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NCOLCTL Bulletin
SUMMER 1995 Vol.
2, No. I
Contents
President's Column
We have come a long way during the past four years and have accomplished
a good portion of our initial goals. We have created a viable organization
that encompasses most of the languages of Africa, Asia and Eastern
Europe. We have devised effective ways for strengthening individual
organizations of less commonly taught languages and, more importantly,
we have opened channels of communication and cooperation among the
various language teaching organizations. This, to me, has been the
crowning accomplishment of the Council so far, and is the key to its
future success.
There is still much to be done to attain the Council's central objective
of devising and implementing a national policy for building a strong
and permanent national capacity for the study of all the languages
that serve the national need. We have created the organizational framework
to pursue this goal. We have also begun to lay the foundation for
attaining it. The cornerstones of this foundation are the Language
Learning Frameworks (LLFs), now being developed by many of our member
organizations. These LLFs exemplify the Council's guiding principle
of seeking collective solutions to common problems. They are truly
collaborative projects that cut across geographical and disciplinary
lines and demonstrate the productive effects of sharing experience,
pooling knowledge and concentrating energy. It is already becoming
evident that the LLFs will serve as a major stimulus for enhancing
both the quality and the scope of language learning that will take
place in many fields. The revitalizing potential of this project will
become even more apparent at the first NCOLCTL conference that will
be convened in late 1995 and will be devoted to the presentation and
dissemination of the new LCTL language learning frameworks.
The completion of the first stage of the Language Learning Frameworks
marks the beginning of a new phase in the development of NCOLCTL.
We have demonstrated that we can work as a cohesive organization to
attain important common goals. We must now prepare to face the challenge
of expanding both the scope of the organization and the range of its
goals. There are still important language fields that are not represented
in the Council, largely because they have not yet established viable
organizational structures. We must seek ways to facilitate the formation
of strong organizations within these fields and to have them join
the Council so that it can become even more broadly representative.
We must also continue with our strategic planning. The challenge of
integrating the diverse requirements of teacher training, curriculum
design and materials development into a comprehensive national policy
that would provide a broad-based capacity for studying the languages
that are now less commonly taught is still before us. It is a challenge
that is compounded and enhanced by the possibilities inherent in the
new technologies that are being increasingly adapted to educational
uses. It is my conviction that the true hope for widespread learning
of less commonly taught languages lies in our ability to utilize these
technologies. Several of our member Organizations have been making
strong strides in this direction. It is imperative that we all find
ways to follow in their footsteps on this most promising path.
The first four years of the Council's existence have been a success
that exceeds many expectations. But success brings with it a whole
new set of expectations, many of which we have set for ourselves,
and all of which, I believe, we are prepared to pursue with vigor
and with vision.
In closing, I would like to thank NCOLCTL's first President, Professor
Teresita Ramos, on behalf of the entire organization for her contributions
to the founding and development of the Council. The Council also extends
its thanks to Immediate Past President, Professor Eyatnba Bokamba,
for his work on the Council's behalf. Professor Bokamba is still recovering
from the injuries he suffered in a serious car accident, and I know
that all our members join me in wishing Dr. Bokamba a swift and full
recovery.
-Gilead Morahg
NCOLCTL President
Meeting the Challenge of GATT: The Impact of Cross-Cultural Communication
on the U.S. Balance of Trade
by Richard D. Brecht & A. Ronald Walton
The United States has traditionally placed minimal emphasis on the
importance of competency in languages other than English because there
was little national imperative to do otherwise. Dramatic changes in
the contemporary landscape, however, have now created conditions that
offer compelling reasons for a sea change in U.S. attitudes towards
cross-cultural communication. The reduction of trade barriers and
the steady growth of immigrant populations have created an enormous
need for effective communication among different groups of people.
Never before has our economic and social well-being as a nation been
so linked to our ability to function effectively in a multi-cultural
environment.
One of the most graphic illustrations of this phenomenon can be seen
in the ramifications of recent international trade agreements, e.g.
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Many of the pitfalls of these trade
agreements for the U.S. can be attributed to the glaring lack of expertise
in non-English language skills and cross-cultural competence on the
part of U.S. professionals. Concerns regarding this issue were recently
raised when the U.S. Trade Representative's office, in cooperation
with the Center for Quality Assurance in International Education,
sponsored a meeting in February of 1995 with a number of service professionals
to discuss the nature of the American economy in the era of NAFTA
and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade
Organization.
The U.S. economy has evolved into a "service economy"; services, rather
than goods, currently make up over 2/3 of the Gross Domestic Product.
