Delmar’s Ryan Allen receives award for language, speaks at ASTFL conference in New Orleans

On Nov. 20, Delmar High School Spanish Teacher Dr. Ryan Allen received the Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in New Orleans. Allen was nominated for the award for his language program, FILL.

“I definitely didn’t see it coming,” said Allen, who made a presentation to 40 to 50 people along with Tom Welch.

“There was definitely a lot of interest in it,” Allen said.

Delmar teacher Dr. Ryan Allen is pictured, right, accepting the Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Education with ACTFL Past President, L. J. Randolph Jr.

Welch is the architect of what a course could look like using artificial intelligence (AI). He taught Allen and other teachers how to use AI to teach.

Allen began the Facilitated Independent Language Learning (FILL) program at Delmar last year. Through the program, students pick any language they want to learn. The school only offers Spanish classes.

“This was a way for students to pick any other language,” Allen said.

Allen teaches the students how to learn the language, giving them resources such as AI or tutors. This is the first program of its kind in the country, that allows students to earn credits after taking a language proficiency test.

Allen started at Delmar in 2013 and teaches mostly ninth, 10th, and 11th grade students.

Last fall he had 23 students in the FILL program, mostly freshmen, learning 10 languages including French, Italian, Greek, Japanese, and sign language.

About half of those students scored well enough to meet the two year requirement.

This year there are 25 students studying six languages: sign language, German, Korean, Latin, French, and Japanese. A second class of 25 is set for next semester.

Typically, 30 percent of students continue with a language after they reach graduation requirements. That number is 80 to 90 percent with FILL. Students continue with a language even when they don’t need to for graduation. Some chose to earn college credits.

“The personalization of it is enough motivation for them to continue with it,” said Allen. “It’s kind of put Delmar on the national stage.”

Allen said there were people at the conference familiar with the program and that it is offered in Delaware.

Allen is thankful for the Delmar administration’s support of the program.

“Because of our size, we can’t go out and hire a French teach or an Italian teacher. Sometime our size limits us,” he said.

With this program there is no need to schedule a class. The students work at their own rate and set their own goals while helping each other through the process.

“I’d like to see it (using AI) move across the whole learning network,” said Allen, who would like to see teaching move from standardized learning to more personalized learning.

“Putting the learners in the driver’s seat gives them the sense of ‘I want to learn it for me, not just because it’s going to be on a test’, he said.”

Allen said students like the freedom the program allows them to choose what language they learn and what they learn. The students still need to test well to receive credit for the course.

Allen and the students come up with a plan to reach their goals. Students can choose any language as long as a test is offered in that language.

The students want to be able to talk about things in a language such as shapes and colors so they can talk about Minecraft in the language.

“I’m trying to learn Japanese and sign language alongside my students,” said Allen.

AI presents a bit of a learning curve for students and some fact checking needs to be done, but Allen said it does a good job with languages.