MSU hosted educators from across the nation Wednesday for a workshop devoted to the learning of second languages by students.
Nine of the 11 universities involved in Teachers for a New Era, which develops model teacher programs, spent the day at the James B. Henry Center for Executive Development.
The meeting marked the first time members of the different universities nationwide gathered to instruct teachers how to better educate students.
"The right teacher at the right time with the right power and connection can make a difference," President-designate Lou Anna Simon said. "This project is really about the cutting edge of scholarship."
Barbara Steidle, adviser to the provost and project manager for Teachers for a New Era at MSU, said she volunteered MSU to host the workshop because professors involved in the organization at MSU wanted to know about the research and challenges of second-language teaching and learning.
"Our group really wanted to get systematic instruction on what was going on nationwide," she said.
Kenji Hakuta, a professor at the University of California, Merced, and author of the book "Mirror of Language: The Debate on Billingualism," spoke at the event about the history and progress of second-language education.
Rachel Lotan of Stanford University, who attended the workshop, said Hakuta represents needed change in all school systems.
"He's an advocate for children and youngsters who are not being served appropriately in today's schools," she said.
Hakuta spoke at the workshop about the 1974 Lau v. Nichols U.S. Supreme Court decision, which recognized the rights of language minorities in the classroom. The court deemed equal treatment does not amount to equal educational opportunities.
"That really is the grounding work for what we do," Hakuta said. "What Lau triggered was a series of federal responses."
Hakuta said some of the reoccurring themes in second-language teaching include the use of native languages in instruction, the tensions of trying to include language in content instruction and the value of bilingualism.
"I worked in New Haven, and I found that there is a large Puerto Rican population there with big language needs," he said. "If you have your eyes open, you can notice the needs there.
"If you look at the demography, there are 4-5 million children in the U.S. who have language needs."
Hakuta also said the No Child Left Behind Act is the first time in a law that there was no acknowledgment of the value of a student's native language.
"Bilingual education has always been under suspicion, there's no doubt about that," he said, adding that second-language teaching practices were opposed in the 1980s. "It's a pretty difficult policy area to work in because there's so much force outside education itself, like political factors."
