collection of Curriculum Plans and Resources• Online Curriculum Guide • Resource Lists• Fieldtrip Paper and Guide

Consortium of National Language Program Databases

• Funded under STARTALK• NFLC collaborates with the Center for Applied

Linguistics to build the specifications of the database

• Invite partnering networks that collect databases, particularly heritage language groups

http://www.startalk.umd.edu

Shuhan Wang swang@nflc.org