Services also represent a significant and steadily growing percentage
of our exports, and are the only aspect of the balance of trade that
is positive. No other country in the world can rival the U.S. in the
size or scope of services it can deliver. This comparative advantage
was a primary consideration in the government's commitment to NAFTA
and GATT, as well as ongoing consideration of other trade agreements,
such as FRAA and APEC. By removing artificial trade barriers, these
treaties allow U.S. professionals to provide services freely in the
signatory nations in exchange for open access to U.S. markets by foreign
professionals. The transformation of the United States into a service
economy, both domestically and internationally, has tremendous implications
for the communications competence of U.S. professionals. Unlike the
sale and transference of goods, which only requires personal communication
among different parties in the period leading up to a transaction,
the sale and provision of services requires comprehensive interaction
on a regular and ongoing basis. In addition, transactions of goods
are usually carried out by a circumscribed number of elites with specialized
training, who negotiate agreements and exchange technical information.
Such elites can generally be counted on to have a mastery of English.
In contrast, the provision of health care or legal services, for example,
implies a setting where the professional is interacting with a broad
crosssection of the population. Providers of services must be able
to speak the target language with a degree of fluency and have a basic
comprehension of the cultural assumptions and norms of the society
in which they are operating.
As long as such cross-cultural competencies are lacking, it is unlikely
that the highly touted trade agreements of recent times can achieve
the desired effect. Although U.S. professionals now enjoy far wider
access to foreign markets, they are much less equipped to take advantage
of those markets than the vast numbers of foreigners whose English
language skills allow them to
readily develop professional activityin this country. For example,
approximately one-half of the physical therapists certified annually
in the United States are from abroad. Yet the number of nurses and
architects from this country who have adequate language skills to
interact on a daily basis with ordinary people in non English-speaking
countries is so small that the expansion of these professional services
abroad is greatly restricted. We are concemed that attempts to implement
trade agreements such as the NAFTA and the GATT could be jeopardized
by limited U.S. ability to communicate with clients in different cultures.
The critical issue of cross-cultural competence in the international
arena reflects on a larger scale what is taking place within the United
States. The continual influx of immigrants creates a demand for services
and a market that would be greatly enhanced by improved cross-cultural
communication. In an era when fewer resources are available to integrate
people of other cultures into the mainstream, there is an urgent need
to provide services to people in this country who speak languages
other than English. Furthermore, without a deeper understanding of
the cultural frames of reference of other peoples, ethnic conflict
and intercultural hostility will continue to breed civil strife and
impede economic growth for all.
It is clear that Americans can no longer afford to be complacent about
their inability to comprehend the dimensions of another culture when
economic competition is increasingly dependent on crosscultural competence.
This climate makes it possible for us to redefine our commitment to
the study of languages in our educational system. Not only should
language programs be promoted more widely, but a shift in emphasis
is required as well. First, the choice of languages to be taught should
reflect the incredibly diverse new world of trade in services. The
language of the customer is likely to be Arabic, Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Russian, or many of the other languages which occupy only
a marginal place in our educational system. Second, in order to meet
the real needs of Americans in the future, the major trend in language
training should focus on providing interactive communication skills
adapted to a day-to-day work environment. While the scholastic study
of languages will always play an important role in academic institutions,
high-level language skills that enable Americans to actively engage
in exchanges of professional information and ideas with people from
different cultures should be a strong priority. Business and professional
leaders must take the lead in making the case for a work force well-trained
in language and cross-cultural communication skills, and political
and educational leaders must be encouraged to orchestrate a national
campaign to make the study of other languages and cultures a top priority
in our schools and universities.
Legislative Update
Adaptedfrom a July 27,1995 memorandum from J. David Edwards, Ph.D.,
Executive Director of The Joint Nationl Committee for Languages and
The National Council for Languages and International Studies
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education
completed action on the initial education funding bill for FY 1996
on July 12. This bill reduced education funding (which constitutes
only two percent of federal spending) by fifteen percent from $26.9
billion this year to $23 billion for next year. The full Appropriations
Committee endorsed these cuts on July 24. The bill now goes to the
House floor where, depending on Rules, even more draconian cuts could
take place before an education funding bill goes to the more progressive
Senate.
The program of major importance to LCTLs survived: Title VI of the
Higher Education Act, Foreign Languages and Areas Studies was level-funded
at $52 million. The program providing seed money for K12 in the LCTLS,
the Foreign Language Assistance Program, was eliminated (or, technically
zero-funded).
Thanks to Senator Paul Simon, the National Security Education Program
Trust Fund was saved but halved to $75 million during an early round
of congressional rescissions. Because the fellowships, scholarships
and institutional support are based on revenues from the Trust the
impact of this cut may not be felt until next year. Nevertheless,
we can anticipate that NSEP, which has been under constant and severe
attack from the House since its inception, will continue to struggle
to simply exist.
