Federal Support for Foreign Language Education
Carol Boston

The federal government signaled strong support for K-12 foreign language education by including foreign languages among the academic subjects identified in the National Education Goals and by providing funds for the development of foreign language standards. The U.S. Department of Education funds seven national foreign language resource centers to improve and enrich foreign language education across the country. One center--the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center--specifically addresses K-12 instructional issues (see "Foreign Language Resource Organizations").

Resources National Endowment for the Humanities Grants, Division of Research and   Education Public Information Office, Room 402 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20506 Phone: 202-606-8400 http://www.neh.gov" National Technical Information Service Technology Administration U.S. Department of Commerce 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 Toll Free: 800-553-6847 Fax: 703-321-8547 http://www.ntis.gov U.S. Department of Education International Education and Graduate   Programs Service Fulbright-Hays Programs 600 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202-5332 Phone: 202-401-9798 Fax: 202-205-9489 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/OHEP U.S. Department of Education Office of Bilingual Education and   Minority Languages Affairs Foreign Language Assistance Program 330 C Street, SW, Fifth Floor Washington, DC 20202-6510 Phone: 202-205-5463 Fax: 202-205-8737 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education Fund for the Improvement of   Postsecondary Education Regional Office Building 3 Seventh and D Streets, SW Washington, DC 20202 Phone: 202-708-5750 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/FIPSE

The Department also offers grants for model programs and for advanced teacher training. Specifically, the Department's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs administers the Foreign Language Assistance Program to help state and local education agencies establish and improve foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools. For fiscal year 1998, $5 million was appropriated. In addition, the Department's Office of Postsecondary Education supports foreign language teacher development in several ways:

• Foreign language and area studies fellowships are available from more than 100 colleges and universities to support the training of language and culture experts. Applicants can apply directly to institutions of higher education for summer or academic-year programs.

• Fulbright-Hays programs include funding for K-12 teachers to participate in seminars abroad and fellowships for graduate students to conduct dissertation research in foreign languages abroad.

• The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) conducts a yearly grant program to support innovative educational reform projects that can serve as national models. FIPSE has funded projects to improve the preparation of foreign language teachers and to support the articulation of student learning and assessment between high school and college.

The Department also hosts the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence Web site, a gateway to hundreds of federally funded, Internet-based education resources compiled by more than 35 federal agencies. Among the foreign language resources offered are language activities from the Peace Corps and cultural awareness activities from the U.S. Postal Service.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)--which provides funding to support scholarships in history, languages, and culture--funds intensive summer institutes for K-12 language teachers as well as collaborative research projects and curriculum/materials development. NEH also maintains a Web site of online lesson plans for teaching foreign languages, English, history, and art history.

Federal agencies involved in intelligence and defense work have also made a significant investment in foreign language education. Some of their materials are available to the public online and in print, audio, and video formats. For example, the Center for the Advancement of Language Learning--established to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the Central Intelligence Agency's foreign language teaching and testing--offers some materials for those outside of the U.S. government on its Web site (http://www.call.gov); the site also contains links to other resources. Another useful resource is LingNet (http://lingnet.army.mil), hosted by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California. Additionally, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) offers a free catalog that describes 60 foreign language audio and video courses produced by the federal government. Audio cassettes and videotapes for coursework in dozens of languages may be purchased from NTIS.

Carol Boston is Managing Editor of The ERIC Review and Publications Coordinator for ACCESS ERIC in Rockville, Maryland.

ASL As a Foreign Language

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State Initiatives for Foreign Language Instruction