2007 ACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year
Christine Lanphere
Natomas High School, Sacramento, CA, SWCOLT, French
“Learning more than one language can create more tolerant members of our own community. I believe that a root cause of intolerance is lack of exposure to diversity and difference. By learning another language, we are given the opportunity to explore different ways of communicating and thinking which will ultimately stretch our own view of the world. In order to build tolerance and encourage everyone to value diversity, we must change inward-looking attitudes by increasing access to a wide variety of language learning opportunities in our schools. In so doing, our young people will be better equipped to communicate our cultural perspectives and create communities in the wider global community. They will thus benefit fully the gift of multi-lingual communication.”
