I wrote last semester for school, and I thought it’d be interesting to post it here. It’s kind of long, but someone might find it interesting.
Schools Need to Be More Serious About Language Education
The United States is a land where the need to learn a foreign language is becoming more and more prevalent; America is becoming a multilingual society, with thousands of foreign language speakers taking up residence in the country each day. For example, the USA has the 5th largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, with an excess of 35 million Spanish speaking citizens. In addition, over 40% of the population growth in America is among Spanish-speaking people. It is only a matter of time before being able to speak another language is required to function in society, and therefore schools need to get more serious about educating today’s youth in the area of foreign language.
The Need for More Language Education
“America is in a desperate need of foreign language speakers, especially those languages quickly becoming vital to the U.S. economy and national security such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and others (Steele).” There always are job opportunities open for those who can skillfully speak two or more languages; there simply are not enough people to accommodate the need for translation and interpretation of language.
“This deficit puts businesses at risk because not having employees who can negotiate language and cultural barriers, businesses face the disadvantage of losing out on new markets, cheaper sources for materials, parts and goods, partnerships and other opportunities provided by a global economy (Steele).”
Even in the healthcare industry the need for cross-cultural communication is dire, and sometimes life-threatening. Doctors and hospital workers, especially nurses, are unable to bypass language barriers and have difficulty communicating with patients who do not speak English fluently. Inability to understand a patient’s condition results in poorer-quality healthcare and unnecessary mistakes. Because of this, there is a massive demand for nurses and other workers who are proficient in a second language.
In addition to putting businesses at a disadvantage, not having enough foreign language speakers damages the security of America. Laura Steele of Kiplinger Business Forecasts says:
The government can’t translate intelligence data as quickly as it collects information, posing an ongoing security threat. There are some 80 federal agencies that need the services of foreign language speakers as translators, researchers and analysts, and they simply can’t keep their rosters full.
And these statistics are only getting larger—the gap has only widened and the need continues to increase. The nation is unable to defend itself at its full potential against new threats such as terrorism because of the lack of people to analyze and decrypt messages and data, and therefore prevent further harm to not only the homeland, but also the troops fighting overseas.
Language Classes Being Pushed Aside in Schools
There couldn’t be any better reasons to step things up and cause more language education to take place. One would think that with such a great need for interpreters and translators, and excellent employment opportunities and salaries with top government agencies and world organizations, people would be fighting tooth and nail for more foreign language education. However, the complete opposite is true in most cases. Foreign language courses are often pushed to the side to make room for more science, English, and mathematics classes in today’s schools.
This is also true in other countries where English is the main language spoken such as Britain. The Economist says, “Fewer young people are studying languages in school…Even those who are keen on languages often drop them…as schools offer a narrower choice of languages and schedule them among other subjects.” This was somewhat acceptable years ago, but now, in a global economy, it cannot continue to happen.
Many public high schools in America require some form of language instruction, usually Spanish or French, in order for a diploma to be issued. Unfortunately, quite often many students do not retain what they learn, do not learn enough to be fluent in the language, or do not continue their education after leaving high school—and this is almost completely because of a lack of need to speak any other language besides English. Many people do not see the importance of learning another language, as nearly everyone in their environment speaks English, and therefore do not consider an alternate language important.
However, in the southern states of America, and especially western states such as California, bilingualism is becoming crucial to get a job and function in daily life. In Southern California, the Hispanic population now represents the largest ethnic group (40.57%) followed by White (38.85%), Asian (10.19%) and African American (7.30%) (California Census). Spanish-speaking individuals are constantly in need, especially for jobs such as teaching, human resources, and healthcare. The situation is similar along the southern border of the nation, and it continues to spread northward. It won’t be too long before the same is true in the rest of the nation.
Another Problem: A Shortage of Educators
Even though there is a huge need for multilingual workers, there is also a shortage of people to teach them. The long national apathy about foreign languages means that there are too few teachers fluent in key languages (Steele). This sometimes results in unqualified teachers being used to instruct a class, or crowded classes and high student-to-teacher ratios. Laura Steele of Kiplinger Business Forecasts says that the government is trying, although half-heartedly, to turn the tide. “President Bush early this year launched the National Security Language Initiative, which aims to produce 2,000 advanced speakers of strategic languages by 2009.” So, steps are being taken, however small, to increase multilingualism among Americans.
