Should We Get Serious About Language Learning?

Discussion in 'Education' started by unkotare, Mar 16, 2022.

  1. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Foreign language instruction in the US starts late and is not emphasized as much as many other subjects. Should we as a nation (more accurately, as many local school districts) change this emphasis? Every year, more and more jobs in the US are advertised as requiring at least bilingualism, and more of the higher paying jobs involve working and communicating with people in and from all over the world. Employment aside, there are many well-established social and cognitive benefits from learning other languages than one's first. Should we require a much higher standard of proficiency and/or acquisition of two or more languages as part of graduation requirements from high school?
     
  2. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    If one of the aims of a foundational education is to prepare America's youth for the workforce and economy of the future, we should be taking the development of language skills more seriously. There is a greater emphasis on STEM education these days, but careers in related fields are even more likely, now and increasingly in the future, to involve international travel and communication.
     
  3. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2018
    Messages:
    7,682
    Likes Received:
    4,171
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I had a student who told me she could speak Japanese because she took a class for the language. I had another student who struggled to get through a Spanish class because he thought of it as a pointless elective. I spent some of my early years in Japan, and learned a bit of the language (mostly as it was spoken).

    The young lady had not really learned how to communicate in Japanese. The young man went on to meet a girl from Spain, but had to take another class in Spanish to actually communicate with her to any extent. I personally could not carry on a real conversation in Japanese. What we all learned was pretty basic and probably not all that helpful. That suggests going beyond the elective level of language learning.

    While I totally agree with the idea of having more focus on language, I wonder if we should also look at language itself from a broader perspective. Not sure how others feel about it, but I took courses linguistics and was fascinated. However, I'd have to say that most people wouldn't see a need for it.

    So that brings up the question--why do you think it's important to learn other languages?
     
    DEFinning likes this.
  4. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    It's important because more and more of the jobs of the future will benefit from or require bilingualism at least. It's important because learning languages develops key cognitive skills and executive thinking. It's important because learning another language helps students to understand and use their own L1 better.
     
    Adfundum likes this.
  5. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    You are a teacher so I probably have more answers for me than I do opinions. Lets take you proposal of requiring 3 languages for requirement.
    1. Do schools currently have the resources to add such a requirement.
    2. What courses would you sacrifice in order to teach the language courses? I will assume to learn a language proficiently it will have to be taught over a number of years.
    3. If you are thinking this may be something to help in career I totally agree. For example our company has offices in India and I am often in meeting with the Indian development and business teams but luckily they all speak English. It would certainly be nice if I could speak Hindi but that seems to be part of the issue. How many languages would schools offer. Languages like Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi, Russian would be quite beneficial for a career but do the schools have the resources to make it happen.
    4. Do students get to pick one or two language requirements or will it be set by the schools because if they are allowed to pick it seems like you would need increased resources to just have the teachers on staff with knowledge and ability to teach those languages.
    5. As a teacher you know the parents. How well do you think this idea would go over with parents that do not expect their children to go on to careers that require what they may view as "exotic" languages. How will the parent in rural Tennessee reacts to his child learning Arabic?
    6. Finally if you are thinking from a business perspective I think learning about other countries culture could be just as important as the language. I travel a lot and 95% of the time I may not know the language but English is very popular especially in international business. What is more importance is you understand their customs.
     
  6. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    ????????????
    When did I say "3 languages"?
     
  7. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Starting earlier wouldn't necessarily require sacrificing any.
     
  8. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2020
    Messages:
    7,707
    Likes Received:
    3,784
    Trophy Points:
    113
    We had someone come around to our classroom about once a month when I was in elementary school who would teach us various words and phrases in different languages. I graduated HS with 4 years of French. Wasn't required to graduate but the advanced track I was in required it to successfully complete the program I was part of---you had to have 4 years or one or 2 years of two foreign languages. French and Spanish were the only 4 year options. German and Latin only had 2 years available to take.

    The problem with your proposal is schools have a real hard time finding qualified language instructors in the US for anything other than Spanish. German has been dropped and Latin taken back to 1 year and Japanese added as a three year language since I was in HS because of the fluxuation in available teachers.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2022
  9. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Parents would love it.
     
  10. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I picked 3 as a point of discussion. You said two or more. Does 3 not fall into the more category? I pick the smallest number possible on the more side. It is not like I picked a 100 or a 1000000.

     
  11. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I am assuming regardless of starting point if it becomes a mandatory course it will either have to replace another mandatory course or some type of optional / elective type of course unless you increase the length of the school day. Is there an option I am missing?
     
  12. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    With electives and study halls and whatnot, the schedule could be managed.
     
  13. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I will trust your opinion but I have to admit I am a bit skeptical. I think a lot of it may depend on the language requirement. If it is Spanish or French you may receive less push back then let say Mandarin or Arabic.
     
  14. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    When I was in school I really enjoyed the electives. Study hall also gave students time to complete work at school where more resources are available.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2022
  15. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Gotta make choices.
     
  16. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Ideally, students *(and of course their families) could choose. Why do you think parents would be opposed to Arabic or Mandarin?
     
  17. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I agree. I also agree with you general assessment of knowing more languages can make a big difference in career paths. I think like the say "the devil is in the details". How do we make this happen?
     
  18. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The same reason why in many small rural towns in America openly oppose mosque. The same reason there was so much anti-Asian hate and attacks in big cities after covid. I wish it was different but that is the world we live in.
     
  19. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Oh, there would be millions of details to work out. That is beyond the scope of this discussion.
     
  20. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Maybe a way to change that.
     
  21. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    If you make it the choice of the student or their families you get back to the logistics problems I alluded to earlier. You essentially make it mandatory to learn 1 or 2 more languages to graduate but you are letting them decide the languages. How will small schools be able to have to resources to teach something like Farsi or Arabic if that is what the student chooses. My guess is the school would need to shortlist the languages and then have resources available to teach those languages.
     
  22. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male

    Not "was." IS.
     
    cristiansoldier likes this.
  23. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2014
    Messages:
    4,999
    Likes Received:
    3,428
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I am all ears. If you have a way I am on board.
     
  24. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Scheduling and such is more of a bitch than you can likely imagine, but that would be another step down the road.
     
  25. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,368
    Likes Received:
    516
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Hello? The topic of this thread?
     

Share This Page