Part of why the House Appropriators were successful in cutting so
many programs was their ability to play educators and their associations
off against one another-- "Save Fulibright, the hell with the Freedom
Support programs"; "NSEP monies would be better spent on Title VI";
"FLAP's okay, but standards are more important"; "Bilingual education
has failed, let's put that money in literacy programs instead;" and
so forth. This is a Guaranteed recille for disaster, Unity has never
been more important or more difficult.
Our associations have to be involved and active now. Decisions about
federal funding for education and exchanges will be made within the
next two months. The Senate is under tremendous pressure from a very
bellicose lower chamber to simply endorse the House numbers. Your
Senators need to hear from you, your association members, and anyone
else who will call, write or visit why they should support education,
reform languages, bilingual education, etc. and not accept or ratify
the House cuts. Our friends and champions need to be reinforced and
our opponents convinced. But for that to happen, they have to hear
from us.
NCOLCTL Update
by Xueying Wang, Program Officer
The Council convened its 6th annual meeting on April 28, 1995 in Washington,
D.C., to report ondevelopments within each of the member organizations,
to conduct the official business of the Council,and to discuss the
Council's future directions and objectives. In addition, this year's
annual meeting was
enriched by several special events.
First, special attention wasdevoted to progress on the development
of Language Leaming Frameworks. The primary focus of Ford Foundation
support for the Council over the last three years has been on the
development of these frameworks by each member organization. The Frameworks
are intended to provide explicit instructional goals and leaming outcomes,to
guide curriculum design, the development of instructional materials
(print and multimedia), the training of teacher trainers and then
teacher training itself, and the assessment of both individual learners
and language programs.At this year's meeting, each organization sent
a representative of its Language Leaming Framework Task Force to report
on progress to date. Since some LLF Task Forces are undertaking more
than one language, over 20 LLFs are now being developed. All organizations
reported significant progress and continued enthusiasm for the framework
concept. Work on the frameworks is scheduled for completion in early
1996, most likely followed by a national conference aimed at disseminating
the Council's work in this area to the broader public.
In addition to the special emphasis on Language Leaming Frameworks,
the Council was pleased to approve four new applications for Council
membership: the American Association of Teachers of Korean, the Chinese
Language Association of Secondary Schools, the National Council of
Secondary Teachers of Japanese, and the American Association of Teachers
of Czech. In addition, the Cantonese Language Association was approved
for affiliate membership as a step towards full membership. The Council
welcomes these new members and looks forward to their participation
in its efforts to improve the leaming and teaching of Less Commonly
Taught Languages.
Overall, the 1995 annual con ference marks another stage in the growth
of the Council and in moving ahead with concrete steps aimed at improved
instruction in the LCTLS. Under the leadership of the the Council
officers and with strong commitment from the constituent associations,
the Council will clearly continue to play a critical role in strengthening
the teaching and leaming of LCTLs while providing a unified national
voice on LCTL policy issues in the government, private, heritage and
academic communities.
The Council would like to take this opportunity to express its gratitude
to the Ford Foundation for its continued financial support and to
thank the National Foreign Language Center for its generous support
in providing housing and administrative/secretarial services for the
Council's activities.
Language Inititiative Announced
On March 13 a meeting of foreign language educators from states facing
threats to foreign language education at the K-12 level was hosted
by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL),
the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), and the Joint National
Committee for Languages-National Council for Language and International
Studies (JNCL-NCLIS). As a result of that meeting, ACTFL has begun
implementation of "FL Crisis '95" to help individuals and organizations
at the state and local levels raise awareness of the importance of
foreign language education and counter threats to foreign language
instruction as they arise.
Over the summer, staff at ACTFL Headquarters will put together Fact
Sheets on education reform and their impact on foreign language education,
and will establish a public advocacy Hot Line to connect individuals
dealing with local crises to those best equipped to give advice and
suggest strategies. JNCL-NCLIS will develop a public advocacy workshop
for state language associations to help prepare foreign language educators
to deal with crises before they happen. And the NFLC, as part of its
ongoing research on policy issues related to language instruction
and leaming, will serve as a clearinghouse to monitor events and trends
at the state and local levels. To serve this function, the NFLC must
rely on you to keep them informed of events in your state and/or district
that affect support for language education in the schools. Summaries
and analyses of the infor mation received will be periodicallly provided
to JNCL-NCLIS and ACTFL for dissemination to their mem hers. Please
contact the NFLC whenever you have news that can contribute to our
understanding of the envi t for language education at the state and
local levels. (See box for contact information.)
