STARTALK Student Programs

STARTALK is one of several federal government initiatives to enhance the national capacity for critical need languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through college and into the work force. The goal of these programs is to increase the number and expertise of students and teachers in these critical languages. The STARTALK project, administered by National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland (www.startalk.umd.edu), focuses on summer programs for 5th-12th grade students and professional development programs for prospective and current teachers of levels K-16.

The STARTALK Chinese courses offered by these consortiums of Chinese heritage schools are rigorous yet enjoyable and are designed to be comparable to high school courses in Mandarin Chinese. They offer students a nurturing, supportive environment in which to learn Mandarin Chinese, indoor and outdoor fun cultural activities, and quality teaching. The students will be given ongoing and varied opportunities to develop their language skills and learn about the richness of Chinese culture through online Moodles, digital media, artistic projects, and cultural activities on Lion Dancing, Chinese diabolo, calligraphy, Chinese arts and crafts, and others.

Eight consortiums of Chinese heritage language schools collaborating with more than sixty school districts are offering STARTALK Chinese courses this year. Each program is independently operated but share the same value of vision and a similar business model with passion in education.

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