Improving critical language skills of U.S. and international students

TCLP Chinese teacher Li Fang was approved for a CLP grant to fund materials for a Spring Festival performance and a series of art workshops stretching from February into April 2011. The project, which was conducted by 80 Chinese students and 60 art students at Swain High School, presented a Spring Festival performance and six art workshops about traditional Chinese handicrafts to help teachers, students and parents in Swain County better understand Chinese culture.

TCLP Arabic teacher Manal El Gamal worked with mentor teacher Claudine Clark to organize a field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum in order to provide an authentic cultural experience for the facilitated language students at Madison East High School. In April, 45 students attended the exhibit on Egyptian Mummies, explored actual Egyptian artifacts, viewed educational films on ancient Egypt, and had lunch at an authentic Middle Eastern restaurant.

TCLP alumni mentor teacher Lalainya Goldsberry was approved for a project to showcase Arabic and Chinese students’ language and cultural knowledge at the Lindblom World Language Festival. A secondary goal of the project was to motivate students to begin or continue learning the Arabic or Chinese languages. The Lindblom World Language Festival itself is a competition where students from Lindblom and other schools who were taking Arabic and Chinese compete with each other in the categories of poetry recitation, talent, skits, research project, and drama.

TCLP host school alumna Roslynne McCarthy from the Center for Global Studies in Connecticut was awarded a CLP for a student collaborative project called Sister-schools: Expanding the Student Dialogue. The goal of this project was to create and implement a curriculum of personal interactions among students at the Center for Global Studies and Al-Salam Private Language School in Tanta, Egypt with the expertise and input of TCLP 2008 alumnus Mr. Emil Markos.

TCLP mentor teacher alumni Todd Lynum led a group of Willmar High School students on a trip to China in the spring of 2012. He was awarded a CLP that helped to fund 18 student and 3 chaperons visas as well as on-the-ground transportation to and from the airport. Their trip to China was the culmination of 3 years of studying Chinese and it provided students with the opportunity to see China and its famous sites and to interact with local Chinese using this opportunity to practice and apply the Chinese they have learned so far.

TCLP Arabic exchange teacher Mohamed Abdelsamad was awarded a CLP grant to attend and present at the NCOLCTL (National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages) Conference. His presentation was titled “Incorporating Egyptian Culture and Current Events into the Teaching of a Critical Language with TCLP.” Within this presentation, he talked about his experience teaching Arabic in Missoula, Montana and addressed the importance of incorporating cultural competency into language classes.

With the help of CLP grant, TCLP alumna Fu Ailing worked with volunteers to conduct summer English lessons for students in grades 4-6 at Jinye Primary School in Guizhou Province, China. Jinye is situated far away from major cities in the mountains and consequently does not have a regular English teacher. The primary objective of Fu Ailing's project was to teach these students some basic English and to lay a sound foundation for their English learning in middle school.

Wendy Pugh, World Cultures Coordinator at Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC) in Washington, DC, received a CLP grant to purchase Arabic language resources for students. CHEC purchased textbooks and CDs on language instruction and Arabic culture to help expand the Arabic language program developed by TCLP teacher Yasser Eldeabes. The school also used the purchased books to implement an Arabic Reading Group that focuses on Arabic language and culture and is open to all students within the District of Columbia Public School system.

TCLP Alumnus School, Lakes International Language Academy (LILA), received funding to help implement a CLP titled “Welcome, Friends!” in cooperation with Deyang Forest Language School in China. This project provided an exciting English-immersion learning experience for 22 visiting students from China and forged new international friendships. During a two-week summer camp on the school's campus, Chinese and American students strengthened skills in their respective target languages by speaking to one another in casual settings, traveling, and participating in fun activities.