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Memberships Language Happenings Language Resources Language Fair Second Language Teachers' Symposium

PAL 2008 Cemanahuac Summer Scholarship (Mexico)

Information for Cemanahuac Summer Scholarship

Application form for Cemanahuac Summer Scholarship

WELCOME

The Partnership Across Languages (PAL) invites you to participate in an ongoing dialog about teaching and learning second languages in Southern Arizona.

The PAL coalition was initiated in 1994 by the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona primarily for second language educators K-16, to provide a venue for the sharing of professional concerns and for the planning of collaborative action. A steering committee of some twenty-five educators meets monthly to strategize responses to issues which affect second language instruction across districts as well as vertically from elementary school through community college and university. PAL projects such as the Southern Arizona Language Fair, the Second Language Teachers' Symposium, and the networking fora for French, German and Spanish instructors of all levels are only the most publicly recognizable efforts of the coalition. The coalition also promotes the quick and frank sharing of information and the networking of skills, resulting in actions such as the organization of professional development workshops around timely topics and the creation of a new master's program in German at the University of Arizona which places qualified German teachers quickly into Tucson area high schools.

In 2000, Partnership Across Languages began to examine how the learning of a foreign language in Southern Arizona classrooms relates to specific workforce development issues. This most recent focus will expand the coalition membership to those in the business community who are already showing interest in joining the dialog about the shared benefits of a language-savvy workforce for the Tucson-area economy. This on-going effort is continually bringing more awareness to the business community about language programs in our state.

Partnership Across Languages welcomes your participation and comments. You are encouraged to examine the Web site topics, share in the communication of ideas, and participate in projects and planning at any level which is comfortable for you. The steering committee meets on a monthly basis in the Transitional Office Building (TOB) on the UA campus. Meetings are scheduled at 5:00 pm during a weekday. The day of the meeting changes month to month in order to accommodate those educators who might have to teach an evening class.

To receive PAL mailings or more information about any of PAL's activities, please contact John Urban: jturban@email.arizona.edu or write to:

Partnership Across Languages
College of Humanities
Modern Languages 345
P.O. Box 210067
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0067

PAL HISTORY

In September 1994, as part of the tenth annual Second Language Teachers' Symposium held at the University of Arizona, a group of forty teachers and administrators from public schools, private schools, community colleges, and the University resolved to begin meeting monthly to discuss a number of issues of common concern and several projects of special interest to language teachers in Southern Arizona.


The working group of colleagues that has evolved since that time calls itself the Partnership Across Languages, and is open to interested educators at all levels, without membership fees. PAL is sponsored and coordinated by the College of Humanities. Among the projects and priorities on PAL's agenda are the following:

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• Continuing efforts to organize and promote professional development opportunities for language teachers, including sponsorship of the annual Second Language Teachers' Symposium and other workshops and courses.

• A task force working to improve articulation among language programs and teachers. In 1996 the Task Force drafted a twenty-page Action Plan for Improving Articulation that was widely distributed in Arizona. This led to a successful application to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant to sponsor a 1997 summer institute. The Action Plan for 1997-98 also addressed the issue of heritage language learners.
• Revival and expansion of the Southern Arizona Language Fair, held again for the first time since 1990 in March of 1996 on the University of Arizona campus and attended by more than 700 students. The Fair continues to attract more K-16 students each year for a day-long program of competitions, cultural activities, and entertainment in American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, English as a Second Language, French, German, Latin, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu among others. The 2004 Fair saw the attendance grow to about 1100 students.

• Sponsorship and volunteer support of children's cultural and language activities at the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival in October each year. More information is available at www.tucsonfestival.org.
• Language promotion panels available to interested community and academic groups such as PTAs and school counselors.

• Establishment of language fora of Tucson-area teachers K-16, including university graduate students, which meet to promote the sharing of successful language lesson plans and to provide professional development opportunities. The German Forum, Spanish Forum, and Le Forum Français have developed listservs and Web sites to reach a broad teaching public beyond the Southern Arizona area.

• Successful application to the MLA High School to College Articulation Project, which links successful high school/university collaborative projects with collaborative programs that are just initiating their activities. Although PAL applied as a relatively new project, the MLA assigned a mentoring role to PAL, in recognition of the group's organizational successes since its inception in 1994. PAL's mentee was the Florida State University/Godby High School articulation project from Tallahassee.
• A task force working to develop a partnership between businesses and schools for the advancement of language study. The PAL Business Partnership Committee developed a survey to assess the status of linguistic capability and usage in greater Tucson area businesses and is considering establishing a business advisory board and a speaker's bureau.

 
 
 
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