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Interview with Clay Pell

The nation’s new language czar speaks with Language Magazine

Last month, the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced the appointment of a new Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Foreign Language Education — Clay Pell, the grandson of former senator Claiborne Pell, after whom the Pell Grant program is named.

Pell comes from the White House, where he served as director for strategic planning on the National Security Staff and helped advance President Obama’s key national security priorities.

For the complete story, click here.

Acclimatizing Saudi Students

Susan Matson offers context and suggestions for helping Saudi Arabian students adjust to the Western educational setting

Although 145,000 Saudi students have enrolled in U.S. intensive English programs and universities since the advent of the King Abdullah scholarship program in 2005, some institutions are still experiencing “the Saudi wave” for the first time as these students learn of smaller and more out-of-the-way educational opportunities over time. At 2013 TESOL conference in Dallas, for example, some U.S. school administrators shared surprise and dismay at the related challenges. Some talked about the adjustments needed by first-time teachers of Saudi nationals, and others commented on the challenges experienced by the Saudi newcomers themselves.

For the complete story, click here.

Coaxing Students Down Under

Kristal Bivona admires Australia’s initiatives to attract international students

This year, Australia is rolling out various initiatives intended to increase the number of international students at Australian universities. The initiatives cut across different sectors, but they all aim to facilitate university study. Australia is paying special attention to Asian countries, as the vast majority of international students in Oz come from around Asia.

A Smarter Australia

Universities Australia, a peak body representing 39 Australian universities in the public interest both nationally and internationally, released a four-year plan for revolutionizing higher education in order to improve prospects for Australia’s future.

The plan, A Smarter Australia: An Agenda for Australian Higher Education 2013-2016, addresses four pressing issues facing Australia: the prevalence of digital technologies; increasing competition from Asian countries and globalization; the need for economic and industrial diversification and renewal; and the need to curb declining national production.

The crux of A Smarter Australia’s agenda is forging a partnership between the government and the university sector to create policy initiatives that will facilitate increasing Australia’s university participation, developing a more globally engaged university sector, creating an innovative research system that drives economic and social progress, and increasing investment.

“With 88 percent of people encouraging their children to obtain a university education, we want to ensure that our universities are equipped to turn this aspiration into graduation,” said Professor Glyn Davis, chair of Universities Australia.

“Our vision is for a smarter Australia — one that is prosperous, diverse, and proud of its inventiveness. We believe that by following this agenda, our universities can make this vision a reality.”

Reaching Out to China

Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a new campaign to promote Australian trade, investment, and tourism opportunities in the Chinese market.

In a statement, Gillard made mention of Australia Week in China, planned to take place in Shanghai in 2014. The campaign is meant to boost Australia’s reputation as an ideal tourism destination and valuable trade and investment partner. The Australian government is investing approximately 1.75 million Australian dollars in the campaign.

China is currently Australia’s biggest trading partner and is responsible for sending more tourists to Australia than any other country.

Education as Trade

The Australian Trade Commission, Austrade, has launched a new section of its website dedicated to international education. The new web pages will make navigating the site easier for education providers. The redesigned website boasts an interactive world map with market profiles and detailed demographic information about the international student population compiled by Australia Education International (AEI).

AEI’s data shows that in 2012, although there were over 515,000 international students on Australian student visas, numbers were down from 2011. Not surprisingly, the highest international student populations come from China (149,758), India (54,396), Korea (27,719), Vietnam (22,551), and Malaysia (21,587). The only non-Asian country ranking in the top ten is Brazil, with 15,092 international students in 2012.

With extra attention on Australian education for international students, it’s possible that Australia’s 2013 numbers will be back up from the dip last year. Early reports from 2013 show an increase in higher-education students turning up for their first semester. Streamlining of the student visa process is credited with the increase.

A Crisis in Indonesian Language Teaching

While Indonesian is Australia’s top critical language, language training in Indonesian is not up to par. While Australia hasn’t been able to successfully address this issue, the Indonesian government has offered a plan.

“We can give some brief training to our students here — those taking masters and doctoral programs (at Australian universities) — and they can be deployed as language instructors on a temporary basis,” said Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, Indonesia’s ambassador to Australia.
Over the last decade, enrollment in Indonesian courses has dropped nearly 40%, and according to a 2010 report, Indonesian courses had a 99% dropout rate.

The ambassador’s offer was well received by university professors, but not quite as enthusiastically as it was by the Department of Foreign Affairs: “The idea of using Indonesian post-grad students in Australia to teach Indonesian in Australian schools is one of several ideas canvassed,” a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade commented.

Whether or not Australia decides to take Indonesia up on its offer, the proposal offers an interesting model that might be of interest to other countries aiming to promote language and culture abroad.

