Strategic Investments in Language and Culture Capabilities for the DOD and the Nation: Myths and Realities of U.S. FL Education

Dr. Dan E. Davidson

President, American Councils for International Education

Professor of Russian and SLA (Bryn Mawr)

January 25, 2011

Myth I: US schools are not particularly interested in world languages

Reality:

A Preliminary Report on the Study of Less Commonly Taught Languages in U.S High Schools: the 2009 American Councils Census of Secondary School Programs in the U.S. offering study in the Less Commonly Taught Languages.

Conducted a nationwide survey of U.S. high schools to identify schools that offer less commonly taught languages

Data supplemented by information obtained from the Asia Society, CAL, Univ/MN LRC, Teacher Associations.

29,000 public, private, parochial schools contacted Response rate = 91.8 percent.

3,698 programs offering less commonly taught languages in schools around

the country, employing approximately 3,679 full- and part-time teachers with

an estimated enrollment of about 221,000 students

Distribution of LCTL Programs by State

California

Oregon

Washington

Idaho

Montana

Wyoming

UtahColorado

Arizona New Mexico

North Dakota

South Dakota

Nebraska

Kansas

Oklahoma

Texas

Hawaii

Minnesota

Iowa

Missouri

Arkansas

Louisiana

MississippiAlabama

Georgia

Florida

South Carolina

Tennessee

Kentucky

Illinois

Wisconsin

IndianaOhio

Michigan

West Virginia

Virginia

North Carolina

MarylandDelaware

District of Columbia

New JerseyPennsylvania

New York

ConnecticutRhode Island

Massachusetts

Vermont

Maine

Nevada

Alaska

Red = Over 100 schoolsGreen = 50-99 schoolsYellow = 21-49 schoolsBlue = Under 20 schools

New Hampshire

Myth II: US schools and universities do not prepare Americans for professional- level work in world languages

Reality: Americans who start language study with articulated sequences of

language study at the K-12 level achieve 1+/2-level proficiency by the time they begin college;

Americans who enter college with 1+/2-level proficiency in an L-2 have a good possibility of attaining 3-level proficiency by graduation.

Americans who undertake the study of a major world language in college can also attain professional-level (3-level) proficiency in 4 or 5 years of study.

The ACTR Student Records DatabaseFrequencies

Valid cases 3453

Mean Age 22.7612

Median Age 22.0000

Mode Age 21.00

Age at the time of the exchangeOctober 2009

Pre- to Post- Program Change in Listening Proficiency Scores for Summer Students

Chart Date: October 19, 2005, N=505

1 unit gain

24%

1 Thres. + 1 unit

3%

1 Thres. + 2 units

15%

Nul

51%

Loss

1%

1 Thres. + 3 units

5%

2 Thres. + 3 units

.4%2 Thres. + 4 units

1%

Pre- to Post- Program Change in Listening Proficiency Scores for Semester Students

Chart Date: October 19, 2005, N=1392

1 unit gain

20%

1 Thres. + 1 unit

3%

1 Thres. + 2 units

19%

1 Thres. + 3 units

5%

2 Thres. + 3 units

2%2 Thres. + 4 units

2%

Loss

2%

Nul

47%

Pre- to Post- Program Change in Listening Proficiency Scores for Academic Year Students Chart Date: October 19, 2005, N=92

1 unit gain

17%

1 Thres. + 1 unit

8%

1 Thres. + 2 units

30%

1 Thres. + 3 units

16%

2 Thres. + 3 units

2%

2 Thres. + 4 units

10%

Loss

2%

Nul

15%

Comparison of Pre- and Post-Program Oral Proficiency Scores Academic Year Students Through October 2005

