The National Foreign Language Center undertook the initial planning phase of a multi-year project entitled "STARTALK," which is one of the projects of the National Security Language Initiative, a multi-agency effort to expand foreign language education in under-taught critical languages by funding new and existing programs throughout students' learning careers, kindergarten through university; and to provide incentives and rewards for foreign language learning and use in the work force. The objective of the planning phase was to develop a strategic plan for STARTALK, and to provide specific implementation and evaluation plans for Summer 2007 programs in Chinese and Arabic for 400 high school students, and professional development opportunities for 400 teachers and/or perspective teachers of these two languages. For information about the Initiative, see http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/nsli/nslibrochure.pdf.

As part of the planning phase, the NLFC convened an Advisory Board comprised of specialists in SLA research, Arabic, Chinese, testing, teacher training, and K-12 teaching methods, to provide conceptual and practical guidance in planning for the STARTALK project. The Advisory Board convened for two days in early October 2006. At that time they set priorities for summer programs, identified professional development needs for a number of teacher profiles, developed student learning objectives for a variety of summer programs, and reported on existing summer language programs which could be used as models for STARTALK programs. The discussions surfaced several issues which the Advisory Board recommended be addressed in developing a strategic plan for STARTALK: teacher certification; teacher trainers; assessment; curriculum, materials, and lessons for critical need languages; and articulation.

To follow-up on the recommendations of the Advisory Board, in February 2007 the NFLC convened a Leadership Forum of 20 experts in the teaching of Arabic and Chinese. The purpose of the four-day workshop was to provide the elements of an infrastructure that would support teacher development and student learning in our Summer 2007 programs and ultimately serve Arabic and Chinese programs throughout the country, and provide a model for other critical need languages. At the end of the workshop, the group had identified the criteria for high quality curriculum, assessments, and instruction as well as an entire bank of resources that are available to STARTALK grantees at http://startalk.umd.edu.

In December 2006, the NFLC conducted a competition to award Summer 2007 student and teacher training programs that met the criteria specified by the Advisory Board. The goal of the competition was to select programs that provide opportunities in Chinese and Arabic for 400 students and teachers. Fifty-nine institutions responded to the solicitation, and the NFLC was able to fund 34 programs. At the end of Summer 2007 448 teachers and 874 students participated in STARTALK programs—349 in Arabic, and 973 in Chinese.