Feature Articles:
African Languages Teachers Association: Future
Directions of ALTA Field Development
by David Dwyer, ALTA Language Learning Framework Task Force Coordinator
June 1, 1995
When founded in 1988, the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA)
consisted primarily of the Title VI African Studies Center language
coordinators; currently, ALTA includes many members from non-Title
VI institutions as well. Since its founding, ALTA, thanks to an energetic
board, has produced a series of impressive accomplishments including:
a newsletter; annual professional development workshops; three active
task forces; and a growing membership. An important period of this
development (1990 - present) began with the presidency of Professor
Lioba Moshi (University of Georgia) and the onset of NCOLCTL developmental
support.This article reports on the achievements of ALTA over this
period along with ALTA's plans for the future made during its 1995
spring meeting on the campus of UCLA.
Language Learning Framework Task Forces. Among the major accomplishments
of this period and summarized in Lugha, the ALTA newsletter,
(Volume 2, 1995) is the development of three language learning framework
task forces on Hausa, Swahili and Yoruba. The primary goal of these
task forces is to establish the teaching of that African language
as a legitimate and professional discipline. Elements of this project
include developing a better understanding of the types of needs of
language learners and, accordingly, designing curricula (including
overseas study) and courses to meet that need. Additional elements
involve collecting data on the numerous African language programs
in the United States and bringing the teachers in these programs together
to discuss these needs and goals collectively and to evolve the field
into a profession. To enable, and to accelerate the development of
these goals, NCOLCTL, through a grant from the Ford foundation, has
provided ALTA with fmancial support ($8,000 for three successive years)
for the development of an African language learning framework. ALTA
has chosen to identify three such task forces (Hausa, Swahili and
Yoruba) and to distribute these funds evenly among them. ALTA has
also sought and obtained additional funding from other sources (including
USDE), for both general and individual Task Force support.
Each of these task forces has met several times over the last year
and has embarked on a number of projects relating to the language
learning framework.
Hausa has projects on: interactive video; a Hausa culture curriculum;
enhancing study abroad; and developing a rationale for Hausa language
study. Swahili is developing: a Swahili language manual describing
techniques, ideas, and activities useful to teaching and learning
the language. In addition, the Task Force is collecting data on the
over 100 Swahili language programs in the U.S. today. Yoruba is working
on: data collection; a generic goal-driven syllabus; a Yoruba cultural
course; and an interactive video project.
ALTA expects these task forces to achieve self-sufficiency by developing
other sources of project support and thereby freeing NCOLCTL funds
for the development of other ALTA task forces. In fact, the Hausa
Task Force has progressed so substantially over the past year that
it expects to operate financially independently of the NCOLCTL support.
With respect to future task forces, ALTA has identified the development
of study-abroad programs as its highest priority, given that these
programs currently exist only for African languages other than Hausa,
Swahili and Yoruba. Accordingly, two new task forces have been proposed
that have as a primary goal the institutionalization of study-abroad
programs for the major languages within the region. The major languages
of the west African Language Task Force are:Akan, Bambara, Fulfulde
and Wolof. Those of the Southern African Language Task Force include
at least Bemba, Shona, Tswana, Xhosa, and Zulu.
Professionalization. The ALTA program for professional develop
ment includes broadening its formal membership, the holding of annual
workshops and semiannual meetings and the publishing of a newsletter,
Lugha. Among the formal presentations at its annual workshops by invited
speakers and ALTA members have been the following topics: "discourse
and the language classroom," "the role of culture in the teaching
of African languages," "the language leaming framework," "the field
of African language programming in the United States, and "recent
developments in computer-assisted language leaming." ALTA plans to
expand its professional presentations to formal panels and papers
at the African Studies Association and The Annual Conference on African
Linguistics and to include publishing versions of such presentations
in its Newsletter, Lugha, along with relevant book reviews,
conference information and other items of interest. ALTA also plans
to increase its data collection in several areas: For each Task Force
language (currently Hausa, Swahili and Yoruba), information about
each language program (instructional goals, curriculum, instructional
design, enrollments and personnel) is being gathered. ALTA also plans
to collect information on all major African language programs in the
United States. This information will also be made available through
the newsletter and possibly via the Internet. The collection of this
information will also help to expand our membership base. Currently
ALTA offers individual membership at a cost of $10.00 for faculty
and no cost to students. Member-ship rights include the newsletter
and the opportunity to participate in ALTA meetings and workshops.
Institutional memberships are also available.for the time when
ALTA also plans to broaden its membership further by inviting membership
world wide, especially those in Africa.
Life after NCOLCTL Financial Support. Finally, ALTA has begun to plan
for the time when NCOLCTL Task Force and institutional financial support
will no longer be available. This will involve the task forces seeking
altemative funding for their projects and the newsletter developing
its own self-sufficiency through support from a larger membership.
