Lori Langer de Ramirez, Ed. D.

Director, World and Classical Languages & Global Language Initiatives The Dalton School, New York

21st Century Skills Communicating and collaborating with teams of people across cultural, geographic and language boundaries

FL Standards (ACTFL)
Cultures
Gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures Communication Communicate in languages other than your own

Comparisons
Develop insight into the nature of language and culture

Connections
Connect with other disciplines and acquire information

Communities

Participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world

Excellent language teaching and learning involves...

Grammar and vocabulary in context rather than learning verbs and vocabulary from isolated lists.

Why? Some benefits...

greater cognitive flexibility

better problemsolving

higher-order thinking skills

Excellent language teaching and learning involves...

Connections to other disciplines reinforce what students are already learning; rather than lessons based on topics that are irrelevant to students.

More benefits...

Research has shown that math and verbal SAT scores climb higher with each additional year of language study.

Excellent language teaching and learning involves... Incorporation of culture in all lessons; rather than language separate from its cultural context

More benefits...

Knowledge of other cultures helps create more empathetic, skillful and responsible global citizens.

The Importance of Mother Tongue

It is VERY important for students to continue to read, write, speak and understand their home language. If your child is able to read and write in your language, there will be better success in learning these skills in English !

Balanced Bilingualism
With one big and one small wheel (one good and one not so good language) you can go farther and faster.
With two equal-sized wheels (two strong languages) you can comfortably go anywhere you want!

With one wheel (one language), you can go from place to place.

(images courtesy of Jim Cummins)

Third-culture kids
A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kids life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs.

How parents can be supportive

Courtesy of International School of Bangkok

Investigate information

Investigate resources Delicious.com/miscositas

Communicate
Ask about language classes Encourage realworld use of TL Seek out a broad range of conversation partners Connect with ISM teachers

Celebrate!