In this article, the author describes her experience of teaching Mandarin Chinese at Stopher Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky. Through growing and learning with her students, the author has become a firm believer in the importance of early childhood language acquisition and a passionate advocate for world language education.

The passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established foreign languages as a core curricular area. Nonetheless, educational policymakers at the state and local levels often opt to allocate greater resources and give instructional priority to content areas in which students, and ultimately the school systems themselves, are held…

The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) annually presents the Melba Woodruff Award to an exemplary foreign language program in the nation. This year at the ACTFL conference in Baltimore, MD, the Eisenhower International School received this award for its outstanding immersion programs. International student exchanges at the…