American Association of Teachers of Arabic
In an effort to improve Arabic teaching and leaming in America, the
Social Science Research Council in 1958 sponsored a conference, chaired
by Charles Ferguson, of twenty teachers of Arabic to make specific
recommendations on research, textbook evaluation, and the preparation
of readers of Arabic (McCarus, 1987). A follow-up conference was convened
at Harvard in 1962. Based on these recommendations, the American Association
of Teachers of Arabic (AATA) was founded in 1963 under the direction
of the Modem Language Association. Soon after its founding, AATA began
publishing a newsletter, An-Nashra (Ernest McCarus, editor), which
developed into AATA's journal, Al-Arabiyya.
AATA's membership includes 120 regular members, 18 student members,
and 21 institutional members. AATA's officers consist of: Mohammed
Sawaie (Virginia), President; Kirk Belnap (Brigham Young), Executive
Director; and Aida Bamia, editor of Al-Arabiyya (Florida).
Members of the Executive Board include: Peter Abboud (Texas), Mahdi
Alosh (Ohio State), Elizabeth Bergman, (Columbia), Ahmed Dallal (Yale),
William Granara(Harvard),Margaret Larkin(Princeton), Dwight Reynolds(UC-Santa
Barbara),Aleya Rouchdy (Wayne State), and Munther Younes (Comell).
The American Association of Teachers of Arabic aims to promote study,
criticism, research and instruction in the fields of Arabic language
pedagogy, Arabic linguistics and Arabic literature. In the past, these
objectives have been pursued primarily through the Association's newsletter
and journal (and occasional monographs), and through AATA's annual
meetings, held in conjunction with the Middle East Studies Association
(MESA) annual meeting. In addition to the business meeting, the AATA
annual meetings include a panel in which issues bearing on the teaching
of Arabic are treated. Other activities include the biannual Arabic
Translation Contest for students of Arabic; the Arabic Essay Contest
is held in alternate years. AATA also publishes a pamphlet entitled
"Why learn Arabic?"
AATA has assembled a Textbook Evaluation Packet, designed to disseminate
information on textbooks and other materials to teachers of Arabic.
The idea for this packet came from a survey conducted with financial
support from the Ford Foundation (channeled through NCOLCTL), focusing
on the institutional setting of Arabic language teaching in the United
States (Belnap 1995). Survey results revealed a number of ways AATA
could make a significant difference in helping to upgrade the quality
of Arabic programs across the country. Smaller programs-- such as
those located at junior collegeswere identified as most in need of
assistance; typically, courses at these institutions are taught on
a part-time basis by native speakers with little training as language
teachers who struggle with even the most elementary concerns. For
example, program coordinators and instructors are largely unaware
of basic resources, such as textbooks and audio/visual materials.
Thanks to additional Ford Foundation funding, one of the ways AATA
has addressed this is by assembling and disseminating information
on textbooks and other materials.
The Textbook Evaluation Packet is, in fact, not a 'packet' at all,
in the traditional sense of the word; instead, each is assembled according
to the interests of the individual. An order sheet is available through
AATA, by regular mail, fax, or e-mail. Individuals may order samples
from the textbooks they are interested in. A sample includes a copy
of the ìTable of Contents,î a sample chapter from the
textbook, and an information sheet on the cost and availability of
the text, as well as any supplementary materials (software, video,
audio).
The next phase of this project, now underway, is to collect comments,
pro and con, from users (past and present) of the various textbooks
in the collection; a summary of this information will be included
with each swnple in the future. Already we have found this project
to be of worth to far more than the members of the profession. (The
survey revealed that even some long-time members of AATA did not know
where to find even common texts and materials.)
In spite of these efforts, AATA has not been very successful at reaching
out in a major way. At the heart of this is the problem of identifying
institutions where Arabic is offered. Small programs regularly come
into existence and are discontinued again without AATA's knowledge.
Getting the word out about AATA's existence and services is a challenge.
One recent approach has been the creation of ARABIC-L, an E-mail
discussion group dedicated to Arabic language teaching and linguistics
(co-sponsored by the Arabic Linguistics Society and Brigham Young
University).
Subscribers can also place notices about jobs in Arabic-related fields.
ARABIC-L has significantly enhanced communication between members
of the field, providing particularly valuable links with colleagues
in the Arab world and other regions. Although it is an organization
based in the United States, AATA's membership is becoming increasingly
international. (Another indication of internationalization of AATA
is the fact that the Executive Board voted in November to open up
the Translation and Essay Contests to all students of Arabic-not simply
students studying at American institutions.)
Other current AATA projects include the work of the Arabic Language
Leaming Framework (LLF) Group. This group has been working toward
two goals: 1) They are conducting research to better understand the
nature and diversity of current Arabic curricula and their results;
2) While the field is not likely to settle on a single, common curriculum,
they are working to produce a set of common curricular strategies
as a resource for teachers. It is the goal of the group to present
the discussion from the leamer's perspective.
