| Roadmaps and Reports |
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During the past three years The Language Flagship has engaged businesses, local and state government agencies and a variety of educational institutions in a variety of fora to learn what language needs are there – and what each of these sectors can do to contribute to shaping a future educational policies and actions to effect a globally competent workforce. Please avail yourselves of the Language Roadmaps and reports emanating from this concerted effort to engage – at a national, state, and metropolitan level – business, government and education to change the landscape of language education. The U.S. Language Summits: Roadmap to Language ExcellenceTo compete in a global economy and to respond to the demands of its increasingly diverse population, America must promote and support the study of foreign languages and cultures. Such is the overwhelming consensus of three “roadmaps to language excellence,” the results of a Flagship initiative conducted to address growing language and cultural deficiencies in regional, state, and local U.S. workforces. Over thirty businesses participated in the “2007 U.S. Language Summits: Roadmap to Language Excellence.” Flagship Centers at Ohio State University; the University of Oregon; and the University of Texas, Austin, led this effort. The National Security Education Program oversaw the initiative, which was funded by the U.S. Congress and co- sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor. The six-month project included the June 2007 Language Summits held at these three Flagship Centers and culminated in October 2007 with the publication of a language roadmap — a strategic plan for language education — for each participating state. The State of Utah conducted its own Language Summit in 2008, based upon the model set forth by The Language Flagship. Co-coordinated with The Language Flagship, the state conducted the Utah Language Summit in September 2008 and the Salt Lake City Language Summit in May 2009 to inform the Utah Language Roadmap (to be launched in the Fall 2009). For a general overview of the 2007 U.S. Language Summits:
City-based Language Summits
Metro Language Series: Continuing the Dialogue with BusinessThe success of the “2007 U.S. Language Summits” sparked The Language Flagship to initiate a new metropolitan-based series in 2008 focused on the language skills needed by business and the role the business sector can play to advance language education in the United States. The “Metro Language Series” kicked off in the Spring of 2008 with concerted think tank sessions in San Francisco and Seattle, followed by sessions in the Fall in New York City and Washington, D.C.. Thirty-five representatives of small-, medium, and large-sized companies as well as organizations supporting business development in their region contributed their insights to these sessions. Participants brought a broad range of experience not only in terms of their responsibilities, but the breadth of industry sectors they represented. This included business people from research and product development; marketing and branding; international business development and sales; domestic workforce management; and human resources. The key findings from these the Metro Language Series have been summarized in the report, “What Business Wants: Language Needs in the 21st Century.” Below please find the compilation of notes from the individual sessions of the Metro Language Series. Metro Language Series San Francisco Notes For those interested in the Language Summits and the Metro Language Series, please contact: Dr. Susan J. Duggan, Senior Strategist, The Language Flagship. E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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