Kristal Bivona is assistant editor at Language Magazine.

Dept of Ed Partners with NCFL to Encourage Family Involvement

The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and the U.S. Department of Education today announced a partnership to advance family engagement in education across the country.

During the yearlong partnership, the Department and NCFL will jointly develop and implement strategies to raise the awareness and understanding of effective family and community engagement in education, including how teachers and families can better collaborate to improve student engagement and learning. This will include:

  • Convening community discussions on family engagement with educators, families and community leaders across the country.
  • Identifying and compiling promising practices and program examples for effective family engagement in education, so schools can employ leading practices that work.
  • Gathering feedback on family engagement frameworks from educators, parents, advocates, and others in the education community.
  • Developing and disseminating resource materials to support family and community engagement in education. An example includes NCFL’s Wonderopolis, an award-winning online learning community that engages classrooms and families in the wonder of discovery.

The partnership will extend the Department of Education’s efforts on family engagement and NCFL’s track record of more than 20 years of providing tools and resources for educators and parents to create engaging lifelong learning opportunities for the entire family.

“Increasing family engagement is key to improving schools and neighborhoods across the country. Parents who play an active role in their children’s education – at home, at school and in the community – have a tremendous impact on factors like school readiness, motivation to learn, and study skills, as well as on high school graduation rates and college preparedness,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We hope this partnership with NCFL will provide much needed support for efforts that will increase family and community engagement in local schools and prepare our children for lifelong success.”

“We see too many communities struggling with how to create meaningful and effective family engagement initiatives,” said Sharon Darling, NCFL president & founder. “Children need to learn in ways that are engaging and relevant to real-life situations, but educators and families tell us they need support to make this happen.

“Simultaneously, the nation’s policy-makers are awakening to the potential of learning beyond the school walls. Through years of experience and talking with parents across the country, we have the recipe for successful family engagement.”

Although no specific provisions have been earmarked for families speaking languages other than English, NCFL programs include the Toyota Family Literacy Program which serves English as a Second Language (ESL) families with children in elementary school, and the Family and Child Education program which serves Native American families with children from birth to grade three and is supported by the Bureau of Indian Education.

Recently, Carolyn Blocker, an educator from Long Beach, California with nearly 25 years of experience, received the NCFL’s 2013 Toyota Teacher of the Year award. Blocker has worked for the past seven years to improve the lives of more than 300 families as a parent education teacher at the Long Beach School for Adults. Blocker and her community’s participants boast numerous achievements, including significant parent engagement and a 90 percent retention of families, despite facing hurdles ranging from economic challenges to language barriers.

Mary Ellen Lesniak, an English as a Second Language adult and family coordinator at the Tolton Center in Chicago, was named The Toyota Teacher of the Year runner-up. Lesniak will receive a $2,500 grant, which she plans to use to purchase iPads for her classroom, as well as a scholarship to attend the conference.

Multilingual Malaysia

Gordon Berrick sees Malaysia’s language skills leading to its success

The classroom filled almost imperceptibly, and by the scheduled 7:30 p.m, start, 30 students were ready to begin their twelve-week course in the Thai language in a meeting room at the YMCA in Penang, Malaysia.

Combining both humble grace and engaging discourse, Professor Prim quickly brought the class to their task at hand, reading out a number of Thai words and phrases while introducing Thai culture to the classroom full of both men and women ranging in age from 18 to 65.

For the complete story, click here.

May 2013

May 2013 Cover

Indigenous Languages
Nunavut Official Languages Act and preserving Nahuatl

Multilingual Malaysia
Gordon Berrick sees Malaysia’s language skills leading to its success

Interview with Clay Pell
The nation’s new language czar speaks with Language Magazine

Coaxing Students Down Under
Kristal Bivona admires Australia’s initiatives to attract international students

Acquiring Academic Literacy from the Inside
Lina Sun breaks down the barriers to academic English from the student’s perspective

La Renaissance Mapping the resurgence of French in America

International Education News

Acclimatizing Saudi Students
Susan Matson offers context and suggestions for helping Saudi Arabian students adjust to the Western educational setting

Keys to the Kingdom
Mark D. Rentz offers success strategies for Saudi scholarship students on intensive English programs

Last Writes Richard Lederer brings English from Olympus

Way with Words

Way with Words

Input-Based Incremental Vocabulary Instruction by Joe Barcroft
TESOL International Association 123 pages ISBN 193-1185752

Joe Barcroft premises his new book, Input-Based Incremental Vocabulary Instruction, by pointing out that while the subject of grammar acquisition has been the centerpiece of second-language acquisition research, newer studies suggest that vocabulary has a central role in language acquisition. Therefore, Barcroft posits that vocabulary should also be central in the development of programs and in the teaching of second languages. He writes, “The purpose of this book is to explain and exemplify an approach to L2 vocabulary instruction that relies heavily on concrete research findings and the theoretical advances that they support.” The explanations and examples are intended to give teachers the tools they need to create their own activities, appropriate for their students, using input-based incremental vocabulary instruction.

