May 2014

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Vol. 13, No. 9

6 Editorial

8 Letters

9 News

12 Source

14 The World as We Speak

17 Indigenous Languages

18 English Is GoldenDiverse and dynamic California offers a wealth of English immersionopportunities

24 Making Multilingual MoviesNile Stanley and John Ronghua Ouyang encourage teachers to use thenew literacies to inspire the next generation of multilingual filmmakers

30 Spanish Teen ChoiceChristophe Chabaudi offers ten factors to take into account whenchoosing a Spanish immersion destination for teens

35 From Language Skills to Teaching ProwessMontserrat Villar González offers a personal view on developing as alanguage teacher

37 International Education RevampedTransnational education, The Collaboratory, 100,000 Strong in theAmericas, Broadening Horizons

41 Jobshop

44 The Resource

46 Last WritesRichard Lederer reveals the religious foundations of common Englishterms

If the last 50 years are anything to goby, predicting the skills that will be neededten years from now is a difficult task, so cre-

ating an educa-tion plan for thenext 30 yearsor so must benigh on impos-sible. But that’swhat educationboards, gov-ernment com-mittees, andthinktanks,amongst manyothers, are try-ing to do. This

helps to explain why many descriptions of“21st-century skills," which our schools arebeing asked to teach, sound vague — criti-cal-thinking skills, higher-order thinking, andapplying core knowledge, for example.However, there is one set of specific skillsthat will undoubtedly be valuable far into theforeseeable future — intercultural communi-cation skills.

The ability to communicate effectively andempathetically across borders, be they inter-national, social, or cultural, is already highlyvalued — the Great Schools Partnership lists“global and multicultural literacy” amongst itsrequired 21st-century skills, and theAssociation for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment (ASCD) highlights the impor-tance of “exhibiting positive interpersonal rela-tionships that value multiple languages, cul-tures, and all persons.”

And as long as our thirst for faster andmore vivid communication capabilities overgreater distances continues, the demand forpeople with enhanced intercultural under-standing will increase. But, how exactly arewe going to meet this demand?

In an ideal scenario, every student wouldhave the opportunity to benefit from dual-lan-guage education starting in kindergarten orearlier, have access to a lightning-fast inter-net connection with which they couldFaceTime and Skype with their peers world-wide, and spend their summers at interna-tional camps in preparation for the study

abroad phase of their higher education, be itjust a semester or a complete program.

Total immersion through a study abroadprogram is the gold standard of interculturaleducation — a new report found that whenasked to directly define the post-graduationvalue of study abroad, 90% of U.S. respon-dents and 88% of UK survey participantsshowed they connected this experience withattaining the edge they need to stand outwhen applying for jobs in the future (see“Broadening Horizons,” page 40). But studyabroad is still the privilege of the fortunateand will remain out of reach for most chil-dren, despite the launch of programs like100,000 Strong in the Americas (see page39) which aim to help open the experienceup to minority and low-income students.

Although it will never compare to theexperience of physically living and studying inanother country, “virtual exchange” is now aneconomically viable way of helping studentsdevelop their intercultural communicationskills, and it is receiving some governmentsupport (see “Boosting BorderlessCollaboration,” page 38).

But it is our own natural resource of diver-sity that must be fully appreciated and uti-lized if we are to endow the majority of stu-dents with the capacity for cross-bordercomprehension. Luckily, the U.S. has theasset of immigrant communities from all cor-ners of the globe. Now, we need to fully rec-ognize the benefit that this cosmopolitanismcan bestow on the educational experience ofall children by integrating minority languageand culture classes into the mainstream cur-ricula of our schools.

Reacting to local resources and incorpo-rating them into the curriculum may fly in theface of the current obsession with standardi-zation, but few can argue with the logic ofmaking the most of what you have.

EditorialEditorial

Language Magazine May 2014 Vol 13, No 9Publishing Editor Daniel WardCreative Director Gregory van Zuyen Assistant Editor Kristal BivonaProofreading Stephanie MitchellWebmaster Claudio ValenzuelaOffice Manager Tania RuizBook Reviews Karen RussikoffLast Writes Richard LedererEU Correspondent Athina KontosContributors Christophe Chabaudi

Montserrat GonzálezJohn Ronghua OuyangNile StanleyBridgette Vera

Photographers Ruido BlancoPaula BronsteinDaniel ErnstH. J. GerardoJack HollingsworthTakayuki IshiharaAndrey KravHannah PetersMariusz PrusauzykAko SanchoPhoenix Wang

Marketing Emma SuttonVera WanesKash Sen

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Getting in the Culture Club

6

Daniel Ward, Editor

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