Foreign Language Education in America

Foreign language teaching in America today falls into three distinct fields of influence and interest: public and private schools, college and other post-secondary programs, and courses for adult learners. At a time when academics and instructors in each of these fields seek to answer similar questions, too few published resources recognize and address the parallels among them.

In response, Foreign Language Education in America is an edited book with contributions that represent the diversity in foreign language education today, including perspectives from elementary, middle schools, high schools, university-level courses, summer programs, federal government, and international learning. This is a practical guide to the state of the field that fills a much-needed gap for scholars, researchers, administrators, and practitioners who are looking for a resource that describes effective practices across the field.

• foreign language
• K-12
• elementary school
• primary school
• middle school
• junior high school
• high school
• immersion
• Spanish
• STARTALK
• summer language
• critical need languages
• critical languages
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Dari
• Hindi
• Korean
• Persian
• Portuguese

“This book is an impressive achievement. Steven Berbeco has assembled an outstanding team of contributors from foreign language education specialists. Each contribution provides much needed information about the latest insights into different methods, tools, and experiences. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers and advanced students alike.” (Hans C. Boas, Raymond Dickson, Alton C. Allen, and Dillon Anderson Centennial Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, USA)

“This volume puts the current state of world language teaching for kindergarten through adults into both historical and current context so that we might better see opportunities for collaboration, articulation, and improvement of instruction across the field.  A much-needed resource for all educators and policy-makers.” (Jessica Haxhi, Supervisor of World Languages, New Haven Public Schools, USA)

• U.S. Department of State, USA

  Steven Berbeco

Steven Berbeco supervises the Japanese and Korean language programs at the US Department of State. His background includes teaching, research, policy, and program administration for youth and adult language learners in high school, university, non-profit, and federal agencies, and a publishing record that includes journal articles, book chapters, books, an edited dictionary, and a widely used curriculum for Arabic.

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