Davidson Reports AC Research at Capitol Hill Summit

Dr. Dan E. Davidson, president of American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, addressed the Summit on the need for U.S. students of foreign languages to study overseas and immerse themselves in the languages and cultures they are studying in order to achieve higher levels of language proficiency. Davidson made his remarks as he led a panel of experts speaking on the subject of Preparing the Next Generation: National Security and Global Diplomacy, at a July 20 Capitol Hill policy summit on "Language Learning for a Global Age."

Davidson recalled Nelson Mandela's famous dictum, "If you speak to a man in a language he understands, you speak to his head. If you speak to him in his own language, you speak to his heart." Davidson noted, "We aren't teaching our students to speak to hearts," and this trend must be reversed if America is to regain primacy in critical foreign language learning.

Speaking from the point of view of the business community, Alfred Mockett noted that "business may be global but markets are multi-local." That is, business markets are scattered geographically and have different demands. But by being multi-local--many localized business centers operating in synch--global corporations understands on-the-ground sensitivities of local markets. "And that [type of cross-border understanding and cooperation] need to start in K-12." Mockett is CEO of American Managements Systems, a multinational tech corporation with annual sales of nearly $1 billion.

Reflecting on the needs of government and diplomacy, Ambassador James F. Collins, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and former Trustee of American Councils, made the point that the nature of diplomacy has changed. "In the Cold War, we dealt with 12 people in Moscow. Now in the same region we deal with 300 to 400 million people, all of whom expect to be a participant in the dialogue." Collins pleaded that we, as a nation, have to train people in languages that are in demand, "so we are ready to speak to the world and to be heard in their languages."

Davidson stressed that by sending more U.S. students abroad on well-designed overseas study programs they will have a greater potential to raise their proficiency levels. He illustrated his point with pre-and post-program testing data taken from the ACTR/RLASP and NSEP/ Language Flagship Programs, demonstrating that students of Arabic and Russian who enter their programs at a limited working proficiency level (level 2) on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, can achieve professional-level working proficiency (level 3) or higher as a result of participating in overseas programs with high-quality program design. The data reported by Davidson were included in his recently published article on language learning and study abroad in the spring 2010 edition of Foreign Language Annals.

To ensure that students are able to enter study abroad programs at a level 2 on the ILR scale, Davidson noted, they must be given the proper tools to succeed. Strengthen the "input", he said, by beginning language training as early as possible and improving foreign language teaching capabilities, and the "output" will follow suit.

The "Excellence and Innovation in Language Learning Act", legislation that will soon be introduced by Congressional Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ), Judy Chu (D-CA) and Paul Tonko (D-NY), will support the tools needed and usher progress in U.S. foreign language learning. The bill would authorize $400 million in funding in FY 2011 for the teaching of foreign languages to K-12 students. Congressional sponsors expressed their hope that the legislation would be incorporated in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Early language learning programs, together with other U.S. government-supported initiatives including the State Department's National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), Critical Language Scholarships (CLS), and Title VIII programs, the Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Title VI programs, and the NSEP’s Language Flagship programs will continue to create successful pathways for advanced language learning for U.S. students.

The language learning policy summit, held on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, brought together a wide range of speakers representing the business sector, the non-profit education community, policymakers and other stakeholders. The summit highlighted the importance of expanding U.S. citizens' proficiency in a wide range of world languages, starting in the early grades, to keep the United States competitive in today's global environment. The event was sponsored by a coalition of five organizations-the Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning, the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), National Education Association (NEA), the Committee for Economic Development (CED), and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).