The first chapter, “Getting Started with Five Questions,” fosters the reader’s self-assessment of his or her current vocabulary instruction style and brainstorming on how to implement an input-based incremental (IBI) approach. In the next chapter, “Ten Principles of Effective Vocabulary Instruction,” Barcroft outlines ten principles to IBI vocabulary instruction and then thoroughly discusses each principle, looking at its rationale, research support, and theoretical grounding. This chapter answers theoretical questions of how and why, while preserving a more detailed description of how teachers can use an IBI approach in the classroom for later chapters.

Chapter Three, “Checklist for Designing and Implementing Vocabulary Lessons,” is like a how-to guide for creating and executing IBI vocabulary lessons. The seven-item checklist includes deciding on target vocabulary and materials; ensuring that activities are meaningful, educational, and interactive; using cultural and historical information if appropriate; presenting the target vocabulary repeatedly in the input; increasing difficulty of tasks gradually over time; incorporating a number of the principles from Chapter Two; and including directly applicable research findings, which demands “an ongoing consideration of the L2 vocabulary research literature.” The chapter offers a sample lesson and concludes with guidelines for creating vocabulary lessons.

Chapters Four and Five, both entitled “Lessons for Your Classroom,” have a total of ten lessons that teachers can use or adapt for their own classrooms. All ten lessons use the IBI approach independently. Chapter Four’s lessons use multiple sources of input, while Chapter Five focuses on reading as a primary source of input.

The final chapter, Chapter Six, shows how the IBI approach can be used to supplement existing materials. Barcroft recommends supplementing whenever “new vocabulary is (a) not presented in the input with sufficient repetition, (b) not presented using meaning-bearing and sufficiently comprehensible input, and (c) not treated in a manner that respects the incremental nature of vocabulary learning.”

Input-Based Incremental Vocabulary Instruction encourages readers to assess their own methods for teaching vocabulary and gives them tools for how to make their vocabulary lessons more effective using the IBI approach. The book is well-organized, tightly written, and to the point. This book would be a good addition to the reading list of a professional development course, or an excellent tool for language teachers who want to implement this cutting-edge research into their courses and upgrade their vocabulary lessons.

Teachers who are not comfortable reading theory or research might face difficulties in trying to use this book. Because it focuses on a newer approach that goes against long-standing approaches that center on output, Barcroft uses numerous research studies and theories to support the IBI approach to convert skeptics. Teachers who are comfortable reading theory will be rewarded with a book that successfully bridges the gap between research on the IBI approach and its practical implementation in the classroom.

Kristal Bivona is assistant editor at Language Magazine.

Renovating Your Writing

LangMag Review Kallan

Carving Words

Renovating Your Writing: Shaping Ideas into Clear, Concise, and Compelling Messages
Richard Kallan
ISBN-10: 020525439X • ISBN-13: 9780205254392
(c)2013 • Pearson, White Plains, NY

Writing successfully is often a challenging task, one that many people struggle with throughout their careers and lives. In school, students are taught a specific format for writing and revising papers. Out of school, writers are faced with many other types of writing needs that can be taxing and difficult to master. Whether you are writing or revising an essay for a class, drafting a business proposal, or trying to engage in creative activities, writing can prove to be a frustrating and complex process, one that requires precision, time and thought. Richard Kallan’s text breaks down the difficult and often daunting task of writing by providing clear and effective strategies, explanations, and exercises. Renovating Your Writing serves as a useful tool in and outside of the classroom setting, one that offers a detailed insight into the methods of writing, drafting, and revising, of using particular grammatical functions, of creating concise sentences, and more.

Each chapter outlines a particular writing function, offering definitions and simple explanations and providing helpful hints and exercises that allow readers to apply theory to practice. Kallan affirms that the text is designed to hone the skill of a writer who has prior experience with writing but is looking for improvement and mastery. He notes that successful writing takes years of practice and his text serves as a working tool designed to offer tips and strategies that can increase the quality of writing and revising.

Kallan divides the text into two main parts, each of which is separated into chapters with clever titles such as “State Your Purpose Like You Mean It,” “Build Them (Paragraphs) Right and They (Readers) Will Come,” and “Drive Home Your Message: Format Your Document.” Avoiding complicated or coded language, the author offers a non-threatening view of the writing process. His easy-to-follow explanations, numerous examples, and practical strategies encourage the reader to consider effective writing as a feasible and engaging activity.

