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Monday, January 31, 2011

The National Imperative for Language Learning

Are you aware that "International business leaders are warning that American graduates may be technically competent but are increasingly culturally deprived and linguistically illiterate compared with graduates from other countries competing for the same jobs"?


Today, by way of The Center for Applied Second Language Study, I was directed to an excellent article in Education Week, "The National Imperative for Language Learning."  You can click there to see the whole article, but what impressed me most was how rare it is to hear people within the U.S. recognize that our supposed linguistic dominance (i.e. English becoming the world language), is actually depriving our children of opportunities.

Whatever your opinions are on learning languages, I hope you would consider reading this article.  It makes a good case for the need to continue promoting multi-lingualism here in the U.S.  And at a time when language programs are being cut left and right due to budget limitations, it's important to make your opinions known if you value language education for your child.

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Who Are We? / ¿Quién Somos?

We are currently working in partnership with the Columbia College Clubhouse. This is an after-school program working with students from Arden Elementary. We're focusing on the ESOL students who are learning English, as well as teaching Spanish to the other students, and helping them to discover the cultural richness each individual represents.
Trabajamos juntos con Columbia College Clubhouse. Es un programa pos-escolar que enseña estudiantes de Arden Elementary. Enfocamos en los estudiantes quienes aprenden ingles como segunda lengua, y enseñamos español a los otros estudiantes. Tratamos ayudarles a todos descubrir la riqueza de su propia cultura.