How better to demonstrate your mastery of a language than to sing, rap and improv your way through an afternoon? That challenge was met at DePaul University on July 27 by 50 Chicago-area high school students studying Chinese through STARTALK, a federally funded language immersion program designed to help build proficiency in underrepresented foreign languages that are increasingly important for the nation’s global competitiveness.

Coordinated by Yvonne Lau, professor of modern languages at DePaul, STARTALK completed its fifth year with a ceremony and performance attended by friends and family members of the program participants and Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s president. The program featured more than a dozen performances by a diverse array of students studying Chinese at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels, including a musical ode to the STARTALK program itself.

“We started the program in partnership with Chicago Public Schools,” said Lau. “But we have expanded it and are now also drawing students from public schools in the suburbs and private schools in the area such as St. Ignatius. We have a lot of students traveling long distances on public transportation to be a part of this program, including one who is spending five hours a day traveling to be here.”

Some of the students who participated in past years’ programs are still actively involved with it, including Brian Chhun, who was a member of the first STARTALK program in 2007. Chhun is now a third-year computer science student at DePaul but also is continuing his studies in the Chinese language. He created the website supporting the program, www.startalkdepaul.com, which features a more user-friendly application.

Among the students who were a part of this year’s program was Gabriela Almeida, whose older brother, Carlos, was also a member of DePaul’s first STARTALK cohort and is now studying aerospace engineering as a Gates Millennium Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to the grounding in Chinese, Almeida notes that the program provided him “with the skills and nurturing that have been of much use” in his other studies.

Participants in the program engage in a variety of classroom and field trip activities designed to enhance their Chinese proficiency, including field trips to shops and restaurants where they can test their language skills. This year’s class was also taken to a performance of the Goodman Theater’s hit play “Chinglish,” a comedy that draws much of its humor from the “lost in translation” misadventures that arise from language barriers.

Applications for the program have grown each year; this year brought 130 applicants, who are rigorously evaluated before being admitted to the program. STARTALK programs are being conducted at dozens of top universities around the country, including Stanford, Indiana University and University of California-Los Angeles. Lau reports that DePaul receives among the highest ratings of any program in the country, largely because DePaul is one of the few programs to integrate student and teacher training, producing valuable synergies.

The program also helps build the skills of Chinese language teachers at area high schools, whose classes are increasingly in demand. Only a scant 4 percent of all high schools nationwide currently offer Chinese. The federal government is trying to boost that figure significantly.