self-assess your speaking ability; heritage learners; intercultural understanding at EU

[via July newsletter from Asia Society re: Promoting Chinese language educ.]

Resources A self-assessment tool for language learners is recently published by the federal government's Interagency Language Roundtable. The Self-Assessment of Speaking Ability is intended to guide those who have not taken a U.S. Government-sponsored speaking test.  It will produce an estimate of your speaking ability. Hot off the press: The paperback edition of Heritage Language Education: A New Field Emerging, edited by Donna M. Brinton, Olga Kagan, and Susan Baukus, is now on the shelf! This volume presents a multidisciplinary perspective on teaching heritage language learners. Contributors from theoretical and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, psychology, educational policy, and pedagogy specialists explore policy and societal issues, present linguistic case studies, and discuss curricular issues, offering both research and hands-on innovation. European Union Encourages Language Learning and Intercultural Understanding The "EU-Window" Initiative will send 200 European schoolteachers and 400 headmasters to China over the next four years to help them improve their language skills and gain a better understanding of Chinese culture.  The program is part of a more comprehensive structural dialogue that the European Union and China are devising in the field of education and culture.  EU Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban explains that the advantages of such exchange programs "help raise standards of education and strengthen cultural ties as well as trade links."  To read the press release, click here.

study-tours, most effective along which dimensions?

Summer 2008 examples from mid-Michigan educators.
cf. Korean Studies Spring Fellowship & photo mapped version, http://tinyurl.com/3yjjbq
 
China - Read MF's blog,  
http://elps.k12.mi.us/education/components/board/default.php?sectiondetailid=7558
 
Bulgaria - Follow the travels of LATTICE members, PG, MH and LN who are on a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad in Bulgaria through the group's blog at: http://www.msu-bg.blogspot.com/ 
 
Malaysia - KY is leading a study abroad, pre-internship teaching experience this summer for College of Education students. You can follow their experiences at http://malaysia.wiki.educ.msu.edu/.