The Foreign Language Program in Title III of the National Defense Education Act

PMLA ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
John R. Ludington
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Iii ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Support Research

Only fifteen months ago the President signed the National Defense Education Act into Law. Many of you here know what went into getting that legislation in the form necessary for acceptance by Congress. It is no exaggeration to say that without the Modern Language Association there may never have been an NDEA. Certainly, languages would not have received the attention they deserved without the strong support, research, and testimonial efforts of the MLA and its members.

The Foreign Language Program in 1964

PMLA ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Donald D. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Education Act

Our major activities this year, as in each of the past five years, have been undertaken either with foundation support or through contracts with the United States Office of Education under the National Defense Education Act. In February John Harmon became Director of the Materials Center, changing places with Glen Willbern, who became Director of Research. Under Mr. Willbern's direction and through a government contract we have just completed a survey of modern-foreign-language enrollments in junior and senior colleges as of the fall of 1963. We are currently negotiating several contracts through Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. The first is to gather statistics on offerings and enrollments in all foreign languages in public and non-public secondary schools. The second is to make a survey of current college enrollments in all foreign languages. Since gathering statistics on the classical languages is not a justifiable expenditure of national defense funds, the Modern Language Association will pay out of its own funds the proportion of the total cost needed to gather the facts on Latin and Greek in schools and colleges.

MLA Foreign Language Proficiency Tests for Teachers and Advanced Students

PMLA ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 77 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Wilmarth H. Starr
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
American Association ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
South Central

I. Brief History of the Project: Since 1952, the Foreign Language Program of the Modern Language Association of America, responding to the national urgency with regard to foreign languages, has been engaged in a vigorous campaign aimed in large part at improving foreign-language teaching in our country.In 1955, as one of its activities, the Steering Committee of the Foreign Language Program formulated the “Qualifications for Secondary School Teachers of Modern Foreign Languages,” a statement which was subsequently endorsed for publication by the MLA Executive Council, by the Modern Language Committee of the Secondary Education Board, by the Committee on the Language Program of the American Council of Learned Societies, and by the executive boards or councils of the following national and regional organizations: National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, American Association of Teachers of French, American Association of Teachers of German, American Association of Teachers of Italian, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, Central States Modern Language Teachers Association, Middle States Association of Modern Language Teachers, New England Modern Language Association, Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Northwest Conference on Foreign Language Teaching, Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, and South-Central Modern Language Association.

The National Defense Education Act and Exceptional Children

1965 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-173
Author(s):  
Morvin A. Wirtz
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Exceptional Children ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Iii ◽  
Education Act

Two recent amendments to The National Defense Education Act of 1958 enlarged its scope to include the education of exceptional children. The new Title XI allows colleges and universities to plan institutes in critical subjects for teachers of exceptional children. The amended Title III provides for instructional materials to be used for all school children, including the exceptional. This paper briefly presents the Titles' provisions and indicates those who would be eligible.

African-Language Study in the 21st Century: Expansion through Collaboration and Technology

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-49
Author(s):  
Sandra Sanneh ◽  
Alwiya S. Omar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Language ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Or Education ◽  
African Languages ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Education Act ◽  
National Resource

The formal study of African languages in U.S. universities began with the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. Title VI of that act supported the establishment of “centers for the teaching of any modern foreign language [that is] needed by the federal government or by business, industry or education” and for which “adequate instruction is not readily available in the United States.” The act also authorized fellowships for those undergoing advanced training in these languages. Over the next two decades, a small number of universities successfully competed for the federal funding from NDEA and subsequent acts that established Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships and later Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs) for African studies.

Foreign Language Offerings and Enrollments in Public Secondary Schools, Fall 1958

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
J. Wesley Childers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Education Act

This report is the result of the first of a series of investigations on the current status of foreign languages in elementary and secondary schools and in institutions of higher learning in the United States. It is a part of the Statistical Research Project of the Modern Language Association of America under a contract from the United States Office of Education, authorized under the National Defense Education Act of 1958. Subsequent reports will present data for 1959 on foreign languages in the elementary schools, in public and independent secondary schools, and in colleges and universities.

The College Teacher of English and Foreign Language Study

PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 22-25
Author(s):  
J.H.F.
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
Standing Committee ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
College Teacher ◽  
Foreign Language Study

Since its organization fifteen years ago, the Commission on Trends in Education, a standing committee of the Modern Language Association of America, has been concerned about the increasingly unfortunate consequences of the monolingualism of most American college graduates. Mastery of the English language and of English or American literary studies must remain forever provincial to those lacking a knowledge of foreign languages, and it is surely important, in peace as in war, to be able to communicate directly with other peoples. The Commission on Trends in Education is therefore enthusiastically supporting the Foreign Language Program of the Modern Language Association in its study of our linguistic inadequacies and its attempt to remedy them.

In the classroom: Considerations in the selection of learning aids

1964 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 350-353
Author(s):  
Patricia Spross
Keyword(s):  
National Defense ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Learning Aids ◽  
Title Iii ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Selection Of

The multiplicity of learning aids for instruction in arithmetic now available for purchase under Title III of the National Defense Education Act is both stimulating and confusing. Some considerations are of prime importance to help teachers employ devices effectively.

Preparation of College and University Language Teachers

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
Jack M. Stein
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Dynamic Leadership ◽  
College And University ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Education Act

The improvement of foreign language teaching in America in the past ten years under the dynamic leadership of the Foreign Language Program of the MLA is a fact in which we can all rejoice. The added impetus, financial and otherwise, provided recently by the National Defense Education Act, has made it possible for the Program, instead of retrenching after the period of Foundation endowment was ended, to expand with unprecedented vigor and effectiveness. The FLP has been active over a broad spectrum of foreign language teaching and learning, but there are areas where its influence has not yet been felt. One of these is the preparation of college and university language teachers.

Priorities in Language Education

PMLA ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Diekhoff
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
General Public ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Liaison Committee ◽  
Language Study

When the Foreign Language Program of the Modern Language Association was five years old, in 1957, its Advisory and Liaison Committee drew up a plan for its second five years and prepared a request for a foundation grant to implement the plan. The proposal outlined five areas of major effort. There were activities designed to increase the quantity of language study, but these activities were to be more than an extension of prior promotional activities of the MLA Foreign Language Program. The intention was still to persuade educators, parents, and the general public of the value of language education and of the necessity for sequences of language study that could result in proficiency in the spoken and written language. But in addition to an “information and advisory campaign,” the MLA also proposed “effective demonstration programs.”

The Report of the Executive Secretary

PMLA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-36
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Executive Secretary ◽  
Second Year ◽  
To Come

Auspicious is the term by which I would describe the eighty-second year of the Modern Language Association. Our development has been satisfactory and our activities useful. But I have a sense of more important events impending for which the last year and the year or two yet to come are, essentially, preparation. I recall having had this feeling once before, between 1953 and 1955, during the first years of the Foreign Language Program. We had at that time the same stream of new faces through the office, the same effort to establish new lines of communication within the profession, the same struggle to achieve consensus and establish policy. That period saw the transformation of the MLA from a comfortable learned society into a professional association engaged in pedagogical and political activity relating to the modern foreign languages on a national scale. For the last ten years, we have been pursuing the leads and developing the policies laid down at that time. We have grown in the meanwhile from seven thousand to twenty-two thousand members; the headquarters staff has grown from four to forty-four; we have begun to add concern for the curriculum and teaching of English to our concern for the curriculum and teaching of the foreign languages.

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