News Releases

The National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University receives $1.3 million grant

December 12, 2006

Spanish, Chinese language literacy deemed central to national security by U.S. Government

Marcia Rosenbusch

The National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at Iowa State University has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from The U.S. Department of Education to improve the nation's capacity for teaching and learning languages over the next four years. Spanish language two-way immersion programs and Mandarin Chinese language programs for kindergarten and elementary students are already underway.

Marcia Rosenbusch, director of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, stresses the importance of improving the quality of foreign language teaching in America's schools.

"After 9/11, the recognized lack of success in finding Americans who could communicate in other languages was seen as a crisis in national security," said Rosenbusch. Because of this crisis, the U.S. Government targeted foreign language teaching and learning initiatives as a national security priority and made more money available to support these initiatives.

The grant money will fund a number of initiatives, among them, Spanish two-way immersion programs in two school districts with substantial minority student enrollments, as well as development of a Chinese curriculum and language program for kindergarten through fifth grade students that will be used in schools throughout the country.

Two-way Spanish immersion programs

The two participating elementary schools were selected for the two-way immersion program from applications received by the Iowa Department of Education. "They were chosen because there is at least a fifty/fifty split between English and Spanish speakers," Rosenbusch said. "In a 'two-way' program the student population has two different home languages and instruction takes place for all students in both languages."

Some teachers in the program teach only in Spanish while other teachers teach only in English throughout the school day. All students receive half of their school content in Spanish and half in English.

Rosenbusch said it is important for children to learn to read and write in both languages because research suggests that when Spanish-speaking children have a solid foundation in reading and writing their first language, Spanish, they are better equipped to learn English.

For Rosenbusch, "This work is about finding ways to keep kids in school. That's an important aspect of what we are trying to do." When the curriculum respects both American and Spanish-speaking cultures, students are more likely to respect each other. "School becomes a comfortable place for everyone."

"When American kids are learning Spanish, they understand how difficult it can be for their Spanish-speaking classmates to communicate. This creates a feeling of empathy in the classroom," said Holly Kaptain, a research assistant who works with the immersion program.

Rosenbusch noted that many American kids will be dealing with people who speak other languages in the future. From her educational viewpoint, "It's important to ask ourselves: How well are we preparing our students for the real world?"

Planning a K-5 Chinese language curriculum

Chinese is one of the languages identified in the American Government's National Security Language Initiative (NSLI). The initiative is designed to increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages from kindergarten through university and into the workforce. The NSLI recognizes the need to engage foreign government officials and peoples, especially those living in regions of the world identified as critical like China, to promote understanding and communication.

"This is a planning year for the kindergarten through fifth grade Chinese program" Rosenbusch said. "We are identifying six school districts throughout the country where we can try out the curriculum." According to Rosenbusch, teachers will teach Chinese curriculum to students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The NFLRC

Established in 1994, the NFLRC is the only center funded by the U.S. Department of Education that focuses on improving foreign language education for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The center is a collaborative effort of the Iowa State University Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and World Languages and Cultures, the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC, and leaders in the field of K-12 foreign language education who work in schools, colleges, and universities.

Other projects funded by the grant include: development of online resources for K-12 foreign language teaching professionals and online assessments of listening, speaking, reading and writing; development of foreign language curriculum; and longitudinal research on how students' progress in language proficiency relates to their scores on standardized tests in mathematics and English literacy.

"We support teaching in the language at every level of proficiency. We encourage students to use a [foreign] language every chance they get," Rosenbusch said.

Contacts:

Marcia Harmon Rosenbusch, National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, (515) 294-6699

Cathy Curtis, College of Human Sciences, (515) 294-8175

Lori Runkle, College of Human Sciences, (515) 294-9424