The challenge and opportunity of writing the New Hampshire Guidelines for World Language Learning: Kindergarten -College was exciting and professionally fulfilling for the more than fifty educators who joined the process. From the beginning of the project, the Guidelines Task Force recognized the responsibility it had not only in structuring a framework for world language instruction and assessment, but also in addressing the trend of attrition in world language programs. To meet these challenges, we have developed examples of horizontal curriculum mapping and model learning scenarios in an effort to help educators more clearly envision the application of these Guidelines in teaching all students.

This document reflects the comments and perspectives of teachers, students, and researcher from the elementary, secondary, and college levels of world language education in New Hampshire. It cannot fully capture, however, the complexities of all language learners and all language learning environments. It is meant to be used as a guide in defining what students should know and be able to do as a result of language study.

The New Hampshire Guidelines offer w o r ld l a ngu a ge e d u c a to r s a framework for the development of innovative instruction and authentic assessment. Used in coordination with the national standards and local curriculum frameworks, these explicit expectations for student performance can be a powerful force for change in our classrooms, here in New Hampshire and throughout the United States. It is hoped that, as states continue to move forward in adopting guidelines for world language education, greater numbers of students will benefit from longer sequences of instruction in multiple languages. By knowing how, when, and why, to say what to whom, they will be more richly prepared for life and work in the global community of the twenty-first century.