New Visions in Action - Foreign Language Education

New Visions in Action is a process begun in 1998 by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at Iowa State University and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). New Visions is an innovative series of actions that both involves and impacts the entire academic foreign language community in the United States. It is broad in scope, ambitious in goals, and far-reaching in its long-term impact. Most importantly, it is structured to yield significant and achievable results: graduates of U.S. schools who demonstrate foreign language competence. New Visions in Action seeks to identify and implement the actions necessary to revamp the language education system so that it can more effectively achieve the important goal of language proficiency for all students. New Visions in Action advocates that all students have the opportunity for and access to quality language instruction regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, or gender.

Steering Committee Co-chairs

Myriam Met is the Acting Director at the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. She served as Coordinator of Foreign Languages for Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland) for 15 years. Dr. Met has developed instructional programs and curriculum, and been involved with teacher training at the K-12 and postsecondary levels in the U.S., Europe, Japan, South America, and Canada. She has published in journals and professional books in the area of K-12 curriculum, instruction, and teacher development for foreign language, bilingual education, and ESL programs; and has authored textbooks for elementary, middle and high school. Among the honors she has received are ACTFL's Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in K-12 Foreign Language Education, a Pioneer in Bilingual Education award from the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), and the Palmes Academiques from the government of France.

CONTACT MYRIAM MET

Ann Tollefson has a long and distinguished record as a foreign language teacher and administrator. She served as president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 1997and the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Languages (PNCFL) in 1995 and 2002. She has been the project director of five projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Fulbright-Hayes Group Study Abroad Project to West Africa, and two Foreign Language Assistance Projects (FLAP) funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She received the 2002 ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in K-12 Education. She is currently a foreign language consultant for the Wyoming Department of Education.

CONTACT ANN TOLLEFSON

Activities & Meetings