A Brief History of Foreign Language Learning in the United States

2016 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Kathleen Stein-Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Cosmopolitanism and Multilingualism in a Globalized World: Perspectives on the Lack of Foreign Language Learning in the US

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 871-877
Author(s):  
Kathleen Stein-Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Era ◽  
Language Deficit ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Globalized World

Although cosmopolitanism has a long history, it has become even more relevant in the global era and, especially, since the COVID-19 global pandemic has made communication and understanding across cultures more important than ever. Multilingualism is the essential cosmopolitan skill and tool, empowering those who are proficient in one or more additional languages to understand, and to communicate and interact with others more effectively. The United States suffers from a foreign language deficit, and there is an urgent need to build both motivation and interest in other languages along with sustainable skills in other languages in the US. Steps to effectively address this deficit include prioritizing language learning and use, and providing the opportunity to all interested students to learn one or more additional languages.

scholarly journals English-Polish contrastive grammar at Polish universities

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 126-138
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
World War ◽  
English Departments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Second World

Although contrastive studies do not enjoy great prestige among linguists, they have a very long tradition dating back to ca. 1000 A.D. when Ælfric wrote his Grammatica, a grammar of Latin and English. Even then he must have been aware of the fact that the knowledge of one language may be helpful in the process of learning another language (Krzeszowski 1990). Similarly, it seems that throughout the history of mankind teachers of a foreign language must have realized that a native and foreign tongue can be contrasted. However, contrastive linguistics only came into being as a science at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The first works were almost purely theoretical, and it is worth emphasizing that among the first scholars working in the field was Baudouin de Courtenay, a Polish linguist, who published his contrastive grammar of Polish, Russian and Old Church Slavonic in 1912. The outbreak of the Second World War was a milestone in the development of applied contrastive studies since a need to teach foreign languages in the United States arose as a result. The 1960’s is considered a further step in the development of contrastive grammar since a number of projects were initiated both in Europe and in the U.S.A. (Willim, Mańczak-Wohlfeld 1997), which resulted in the introduction of courses in English-Polish contrastive grammar at Polish universities. The aim of the present paper is to characterize and evaluate the courses offered in the English departments of selected Polish universities and to suggest an “ideal” syllabus.

scholarly journals Organizational Principles and Content of Early Foreign Language Learning in the USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Iryna Biletska
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Usa

Abstract According to the results of leading American scientists that convincingly demonstrate the effectiveness and necessity of early foreign language learning the features of teaching foreign languages at elementary level in the United States have been analyzed. It has been found out that the US government is working on the improvement of foreign language at elementary education all over the country. The attention is paid the languages that were not so popular, and now have obtained the status of “extremely necessary”, such as Arabic, Farsi and Russian, as they have become very important for the future participation of the state in world politics. The requirements for programs development of foreign language for elementary school have been described; such aspects as quantity of classes, curriculum project, teaching materials, teaching staff and knowledge of the students, the choice of languages, coordination and efficiency are taken into consideration. The short description of the content of foreign language teaching of elementary education has been presented. It has been indicated that success in foreign language learning as a device of foreign language communication depends on the level of listening, lexical, grammatical and spelling skills, as well as the abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are defined in the program for elementary school.

National Standards: Research into practice

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen W. Glisan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Language Education ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
National Standards ◽  
The Impact

The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (SFLL) (National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project [NSFLEP]), originally published in 1996, were envisioned by many as the panacea for providing a new and exciting direction for foreign language education in the United States. The perceived impact of these National K-16 Student Standards has been witnessed throughout more than a decade by scholarly works that have acknowledged their role as ‘a veritable change agent’ (Sharpley-Whiting 1999: 84), ‘a vision for foreign language education in the new century’ (Allen 2002: 518), and, more recently, as ‘a blueprint and framework for change’ (Terry 2009: 17). The research that has been done on the Standards since their inception has attempted to provide concrete ways for the field to embrace this new framework and thereby realize a Standards-based curriculum and perhaps even revolutionize language education. This work has consisted largely of (1) implementational research (both with and without experimental design) that proposes specific strategies for addressing the Standards in planning, teaching, and assessment (Schwartz & Kavanaugh 1997; Abbott & Lear 2010); (2) survey research that analyzes self-reported information regarding teachers' pedagogical beliefs about the Standards and ways in which they claim to be addressing Standards in their classrooms (Allen 2002; ACTFL 2011), and (3) White papers that disseminate opinions and insights by leaders in the field regarding the impact that the Standards are having in areas such as language instruction, curriculum and course design, and educational policy (Sharpley-Whiting 1999; Donato 2009; Glisan 2010).

A History of Foreign Language Testing in the United States

1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 558
Author(s):  
Cynthia A. Fox ◽  
David Patrick Barnwell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of

Factors associated with foreign language anxiety

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY J. ONWUEGBUZIE ◽  
PHILLIP BAILEY ◽  
CHRISTINE E. DALEY
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
History Of

Foreign language anxiety is a complex phenomenon that has been found to be a predictor of foreign language achievement. This study of 210 university students examined factors that predict1 foreign language anxiety. A setwise multiple regression analysis revealed that seven variables (i.e., age, academic achievement, prior history of visiting foreign countries, prior high school experience with foreign languages, expected overall average for current language course, perceived scholastic competence, and perceived self-worth) contributed significantly to the prediction of foreign language anxiety. An analysis of variance, which included trend analysis, revealed that freshmen and sophomores reported the lowest levels of foreign language anxiety, and that anxiety levels increased linearly as a function of year of study. The educational implications of these findings for understanding foreign language anxiety and for increasing foreign language learning are discussed, as are suggestions for future research.

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