Group Action Plans (CA)
Title of the Group Area: Architecture of the Profession
|
Confirmed Priority Concerns: |
Proposed Strategies for Addressing at least
three top Identified Concerns: |
Individual(s), organization(s)
or institution(s) that have the resources or the authority
to take the lead in addressing the concerns: |
| Lack of status due
to the fact that foreign language is not a core subject and
not assessed in SAT 9. |
- Establishing foreign language as a core subject needs
to be the top priority for the profession. This action
has the greatest potential to elevate the status of foreign
language and making it the priority that it needs to have
in the twenty-first century.
- California Standards must be developed in the area of
foreign language and other relevant documents that support
language education, such as frameworks which need to be
adopted and published. These documents need to reflect
language teachers' knowledge and experience in teaching
language in California and their perspectives for advancing
the goals of the profession.
- Foreign language needs to be added to the statewide
assessment and reporting system. We recommend that the
current Golden State Exams in Spanish be expanded to include
other languages taught in California schools, such as
French, German, Japanese, etc., and that by the academic
year 2004-2005, foreign language be included in the SAT
9 assessment program.
- Financial incentives need to be provided to establish
excellent language programs at every level. At the same
time, the foreign language profession needs to be committed
to ensuring that these programs lead to students developing
high levels of communicative competency.
|
- CDE, Curriculum Commission, State Board of Education
- CDE, State Board Education
|
| Need to relate the
relevance of foreign language to personal and career goals
to students, parents and society at large. |
- Second/third language learning should be an equal component
in the K-16 curriculum. Program component needs to be
integrated with other initiatives such as service learning,
school to work, parental and community involvement.
- Foreign language programs should establish extended
activities which take students beyond the classroom, such
as student internships with appropriate and relevant businesses
and organizations, opportunities to participate in travel
study, and cultural exchange programs both at home and
abroad.
- The foreign language profession must seek and/or establish
media outlets to publicize the benefits of multilingualism
both at the local, state and national level. The publicity
needs to reflect specific examples of students' success
stories while they are in the process of learning the
language, and later employing it in their professional
contexts.
|
- CDE, local school districts
- Local schools, foreign language department, business,
and industry
- CLTA, every language teacher
|
| Need for all foreign
language teachers to pursue continuous professional growth
and to attain the goal of effectively teaching languages to
all students.
|
Language teachers must be afforded opportunities
and incentives to keep current in both content and effective
instructional practices. Such opportunities could include:
- Support for Colleague Collaboration at school sites
and within professional organizations.
- Training in new technologies to extend resources and
explore new learning opportunities that have not yet been
tapped.
- Inservice in current methodologies to ensure that professional
practices continuously exemplify current thinking in the
field.
- Increase funding to districts to support foreign language
programs, and to professional development networks to
support teachers to improve their practices.
- Activities that deepen knowledge of the subject matter
through immersion programs, travel/study abroad and distant
learning.
- Expansion of professional development programs sponsored
by CLTA and CFLP.
- Support for K-12 language educators to engage in the
same opportunities afforded to their colleagues in higher
education, such as sabbatical leave, fellowships, and
release time to pursue professional activities.
|
- CFLP, CLTA, other available resources
- Foundation grants, NEH, Fullbright
|
|
