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Capacity and Structure: An Analysis of the Potential for Promoting Hindi in North America

Capacity and Structure: An Analysis of the Potential for Promoting Hindi in North America. Scott McGinnis Defense Language Institute-Washington Office. Overarching assumptions. If teachers are key to the development of the profession, then teachers must guide that development

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Capacity and Structure: An Analysis of the Potential for Promoting Hindi in North America

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  1. Capacity and Structure:An Analysis of the Potential for Promoting Hindi in North America Scott McGinnis Defense Language Institute-Washington Office

  2. Overarching assumptions • If teachers are key to the development of the profession, then teachers must guide that development • There is no single means for successfully developing any language field – LCTL, MCTL or otherwise

  3. U.S. Language Supply Capacity Sectors (Brecht & Walton, 1994) • Academic • Government (and NGO) • Heritage • Overseas • Private Providers (proprietary)

  4. U.S. Language Supply Capacity Sectors – Contributions to Hindi • Academic: Penn et al • Government (and NGO): The Language Flagship, STARTALK • Heritage: STARTALK • Overseas: AIIS • Private Providers (proprietary): n/a

  5. A potential matrix/checklist for the development of an LCTL field(based on Walton 1996) • National language(s)-specific organization • Institutional affiliation(s) • Affiliation with summer intensive/immersion program or study abroad program • Affiliation with major non-language-specific national organization • Affiliation with major language (or non-language) national organization (with significant project(s)) • Development of research foundation, including publication(s) • Promotion of technologically-enhanced instruction

  6. Features of the South Asian languages field (key development period in 1980s & 2000s) • South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA) • Single-digit number of major institutional affiliations (e.g., University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas (UT)-Austin) • American Institute of Indian Studies • Initial role in development of NCOLCTL, now one of the mini-conferences held in conjunction with NCOLCTL • Supported by grant from Standards Collaborative Board (ACTFL) to develop Hindi and Urdu K-16 standards • Ongoing projects with direct and indirect research implications, with units including Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL – DesiLearn), and Institute of International Education (Language Flagship – Hindi-Urdu Flagship Program at UT-Austin) • One of the earliest developmental units for NFLC LangNet (now DLIFLC GLOSS and NFLC LangNet)

  7. Some questions • Why study and teach Hindi? • Does Hindi give the U.S. any access to India that we can’t get through English? • Why Hindi over other Indian languages (Need for more dialogue among the various South Asian language constituencies. If one supports any South Asian language it supports all. Hindi can become stronger and flourish only when it supports other South Asian languages)? • Who would be the target audience besides heritage speakers (and not even them – e.g., parents of Hindi HL students urging their children not to enroll in the UT-Austin Flagship, due to the 5-year commitment)? • Need for greater professional developmental support at the tertiary level (STARTALK is wonderful, but it is primarily K-12-focused) • Need for more dialogues such as the one we are engaged in here

  8. Questions? scott.g.mcginnis4.civ@mail.mil

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