Part one focuses on the construction of sentences and paragraphs and explains how to make them concise and clear, emphasizing the importance of tightening up a sentence or paragraph while retaining the meaning. Part one also stresses the importance of writing direct statements using active words that result in stronger, clearer, and more coherent sentences. Each chapter in part one provides examples of poorly constructed paragraphs along with their revisions, giving the reader an idea of how well-structured sentences and paragraphs should read. Kallan also discusses the importance of sentence structure for creating an effectively organized paragraph or essay. Part two examines the use of punctuation, clarifies the protocol of writing emails, provides a system to gauge a writer’s skill level, and offers guidance for short story creation.

The value of Kallan’s text resides in its comprehensive approach to writing as an activity inherent to many spheres: academic, professional, and private. He utilizes a clear, informal writing style that allows readers to follow his methods and strategies effortlessly. Kallan’s helpful and easy-to-follow tips bestow confidence on those writers who might be hesitant when learning how to improve their writing. Renovating Your Writing is a relevant and useful text, one that focuses on the rewarding benefits of writing successfully. Kallan’s text is insightful and well structured, offering readers comprehensible rules and tactics to improve their skills in the process and production of writing.

Cristina Fucaloro is an English MA candidate with options in literature and rhetoric/composition at California Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Do you want RESPECT?

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is releasing the Obama Administration’s blueprint for elevating and transforming the teaching profession, also known as the Blueprint for RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching). The far-reaching proposals include more flexibility over the school day, the school year, the classroom set up, seniority structures, the grade-according-to-age system, leadership roles, and pay scales.

RESPECT was first launched in February of 2012 as a national conversation on the teaching profession, shortly after the President committed to support the development of a new, comprehensive teacher policy in his state of the union address.

Since then, the Department has engaged more than 5,700 educators nationwide to develop and refine a vision of teaching and leading that will help both teachers and students to meet the new, 21st century demands being placed on them.
“Our nation’s educators are entrusted with a responsibility that’s impossible to overstate—which is nothing less than to prepare their students, and our children, for the future,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We heard from thousands of teachers from across the country who contributed their time and creative ideas to help the RESPECT blueprint reflect their own vision for the teaching profession. With this blueprint, together we can work to elevate the profession through competitive salaries, transforming professional development and career opportunities, and relying on the expertise of teachers to advance educational practice and improve outcomes for students.”

The RESPECT Blueprint suggests seven key components of a transformed teaching profession:
• A Culture of Shared Responsibility and Leadership
• Top Talent, Prepared for Success
• Continuous Growth and Professional Development
• Effective Teachers and Principals
• A Professional Career Continuum with Competitive Compensation
• Conditions for Successful Teaching and Learning
• Engaged Communities

It further identifies ways that this work will continue to be integrated into the Department’s existing policies and calls the field to take action to work toward the RESPECT vision.

President Obama is asking for a $5 billion investment from Congress to support a RESPECT grant program outlined in the blueprint, including salaries for the teaching profession competitive with professions like architecture, medicine and law, more support for novice teachers, and more career opportunities for accomplished teachers. Special mention is made of the need to provide incentives for English language teachers.

In tandem with the release of the blueprint, the Department has re-launched ED’s educator homepage to include new information about the RESPECT initiative, including the blueprint document (both PDF and e-book formats), a description of how educators provided input, and video of teachers describing their connection with the RESPECT vision. The site also includes resources to help stakeholders take action, including a self-inventory to assess one’s own school or district on the seven critical components of RESPECT.

Visit http://www.ed.gov/teaching for more information.
Let us know what you think of the blueprint by commenting!

First International Conference on Bilingual Education in a Globalized World

Alcalá de Henares, Spain, May 9-11, 2013

Instituto Franklin-UAH will host the First International Conference on Bilingual Education in a Globalized World: Comparison between Spain and the United States. This conference aims to be an open forum for debate among specialists and people interested in education, bilingualism and its relationship with other social, cultural, political, economic, linguistic and pedagogical issues.

The conference is organized around different themes:

Economic aspects: how are bilingual programs financed in the US and Spain; governmental institutions that participate and how; how will bilingualism be financed in the future?
Political aspects: the politics of bilingualism in the US and Spain, election campaigns and bilingualism, immigration and bilingualism.

Social and cultural aspects: changes in the American and Spanish societies due to bilingualism; the challenges that families face and how they are dealing with them.

Linguistic aspects: teaching American – British English in Spain; teaching Peninsular and Latin American Spanish in the US. Spanglish.

Psychopedagogical aspects: methods of bilingual education; new technologies; quality seals, learning psychology, methods and models of learning new languages.
Click here for more

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