Since June 23, over 30 high school students from Palo Alto and Gunn high schools have been participating in an accelerated four-week learning program in Mandarin Chinese language and culture at Palo Alto High School as part of STARTALK, which is being offered through the federally-funded National Security Language Initiative. The Palo Alto program, now in its third week, is run by Stanford School of Education’s California Foreign Language Project and the Palo Alto Unified School District, and is the only STARTALK program happening in the Peninsula. Thirty-seven institutions across the country received funding from this federal program launched last year, which aims to increase the number of Americans learning critical need languages such as Mandarin and Arabic.
High school students who have completed Levels I and II Mandarin Chinese have been immersed for 5 hours a day in language and cultural activities, including online activities in the World Languages Computer Lab at Palo Alto High School and listening to Mandarin language excerpts on iPods provided by the program to practice their speaking and listening skills. Students are also furthering their language and cultural exposure with field trips to Chinese businesses at a Cupertino restaurant and shopping center, and viewing Asian art collections at the Stanford Cantor Museum and San Francisco's Chinese Cultural Center. Advanced students are also interning with local businesses twice a week to practice their language skills and cultural awareness in business settings. In addition, parents of participating students are attending an evening program to help them understand and learn Mandarin alongside their children. Thirty Mandarin language teachers from the Bay Area, Southern California, and from out of state are also participating in a 10-day professional development program that is running concurrently with the student program. The teachers are receiving training in curriculum design, classroom practice, and assessment strategies from practicing teachers in the Palo Alto Unified School District, as well as professional development specialists from the California Foreign Language Project at Stanford School of Education.
California Foreign Language Project