Of the student program directors, 57 (61.9%) gave open-ended responses to describe other impacts that the survey questions did not ask about or to elaborate on their responses in previous questions. The most frequently mentioned impact was generating interest in language learning in the community:
“This year for the first time we have been receiving inquiries about our summer STARTALK program from high school teachers and counselors before we have initiated contacts to schedule our program recruitment visits to schools around the state.”
“Our main highlight is the introduction of a Turkish program in the academic year, which is in addition to our growing Arabic program.”
“Despite being offered for only two years previously the program has become well known and popular among the Portuguese DLI community with high
application rates beyond the program’s capacity each year. This demand for the program by students and parents has continued to occur and most students
suggested the program be expanded to include additional grade levels before its cancelation.”12
This impact even reached to rural areas, where opportunities to learn foreign languages are often lower than the national average. The fact that STARTALK programs are spread nationwide makes it easier for a variety of students to access these programs:
“STARTALK made so much possible for our rural community in the Appalachian area that would otherwise never have happened. So thank you!”
“STARTALK has made tremendous impact for a Korean language education in rural Alabama! We are now offering accredited High School Korean language program!! We had a student whose [guardians] drove 90 miles each way to participate in [our] STARTALK 2019.”
STARTALK’s impact on the sustainability of academic programs in the host institution was also mentioned:
“STARTALK has been our lifeline to starting our current 6-12 program as well as the K-5 immersion program. Without STARTALK, I seriously doubt that we would have Mandarin as a year-long academic program. The STARTALK training support and funding have resulted in hundreds of students learning a WL language that they would otherwise not have had access to.”
STARTALK also helped the careers of the program directors themselves:
“Because of our STARTALK Program’s success and its impact, I was invited to be part of planning meetings for Language Immersion for elementary schools in Madison in collaboration with the [institution name omitted] through Language Roadmap Initiatives.”
“As a result of STARTALK, I was invited to serve on the Assemblywoman’s Education Advisory Council.”
Finally, some program directors mentioned the emotional impact of their programs, which included forging bonds among students and families, bolstering students’ pride, and teaching students how to give back to the community:
“Family engagement - Our program includes a parent orientation and closing activities that promote high levels of family engagement.”
12 As of 2020, Portuguese is no longer supported by STARTALK.
“Unlikely friendships form through learning Russian. It’s doing a world of good for our students.”
“There seems to be tremendous pride from the students who volunteer in their own ethnicity and their collaboration with the program.”
“The most positive impact is that students who were in our programs want to come back every year as volunteers so they can stay connected to the program.
The volunteer their services in our summer and year-round programs with the spirit of giving back to the community.”
CONCLUSION
The influence of STARTALK is felt beyond the time and location of the programs. As evidenced in the student and teacher program directors’ survey results, STARTALK has long-lasting and far-reaching transformational influences on the teaching profession, on the community, on the hosting institutions, and on the participants themselves.
Over the past thirteen years, STARTALK has attracted more than 48,400 student participants, and 10,000 teacher participants have benefited from STARTALK teacher training programs. In 2019 alone, STARTALK supported 39 teacher development programs and 99 student programs.
Since 2007, over 622 critical language programs were reported to have started because of interest generated by STARTALK programs in 42 states.13 This demonstrates the dedicated efforts of STARTALK instructors and program directors over the years.
In 2019, STARTALK continued its efforts in supporting veteran and new programs in critical languages through student and teacher training programs. The synergy between the two efforts—the student STARTALK strand and the teacher training STARTALK strand—cannot be overstated. As a focused intervention that simultaneously increases the number of students studying critical languages and the number of teachers providing quality instruction in critical languages, STARTALK has a multiplicative effect in communities. As STARTALK fosters interest in learning world languages and influences student enrollment in language programs beyond STARTALK, teachers of these language are more in demand than ever. By supporting both student interest and teacher quality, STARTALK promotes the sustainability of world language education, ensuring that students’ increased motivation to pursue language study is nurtured through effective instruction by highly qualified and committed STARTALK teachers.
13 This number is a simple summation of numbers that were reported by programs directors each year who believed that their STARTALK program was influential in starting a new language program. The number does not take into account programs that may have been discontinued.