Startalk Keynote in Houston

We were thrilled to be at STARTALK Fall Conference in Houston, Texas which was held on October 19 and 20, 2018, at the Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria Hotel. CALEC President Fabrice Jaumont delivered the keynote speech in front of over 400 participants. The 2018 Conference focused on sharing practices, innovative strategies, effective learning tools and resources, and insights uncovered by reflection practices that were experienced in various STARTALK programs.

STARTALK is a federal grant program funded by the National Security Agency and administered by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. STARTALK grants fund summer world language learning programs as well as professional development programs for world language teachers. STARTALK grants support programs for students and teachers of eleven critical need languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.

Through these programs, the STARTALK program seeks to achieve three goals:
– Increase the number of students enrolled in the study of critical languages
– Increase the number of highly effective critical-language teachers in the U.S.
– Increase the number of highly effective materials and curricula available to teachers and students of critical-need languages

Fabrice’s speech focused on the Bilingual Revolution and how parents and linguistic communities can play a role in creating multilingual programs in schools. After the presentation we met many interesting people who were willing to translate our book in Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish and more.