Dr. Dan E. Davidson President, American Councils for International Education

1. 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

2. 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.

3. Survey Description 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.

4. Results 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

7. 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.

9. The ACTR Student Records DatabaseFrequencies Age at the time of the exchangeOctober 2009

14. 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)

17. Factors Affecting Gains on Three Language Modalities (from ILR 1 to 2; 2 to 3 and above) Numbers are t-stats from “good models,” Brecht, Ginsberg, Davidson, 1994; Davidson 2010.

18. Three Additional Predictors(Golonka) Means Model Strength = 59.9% Canonical Correlation = .774

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

20. 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+

21. 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%

22. http://www.americancouncils.org Ddavidson@actr.org