The Arabic LLF Project is in its second year and was the topic of
an AATA-sponsored panel at the MESA Conference in November. Beginning
Arabic textbooks were found to contain an alarmingly small common
set of lexical items, due to differences in treatment and themes and
to the considerable lexical variation found across the Arab world
(even in the supposedly uniform Modem Standard Arabic). As a result,
students transferring from one program to another where the textbook
differs are considerably challenged. Accordingly, members of the LLF
group have compiled a recommended list of core vocabulary, as well
as grammatical structures and cultural concepts, for the first and
for the second year of Arabic instruction. Additionally, the group
arranged for the Arabic Proficiency Test from the Center for Applied
Linguistics to be administered to approximately 150 students across
the country to arrive at profiles of students' actual reading, listening,
writing, and speaking abilities. AATA looks forward to a working document
the field can react to in the future.
AATA is a small organization with a limited budget. As such, it is
limited in the types of projects it can reasonably undertake. Perhaps
one of the most important roles AATA can play is to coordinate the
efforts of members and disseminate information, thereby enhancing
the efficiency of members' efforts. Teachers' and administrators'
survey responses indicate that there is very little coordination among
members in materials development projects, or in other areas (Belnap
1995). AATA has attempted for some time to function as a clearinghouse
for information. Ideally, and we are far from the ideal, AATA would
be the repository of a large stock of supplementary materials, including
audio and video tapes, computer programs, and various types of "authentic
materials." At current funding and staffing levels, moving beyond
carrying on the day-to-day business of the organization and responding
to a few requests each week for Textbook Evaluation Packets seems
unlikely. The electronic storage and transfer of materials is an attractive
altemative. For example, materials could be stored in an electronic
format at one or more locations and downloaded by interested individuals.
AATA has recently added a home page to the World Wide Web (WWW). In
addition to enabling interested individuals to learn more about AATA
and its services, the home page will contain information on how to
download materials from the net, as well as other information for
obtaining materials not accessible via the net. Taking advantage of
this technology should also help more people to become aware of AATA.
For some time AATA has attempted to maintain a database of Arabic
programs located at various institutions across the country (and beyond),
as well as information on materials development projects in process.
This infonnation has been of some limited benefit, primarily in helping
the Executive Director's Office answer queries. The World Wide Web
will significantly increase access to this and other infon-nation.
We hope that increased communication between members (on Arabic-L,
for example), and more readily available up-todate information will
inspire more cooperation and decrease duplicative efforts.
In this vein, AATA hopes to increase contacts between institutions
by apprising institutions in geographical proximity, or having common
goals, of each other's existence. We have already solicited member
volunteers to serve as curriculum consultants. These individuals will
be listed on the WWW home page. For example, the coordinator of language
instruction at a junior college or high school in New Jersey who wants
to begin offering Arabic could contact a curriculum consultant in
his region for advice on how to proceed. The curriculum consultant
(probably the coordinator of a larger program) might not be doing
only the smaller school a service if she established a relationship
with them; smaller programs, such as those at two-year colleges, could
serve as feeder schools for the larger program. Many smaller programs
would doubtless welcome the opportunity to adopt a well-organized
curriculum which would streamline the transition of students from
one program to another and thereby encourage more students to continue
studying Arabic after leaving the institution where they began. Further,
these contacts could facilitate regional teacher training programs
that would improve Arabic instruction. AATA hopes to establish these
links but obviously cannot be all things to all people. In order for
this to succeed, the real work must be done by those with a vested
interest in the success of these links.
References
Belnap, R. Kirk. 1995. The Institutional Setting of Arabic
Language Teaching: A Survey of Program Coordinators and
Teachers of Arabic in U.S.Institutions of Higher Learning. The Teaching
of Arabic as a Foreign Language: Issues and Directions, ed. by Mahmoud
AlBatal. Provo, Utah: American Association of Teachers of Arabic.
McCarus, Ernest N. 1987. The Study of Arabic in the United
States: A History of its Development. Al-Arabiyya 20:13-27.
Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages
by Carol Compton, Frederick Jackson and Teresita Ramos
History of COTSEAL.
The Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL) began
with an idea presented in a paper given at the Conference on the State
of Southeast Asian Studies held at the Wilson Center in Washington,
DC, in March of 1984. In that paper, Carol Compton, then at Northern
Illinois University, called for the development of "a committee on
the teaching of Southeast Asian languages ... to provide leadership,
encouragement, and ideas which can strengthen the quality and increase
the amounts and kinds of teaching of Southeast Asian languages in
the United States." At the session's end, Richard McGinn of Ohio University
offered to support the development of such an organization in any
way he could.
