The High School Challenge

Abstract

Thanks to the American Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), its members and sponsors, I had the privilege of serving as the 2014 National Language Teacher of the Year. During that year, I not only had the privilege of representing language educators nationwide, but was also able to meet personally many passionate language educators who teach in the rapidly changing environment of the high school classroom. My year of service provided me with opportunities to observe language classrooms around the country as well as meet and discuss current trends and issues that impact language education with students, teachers, school administrators, and leaders in language education, as well as local and national legislators. The shift to language proficiency makes it an exciting time to be a language teacher, but the lack of federal, state, and community support, financial or moral, for the classroom teacher impedes the retooling of educators and the redesign of outdated and ineffectual curriculum. The increasing global economy and overwhelming data in support of early language education has finally begun to change the traditional high school language sequence across the American landscape. The following is an overview of current high school language programs, exciting twenty-first-century trends, and the challenges that we, as language educators, face in order to embrace the new paradigms.