07.03.2008
DEPARTMENT OF STATE PROGRAMS This document is from a briefing in Washington D.C.
Information current as of 3/22/06 State Department programs will provide new opportunities for American high school students, undergraduates and graduate students to study critical need languages abroad, and will strengthening foreign language teaching in the U.S. through exchanges and professional development. President Bush has requested $115 million in FY 2007 for the NSLI, of which $26.7 million will support programs managed by the Department of State. U.S. Fulbright Student Program: Will provide up to six months of intensive language training in Turkic, Indic, and Arabic language countries as an add-on before the normal Fulbright grant period begins. Open to Americans applying for the Fulbright student program in selected countries where critical need languages are spoken. Visit: http://us.fulbrightonline.org or www.iie.org
Intensive Summer Language Institutes: Will award scholarships for intensive overseas summer language institutes for beginning, intermediate, and advanced study in Arabic, Indic, and Turkic languages in 2006. Institutes in Chinese, Russian and Persian will be added in 2007. Open to American undergraduate and graduate students. Gilman Scholarships: Will provide financial support to pursue overseas study in critical need languages in semester or one-year programs for college credit. Open to American undergraduates who are Pell grant recipients (financially-needy). Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants: Will provide teaching assistants in critical need languages to U.S. universities, colleges, and high schools by bringing native speaking teachers to the United States for one academic year at the beginning of their careers. Visit: http://www.exchanges.state.gov or www.iie.org
Teacher Exchange: Will provide critical need language teachers to U.S. secondary schools by bringing native speaking teachers to the United States for one academic year. Will provide American teachers in critical need languages opportunities for intensive summer study abroad. Teachers of Chinese and Arabic will participate in 2006, and Russian, Turkic, and Indic language teachers will be added in 2007. Visit: http://www.exchanges.state.gov
Youth Exchanges: (1) Summer Language Institutes: Will provide U.S. high school students the opportunity to study Arabic or Chinese language abroad. In 2007, the program will expand to include Turkish, Hindi, and Russian languages. (2) Academic Semester or Year Abroad: Will provide U.S. high school students taking formal critical need language classes the opportunity to spend an academic semester or year studying the language abroad. (3) School Partnerships: Will provide U.S. schools linkages to foreign counterparts in critical need language countries (Russia, China, Turkey, India, and the Arab world) for interactive language programs and exchanges of groups of students and teachers. Also - Coming Soon Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps (CLRC) NSLI establishes a three-year pilot program for the development and implementation of a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps (CLRC). The CLRC will become an integral component of a broader National Language Service Corps. Mission of CLRC: To provide and maintain a readily available civilian corps of certified expertise in languages determined to be important to the security of the nation. Department of Defense/National Security Education Program (NSEP) has completed: Feasibility Study Operational Plan Implementation Plan
Three-year CLRC Pilot Program will conduct proof of principle, identify and recruit no fewer than 1,000 Members in a National and Dedicated organization across at least 9 critical languages by no later than 2010. CLRC will: Match federal language requirements with CLRC member skills Ensure CLRC responsiveness to sponsor operational requirements Certify language proficiencies of all CLRC members Establish and maintain skill certification Provide CLRC members will appropriate incentives and compensation Provide program long-term sustainment Establish cost-effective approach to CLRC management and operations
Contact: Robert Slater, NSEP, 703-696-1991, slaterr@ndu.edu and OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS STARTALK – A New National Initiative in Summer Language Education The principal DNI Initiative under NSLI consists of establishing summer language study "feeder" programs, grants and initiatives with K-16 educational institutions. The program is called STARTALK.
The emphasis of the program is on less commonly taught languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, and Farsi.
STARTALK will provide summer student and teacher immersion experiences, academic courses, curricula, and other resources for foreign language education in less commonly taught languages.
STARTALK will begin with summer camp programs for 400 high school students and 400 high school and college teachers in 5 states in 2007.
STARTALK will evolve to encompass all grades, with the goal of reaching 3,000 students and 3,000 teachers in all 50 states by 2011.
As the program grows, it will add grants for instructional materials and student scholarships.
At all phases, the STARTALK Summer Language Camp Program will leverage heritage community and Intelligence Community staff expertise, including retirees.
The National Security Agency will serve as the Executive Agent for the Intelligence Community. The bulk of funding and direction will be provided by the DNI.
Once implemented, funding for the program is projected to grow from $5 million in FY 2007 to $20 million per year in 2010.
Summary of Plans for Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007 efforts: In FY 2006, formalize planning and preparation ($2.3M); and FY 2007, implement STARTALK Summer Language Camps for 400 high school learners and 400 high school/college teachers in 5 states ($5M).
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