Richard McGinn was indeed to provide both support and leadership in
the development of COTSEAL. When Carol Compton and Nancy Smith-Hefner
called an organizational meeting of teachers at the Ohio University
on August 12, 1984, McGinn was elected the group's first president
by the twenty-four people attending. He served as president of what
was then called the Consortium of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages
from 1984 to 1987, during which the group designed and adopted a constitution,
affiliated with the Southeast Asia Council of the Association for
Asian Studies (AAS), and held meetings twice a year (at the Southeast
Asian Studies Summer Institute(SEASSI] in the summer and at the annual
meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in the spring).
COTSEAL's constitution describes the organization's mission as follows:
"COTSEAL is a professional interest group whose primary purpose is
to promote the discipline of language teaching on all levels: teaching,
materials development, and research."
Teresita Ramos of the University of Hawaii-Manoa was elected twice
as president of COTSEAL. Her first term was 19871990, during which
period she also served as Language Director at the Southeast Asian
Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) in Hawaii. She initiated formal
training of language teachers at SEASSI and opened the training to
COTSEAL members and other interested teachers of Southeast Asian languages.
She also introduced COTSEAL workshops at SEASSI, at which practicing
teachers and teacher training experts were invited to give presentations
on topics related to teaching methodology and curriculum preparation.
Beginning in 1991, these workshops became an annual summer conference,
jointly sponsored by SEASSI and COTSEAL.
As COTSEAL President, Ramos played an active role in the establishment
of the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages
and in the development of the proposal for its first grant. As a result,
in 1991, she was elected as the first president of NCOLCTL. John Hartmann
of Northern Illinois University was elected as president of COTSEAL
for the period 1990-92. He was unable to serve the full term, and
the presidency passed in 1991 to COTSEAL's elected vice president,
Frederick Jackson of the Foreign Service Institute. Although Dr. Hartmann's
tenure was very brief, COTSEAL had two very s i g n i f i c a n t
accomplishments under him. The first of these was the planning and
presentation of a highly successful COTSEAL panel at the 1990 Association
for Asian Studies meeting on Computer-Assisted Language Instruction.
The audience included teachers of several East Asian and South Asian
languages, as well as the COTSEAL constituents. The second achievement
was the development of the first computerized COTSEAL database of
professionals interested in the teaching of Southeast Asian languages.
This data base, the development of which was funded in part by NCOLCTL,
is the foundation for COTSEAL's record keeping.
The period 1991-93 was one of great growth and activity for COTSEAL,
stimulated in large part by the organization's co-receipt (with SEASSI)
in 1991 of a $5000 seedmoney grant from NCOLCTL to strengthen organizational
infrastructure for the teaching of Southeast Asian languages.
The principal investigators for the grant were Thomas Gething of the
University of Hawaii, then-chair of the SEASSI Executive Committee,
and COTSEAL President Frederick Jackson. Through judicious budgeting,
the grant made it possible for COTSEAL to complete the database mentioned
above, to significantly upgrade its professional publication to the
status of a refereed journal, to begin publication of a newsletter
to disseminate information across the field, and to sponsor a series
of Round Table panels at annual meetings of AAS on issues and concerns
in the field. The grant also enabled COTSEAL and SEASSI to begin co-sponsoring
the summer Conference on Southeast Asian Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics and, very significantly, to join together to establish
a Southeast Asian Language Committee (LC) to make recommendations
to the SEASSI Executive Committee and Board for the improvement of
Southeast Asian language teaching at SEASSI and in the academic year
programs.
The LC includes, ex-officio, the president of COTSEAL and the past,
present, and future SEASSI Language Directors. Also on the committee
are appointed representatives of Southeast Asian language organizations
not otherwise represented on the Committee. The LC has worked hard
to identify and set priorities for program and staff development.
To gather infonnation for this, the LC designed and sent out a survey
questionnaire, jointly sponsored by COTSEAL and SEASSI, on the "State
of the Field." The questionnaire was sent to almost 300 Southeast
Asian language professionals world-wide, and had a return rate of
approximately 30%. A report on the findings of this survey and discussions
of priorities for the field were presented at the 1994 meeting of
the Association for Asian Studies.
During Teresita Ramos' second term as President of COTSEAL, the NCOLCTL
awarded the organization $24,000 to develop a Southeast Asian Language
Learning Framework. Through some seed-money funding from the Center
of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of the University of Hawaii, eleven
leaders of the field met in Hawaii in January 1994 to write a proposal
and to select a task force to draft the Framework. It is expected
that by July 1995, a final version of the Southeast Asian Language
Leaming Framework will be available for use by the field.
With the help of the CSEAS, a conference on the on the application
of the generic language framework to specific Southeast Asian languages
will be held in Hawaii in 1996. To our knowledge, this is the first
recorded time that key Southeast Asian language professors representing
eight languages have worked collaboratively to develop a common vision
for the field.