Unfortunately, these steps are nowhere near the ones necessary. Of those 2,000 advanced speakers of strategic languages, the majority are likely to go into the areas where they are needed most—such as in the military to defend the country, and to negotiate between America and other nations. In addition, those languages that are going to be taught to these advanced speakers are likely such languages as Arabic and Chinese—those needed for national defense and the stability of the economy. These languages have little use in American society, with Spanish being the number two language in the country and the former being a minority.
Are the Costs of Learning Going Up or Down?
Another reason foreign language has not been a popular subject in schools is the difficulty of teaching a language, and also the cost of doing so. However, recent technological advances have made it easier than ever to learn a language, and much less costly. New computer programs and free audio such as podcasts and audiobooks are now available that can be easily found via services such as iTunes, as well as the numerous online resources on blogs and websites that are free or at an extremely low cost, including software such as Skype which allows people from different countries to talk completely free, and therefore “teach each other” their language. There is a growing abundance of information shared by native speakers and multilingual professionals alike from all over the world.
Teaching a Dead Language Instead of a Useful One
One more issue in schools today is languages such as the long-dead Latin language are being taught more often. Even though Latin can be helpful—for example when learning medical terminology—it is a dead language with no active speakers in the world. It is true that many languages are derived from Latin, so a better understanding of them could be gained by studying it, but other than that there is no reason to teach it in schools; it would make more sense to teach practical languages that are still in use today, and will continue to be used for years to come. In addition, languages derived from Latin (rather than Latin itself) are closely related and can be learned fairly easily once a related language is learned earlier. For example, the Journal of Educational Psychology says this about results of a recently conducted translation study:
Participants who had learned French at school made markedly fewer grammar errors and slightly fewer vocabulary errors in the Spanish test than participants who had learned Latin. Knowledge of Latin is probably not an optimal preparation for modem language learning.
Because of this, Latin education in schools should be reduced and replaced with modern languages that will satisfy needs in the US economy and the security of the nation.
Arguments Against Language Education
So, there are more than enough reasons why foreign language needs to be seriously taught in schools. However, there are people that feel that instead of educating students about other languages, English should be focused on more heavily. They feel that English is becoming the top language of the world, with the fastest growing number of speakers worldwide. Because of this, they conclude that it is becoming less and less necessary to learn another language because English will eventually become the top form of communication in business and political negotiations. A
led Blake puts this argument to rest by saying, “…Companies are over-estimating the economic advantages of speaking English…and they are unable to access vital information about foreign markets and their competitors overseas because of a lack of language skills.” Although English is among the fastest growing languages worldwide, and is the top language for negotiations, there are still hundreds of millions of other people who do not speak English and will not learn it. This is especially true in China, one of the top trade partners of the USA.
The Economist says, “Nearly a quarter of the world’s population speaks some English…English is the global language of academic research…And it is the working language of a growing number of international companies.” Therefore, there is a fairly good argument against teaching foreign languages. However, the same was once true of Latin many years ago—it was spoken by a large amount of the world’s population, it was the scholar’s language, and the language spoken among the rulers of the world. But now, it has all but been eliminated.
Final Thoughts
Although there are some arguments against teaching other languages in schools, the benefits of doing so heavily outweigh the losses. There are so many reasons why schools need to get more serious about foreign language education, and only a handful why they shouldn’t. The future of the world’s economy depends on today’s generation learning to converse with their non-English speaking neighbors. The time will come, sooner than many people think, when having the ability to speak to people from different continents, nations, and even across streets will be necessary in daily life.
Sources
Blake, Aled. “Lack of Spending on Learning Languages ‘Costs Billions’.” The Western Mail 02 Oct. 2007. Lexis Nexis. Internet. 09 Dec. 2007.
Southern California Census. “Southern California Census Data” 2007. 29 Nov. 2007. http://www.scag.ca.gov/census
Steele, Laura. “Language Deficit Leaving U.S. in the Lurch” Kiplinger Business Forecasts 31 May 2006. Lexis Nexis. Internet. 29 Nov. 2007.
The Economist. “They All Speak English.” 13 Dec 2006. Lexis Nexis. Internet. 05 Dec 2007.
