Fostering a Family of Language Learners
Teacher Ryan Allen Introduces FILL in Delaware
Since launching this Substack on Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning (FILL) on July 24, “Interdependence Day” for Language Learning, I’ve been sharing the story of How FILL began, Taking FILL National, and Language Learning in the Age of AI. Today I’ll focus on how the FILL community is growing.
Our work with FILL is fundamentally about fostering a family of language learners:
Across the classroom and the school
Across districts and states
Linking K-12 and higher education institutions and language organizations
Hopefully… connecting with the world
I’ve already written about FILL in California (“Language Lab”) and Wisconsin (“Facilitated Language Study”). Now I’m excited to introduce you to FILL in a new state.
FILL in Delaware
Ryan Allen, a high school World Language teacher at Delmar School District in southern Delaware, first heard about FILL from our NCSSFL colleague, Dr. Gregory Fulkerson, Delaware’s Department of Education’s Language Acquisition Director, at a World Language Teacher Leader Network meeting in about 2021 or 2022. As Ryan shared,
As soon as I learned about it [FILL], I knew I wanted to bring it to Delmar. Historically, we had been a one-language district, but many students over the years had expressed a strong interest in learning languages beyond Spanish. FILL seemed like the perfect opportunity to meet that need.1
In May 2023, Dr. Fulkerson became one of the first state world language leaders to bring together teachers from a variety of districts in his state to explore the possibility of implementing FILL in their schools or districts. Our FILL colleague, Tom Welch, was also at that meeting and shared all of our work to date, and, in particular, what we were learning about the potential for ChatGPT in language learning. (As Tom always says, our FILL team is ready to help. Just contact FILL4WLS@gmail.com.)
Ryan reports:
I jumped right in—but it was a careful process. I spent the 2023–2024 school year planning what FILL would look like at Delmar. I presented the idea to our Academic Review Committee, gathered feedback, and addressed questions. I also presented at an admin PLC meeting.
Ryan’s FILL class launched in fall of 2024 with 23 students learning one of the following ten languages: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek, Turkish, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, or ASL. Ryan has lots more to share about the nitty gritty details of how he implemented FILL in that first year. (Coming soon…)
Of course, our FILL team followed Ryan’s work closely. (He is now part of our FILL community, and there is so much to learn from him.) In addition, Ryan’s FILL class provided an excellent example of using an external, nationally available proficiency assessment as the basis for evaluating success in a language program using the Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning approach.
After a single semester [block schedule], 73 days of class, many students demonstrated enough language proficiency to earn two high school language credits. Their skills were validated through the STAMP (Standards-Based Measurement of Proficiency) test.2
ChatGPT in the Language Classroom
The possibility of using GenAI, like ChatGPT, as a resource for the diverse languages in the FILL classroom was of particular interest to Ryan from the beginning:
Students regularly used ChatGPT for content generation, exploring grammatical nuances, learning scripts like kanji, hanzi, or hangul, and engaging in impromptu conversations—both spoken and written.
But, Ryan also found it helpful to incorporate ChatGPT into his regular Spanish language classes, as well. He shared that experience in a video clip that I included in my FLEAT 8 Conference Opening Keynote, "Language Learning in the Age of AI.”3 Here’s Ryan’s clip. “Some ways I use ChatGPT in the Language Classroom”
Second Year of FILL in Delaware
Just today Ryan emailed the NCSSFL Neural Network Group that FILL is returning to Delmar High School for the new school year 2025-2026:
FILL is off to a strong start this semester! We have 26 students enrolled (9 ASL, 3 Portuguese, 1 Korean, 7 French, 1 German, 2 Latin, and 3 Japanese), including three returners from last year. The rest of last year’s students will be in the class next semester.
We can’t wait to hear what Ryan and his learners create in the coming weeks. Stay tuned…
Next time: The FILL Family of Language Learners is expanding into higher education. Thanks for subscribing to this Substack. Please like and share it. I welcome your comments.
Some of the quotes here from Ryan Allen are from a document that Ryan is developing on his experience of implementing FILL in his classroom that he shared with the FILL Team. We expect he’ll be making that document public in the near future. I’ll definitely include a link in a future Substack post.
Welch, Tom. “Personalized Language Learning meets Proficiency-Based Credits in a Delaware Classroom” https://aurora-institute.org/cw_post/personalized-language-learning-meets-proficiency-based-credits-in-a-delaware-classroom/
FLEAT 8 Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote: "Language Learning in the Age of AI"