Membership.
Through the efforts of COTSEAL secretaries Drs. Ngampit Jagacinski
of Cornell University and Prawet Jantharat of the Foreign Service
Institute, the organization has been able to build its membership.
There are now 105 individual voting members of COTSEAL, representing
almost 20 Southeast Asian languages (and several other languages as
well, including English, Tamil, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, and French).
The majority of members are located in the United States, but increasingly
more are joining from overseas. COTSEAL also has twenty institutional
members, which receive publications but do not vote.
COTSEAL Publications.
As COTSEAL grew, it became clear that there was a need for a professional
publication for the membership. The Bulletin for Teachers
of Southeast Asian Languages was inaugurated in 1986 with
Carol Compton as its editor (1986-1990). In 1990, Elizabeth Riddle
of Ball State University took over as editor of the Bulletin, with
a mandate to develop it into a professional, refereed journal. The
first issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Language
Teaching was published in 1992 with Dr. Riddle as its editor,
and an editorial board consisting of Carol Compton, now University
of Wisconsin; Thomas Gething; Teresita Ramos; John Okell, University
of London; Peansiri Vongvipanond, Chulalongkom University; and John
Wolff, Comell University. To provide the membership with timely dissemination
of information, the COTSEAL Board decided to publish a newsletter
twice annually. Frederick Jackson has edited the COTSEALETTER since
its inception in 1993. The second COTSEALETTER of each year
carries an updated COTSEAL membership directory, including the members'
areas of primary professional interest.
Future Directions.
COTSEAL plans to continue contributing to the work of professionalizing
the field of Southeast Asian language teaching. This will take place
partly by expanding COTSEAL's membership to include more overseas
and domestic members and by disseminating information and ideas of
interest to the field as widely as possible, through COTSEAL's publications
and conferences, throughad hoc mailings, and, in the not-too-distant
future,through e-mail lists. COTSEAL will actively support the use
of the new Language Learning Framework for the training of teachers,
the development of more efficient leaming environments, and more effective
curriculum development projects. It will also strive to help the field
to improve the articulation of the three critical components of Southeast
Asian language teaching in the United States: the academic year programs
at American universities, intensive summer courses at SEASSI, and
advanced study abroad.
In addition, due to the fact that learners of Southeast Asian languages
are often widely scattered and that existing materials are typically
not suitable for independent study, COTSEAL will work to increase
the development and use of multimedia in teaching our languages.
COTSEAL Board, 1993-96: President: Dr. Teresita Ramos.
University of Hawaii.
Vice President: Dr. Carol Compton, University of Wisconsin.
Secretary: Dr. Prawet Jantharat, Foreign Service Institute.
Immediate Past-President: Dr.Frederick Jackson, Foreign Service Institute.
Journal Editor: Dr. Elizabeth Riddle, Ball State University.
NCOLCTL Notes
From the Editor.
Readers of NCOLCTL's previous publication will notice changes in the
name and format of the current issue. Formerly the NCOLCTL
Newsletter, the new NCOLCTL Bulletin was renamed
in recognition of the fact that most university libraries do not hold
"newsletters," but may retain copies of "bulletins. " The Council's
decision to change the publication's name should therefore extend
the potential lifespan of the publication.
The format of the publication has also changed. The first issue of
the bulletin was intended to provide general reference information
on NCOLCTL to those unfamiliar with the organization and its work.
In this and future issues, references to representatives from member
organizations will be retained so that readers can access further
information for particular languages or language groups. Greater attention,
however, will be paid to the specific concerns of the NCOLCTL membership:
that is, to field development, the work of member organizations, national
trends, and council business.
This issue features three NCOLCTL member organizations: the African
Languages Teachers Association, the American Association of
Teachers ofarabic, and the Council of Teachers of Southeast
Asian Languages. It is expected that future issues will also
each focus on the work of select NCOLCTL member organizations and
on their continuing development of their respective fields. Also in
this issue, President Gilead Morahg measures the success of NCOLCTL
in its work to date, and considers directions for future efforts.
An update is given on NCOLCTL business conducted at the 1995 Annual
Meeting, including the election of officers and the approval of NCOLCTL
membership applications. Co-Directors Richard Brecht and Ronald Walton
examine changing national needs and demand for languages in the United
States. And legislative activity concerning language education is
reviewed in an excerpt from a memorandum by David Edwards of the Joint
National Committee on Languages.
Thanks are due to authors of the articles- including Kirk Belnap,
Carol Compton, and David Dwyer- and to the Publications Committee--
Professors John Means of Temple University and Lioba Moshi of the
University of Georgia.
-Ray Parrott
University of Iowa
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