January 5, 2006--US President George Bush unveiled a new National Security Language Initiative that includes a $114 million grouping of new federal initiatives intended to address the nation's needs for foreign language speakers.  

The initiative is aimed at making substantial increases in the number of Americans who have proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and several Central Asian languages.

1. Expand the number of Americans mastering critical need languages and start instruction at a younger ages
2. Increase the number of advanced-level speakers of foreign languages, with an emphasis on critical needs languages
3. Increase the number of foreign language teachers and the resources

• Establishing a new $1 million nationwide distance-education E-Learning Clearinghouse through the Department of Education to deliver foreign language education resources to teachers and students across the country
• Expanding teacher-to-teacher seminars and training through a $3 million Department of Education effort to reach thousands of foreign language teachers in 2007
• Creating a new Language Teacher Corps
• Activating a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps

For more information: www.state.gov/r/summit

Resources on expanding Chinese language capacity in American schools: www.askasia.org/chinese

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