This page gathers the questions and observations we receive in preparation for the Nov. 15 event:
Innovation in Language Education: Linking High School, University and Pre-Professional Experiences through Italian
Please write to inserra@montclair.edu to add your thoughts and enrich the conversation on Nov. 15.
- What are the models in place to create concrete feeding channels from the HS system to the university system in order to have incentives for the study of languages in the HS system itself? Are there any for community colleges in order to engage transfer students in the study of languages?
- What is the role of principals and superintendents in the process of defining synergies to benefit all institutions involved in the area of languages? What role are HS guidance counselors playing in the promotion of languages and how are we reaching them?
- What benefits from the pre-AP course at MSU have students and teachers perceived? What is the relationship between the summer course and AP Italian classes and the exam?
- Many students and families have asked whether the summer intensive Italian course has a residential option for those students who live in areas more than an hour away from the MSU campus. Will there be this option in 2019? If not, what alternative housing situations might they utilize?
- What are professional organizations (MLA, AATI, ITANJ, AAIS) doing and what can they do in the future to promote and support bridge initiatives like this in the languages that prepare students for AP courses and the exam?
- What are the community organizations whose official mission is to support the study of Italian doing to make these courses financially accessible to economically disadvantaged students through full scholarships?
- What are the incentives (financial and other) especially designed for minority students to take a pre-AP course and later an AP course and then the exam.
- What is the position of the College Board and the AP Italian test committee with regard to innovative pre-AP courses like this? What support can they give? This course is NOT in competition with pre-existing AP Italian courses and should not be see as such.
- By emphasizing the link between HS, university and the job market, is there a risk to prematurely professionalize the learning experience for students or is this a way to meaningfully contextualize their path for them and their parents without compromising the pleasure of exploring knowledge in the course of over half-a-decade of student life across systems?
- What is the role of, and ultimately the benefit for, professional associations, local organizations, and government offices in the promotion of languages?
- How can NJ and Tri-State area guidance departments and counselors and World Language Supervisors be brought into this discussion and actively become involved? Are guidance counselors currently committed to encouraging interested students to pursue Humanities and specifically World Languages, especially through programs like the MSU Early College intensive Italian course?
and more to come….