Creative Blog Post:
Working Towards the Solution to the US lack of a Solid Bilingual Population:
It is undeniable that the goal of having a majority of US schools begin to introduce early foreign language programs into their elementary schools poses significant challenges. Making such major changes in the ways which schools currently run could be confronted with major problems, such as in the case that funding would fall through and or be inadequate to cover the total expense involved throughout the program’s development. In addition, if not enough competent foreign language teachers can be found, the program is bound to fail. Concerns such as these provide much of the reason for why introducing new programs, such as elementary school foreign language programs, never get off the ground.
However, since this issue of foreign language education is such an important one, schools need to look into the ways of avoiding such problems. Many resources are available for schools to tap into as they introduce elementary school foreign language programs. Such resources provide guidance, funding, support, answers to questions, and additional resources to take advantage of.
The US is at a critical point where it needs to turn its attention to making its population better able to communicate within a global context. Therefore, it cannot surrender itself to a fate of remaining a predominantly monolingual nation just due to the fact that obstacles exist in the path of becoming a bilingual nation. In order to overcoming the daunting obstacles, communities and school districts within the US need to seek the aids and resources that will help them establish elementary school foreign language programs. By doing so they will help the US inch closer towards becoming a nation with a bi/multilingual population.
Important websites that provide information on development of foreign language programs in the elementary schools include:
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL)
National Association for Bilingual Education(NABE)
Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL)