N=208

10

24

35

18

10

21

00 0

13

22

38

17

8

2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0+ 1- 1 1+ 2-/2 2+ 3 3+

Oral Proficiency Scores

Per

cent

Pre-Program

Post-Program

Main Components of the Overseas Flagship Program

Formal Learning Language course work in small groups Individual presentations (written and oral) on

specialization area Professional Course Work with native students to

support knowledge/professional discourse development Individual Language Tutors

Internships Discussion groups Homestays Integrated cultural program (bi-weekly, tied to thematic units

of the Flagship course On-going evaluation (testing, site visits, teacher/tutor

reports, portfolio development, self-evaluation) Bi-weekly Language Utilization Reports (time-place,

function)

Arabic Overseas Flagship Program: OPI Scores for 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10

Academic Year Program (N=49)

12

28

18 20

4

49

10

35

1822

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 1+ 2 2+ 3 3+ 4 4+

Proficiency Levels

Per

cen

t

Pre-Program Post-Program

Factors Affecting Gains on Three Language Modalities (from ILR 1 to 2; 2 to 3 and above)

Variable ETS Listening

ETS Reading

OPI (0/1) OPI (0/1/2) OPI 1+ to 2

MLAT3 4.45 * - - -

MLAT4 * * - - -

MLAT5 - - - - -

MLATSF - 6.73 - - -

QualGram - - - - -

QualRead * 3.40 - - -

QualGen * - 2.00 2.16 2.60

ETSL1 -16.50 1.66 - - 2.74

ETSR1 7.80 8.98 2.48 2.40 -

OPI1 - - -9.04 -9.72 -

Numbers are t-stats from “good models,” Brecht, Ginsberg, Davidson, 1994; Davidson 2010.

Three Additional Predictors(Golonka)

Variable Null Gain High P

Qualifying Grammar Test 53.5 66.9 61 .097

Percentage of Errors 13 9.6 5.8 .012

Self-Corrected Errors 3.7 6.2 9.8 .023

Sentence Repair .7 2 5.2 .005

Number of Types 109 123 176 .002

Number of Tokens 296 313 588 .001

Means

Model Strength = 59.9%

Canonical Correlation = .774

Flagship-Level 2 to 3 (and above): Average L-2 Weekly Time-on-Task by Activity Type

157 Reports 332 reports 19 reports 5 reports

September 2005 to Present Average Across

All programs Arabic Russian Persian Central Asian Languages

Formal language learning classes 14.4 17.8 12.7 19.8 3

In homework and other preparation for formal language learning classes 1.2 0.7 1.4 2 0 Internship or specialization coursework 4.8 3.9 5.4 1.7 1.2 Language tutorial sessions 3.1 3.6 3 0.1 6.2 Professional/or academic reading 3.1 4.9 2.5 0.1 0.8 Academic Total 26.6 30.9 25 23.7 11.2 Cultural events 2.4 1.2 3 0.2 4 Host family 7.7 2.3 10 9 18.8 In public transportation or while shopping 3.2 2.6 3.5 1.9 5.1 Other 10.6 23.7 3.9 21.2 5.4 Reading for pleasure 2.9 0.7 4.1 0.9 0 Reading the press 2.5 0.7 3.3 4.5 2.4 Russian radio or television 4.7 2.1 6.1 1.1 3.2 With friends 8.9 5 11.1 1.7 10.2 Other Activity Total 42.9 38.3 45 40.5 49.1 Totals 69.5 69.2 70 64.2 60.3

Mean Time-on-Task by Categories of Activity 890 reports document approximately 60,000 hours of L-2 utilization over six years (N=56)

Activity Average Hrs/Wk Final All activities 70 – 80 3/3+

Homework 8.01 3+ 4.45 3 3.88 2+

Host Family 9.44 3+ 7.31 3 5.25 2+

Cultural Events 2.77 3+ 2.47 3 1.43 2+

Percentage of Total Time Spent in L-2 Activities Friends 15%

Host Family 13% (3+), 9.5(3), 8.6(2+)

Academic 40% Reading 14% (3+), 11%(2+/3)

Cultural events 4%(3+), 3.1% (3), 1.7% (2+)

Internships 10% Other 4%

http://www.americancouncils.org

Ddavidson@actr.org