STARTALK - Initiatives

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.

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.