News Release

CHAPEL HILL -- More than 35 leaders representing academic, business, government and humanitarian organizations will convene in Chapel Hill Monday (Jan. 10) and Tuesday (Jan. 11) to establish U.S. language policy for the upcoming decade.

The "National Language Policy Summit: An American Plan for Action," an international videoconference, is sponsored by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Those interested in viewing and-or participating in the event should visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/ed/news/fall2004/yol.html for times and technical instructions.

UNC is hosting the summit, and participating leaders include the following:

· M. Rafiq Bengali, regional chief executive officer of the National Bank of Pakistan in New York City;

· Former N.C. Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., chairman of the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy (a part of the University of North Carolina system);

· Dr. Thomas James, dean of UNC’s School of Education;

· U.S. Ambassador Michael Lemmon, dean of the School of Language Studies in the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute;

· French Ambassador to the United States Jean-David Levitte;

· Gail McGinn, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Plans in the U.S. Department of Defense; and

· Renee Meyer, senior language authority with the National Security Agency-Central Security Service.

The summit’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Bernard Spolsky, professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University in Jerusalem and scholar at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language. Spolsky also is editor-in-chief of the international journal Language Policy.

"Multilingual skills are increasingly important in today’s global community," said Dr. Audrey Heining-Boynton, summit organizer and UNC School of Education professor of foreign language education and English as a second language. "Following 9-11, there has been a growing realization in the United States that relying solely on English is not in the best interest of our country or the world. We absolutely need to commit ourselves to language learning."

Heining-Boynton also is president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which is guiding a yearlong series of events on language policy. The year 2005 has been officially designated the Year of Languages nationwide.

For more information on Year of Languages initiative, visit www.yearoflanguages.org. For more information on participating in the videoconference, contact Joyce Bettini at (919) 843-6808 or bettinij@mindspring.com.

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Note: Media representatives are welcome to cover the summit and should make arrangements by contacting Linda Baucom at (919) 962-8687 or lbaucom@unc.edu.

UNC School of Education contacts: Linda Baucom, (919) 962-8687 or lbaucom@unc.edu; or Joyce Bettini, (919) 843-6808 or bettinij@mindspring.com

News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093