NEA Says Ed Reform Must Include Languages
July 29, 2010 by Cynthia McCabe
Filed under Academics, ESEA/NCLB Reform, Featured News, Top Stories
By Amanda Litvinov
World languages and international education are crucial to th
e future success of America’s students — and that’s why NEA is part of a coalition working to increase our schools’ capacity to teach them.
“Our students deserve an education that prepares them to be global citizens,” said NEA Executive Director John I. Wilson at last week’s policy summit hosted by The Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning, which includes NEA, the Committee for Economic Development, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, and the Joint National Committee on Languages. “Our policies and practices have let other countries pass us by.”
Thinking of world languages as electives or “extras” that students may choose to dabble in during their last few years of school is dangerous in the 21st century, said members of the business, defense, and education communities. (None of this came as news to NEA, which is also a founding member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)
Fortunately, there are members of Congress who understand the urgent need to reverse our nation’s foreign language deficit. In the coming weeks, Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ), Paul Tonko (D-NY), and Judy Chu (D-CA) plan to introduce the Excellence and Innovation in Language Learning Act, with hopes that it will ensure that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act includes a focus on international knowledge and language skills.
The Act would authorize $400 million in funding for programs to provide every student with access to quality K-12 foreign language instruction and enhance professional development for current and future language instructors.
“Over a year ago, the President set a goal for our country to reclaim the highest college graduation rate in the world,” said Rep. Chu. “I believe that we should not just have the highest graduation rate, but college graduates who are ready to compete on the world’s stage.”
The NCLB era has been destructive to foreign language education. Despite a wealth of research indicating a direct correlation between studying foreign languages and higher achievement in reading, writing, math, and other subjects, foreign languages are almost always an elective if they’re offered at all.
In an environment where high stakes tests determine what comes first — what Wilson called the instructional straight jacket—and as state education budgets are stretched to the limit, even schools dedicated to teaching languages have made or are considering cutbacks.
“Languages are on the chopping block every year,” said Robin McMahon, an NEA member and foreign language teacher at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill, N.C., where for decades languages have been understood as an essential component of the curriculum.
Students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have the opportunity to study a second language from kindergarten through 12th grade. Such sequenced, articulated programs mean high school seniors graduate with advanced proficiency and can reasonably expect to be fluent if they continue their language studies in college.
Districts like hers should not only preserve their language programs, said McMahon, but work to ensure that students from all economic strata can participate in travel abroad and exchange programs.
All students, said NEA’s John Wilson, “deserve an education that prepares them to be global citizens…. And you can’t be globally competent without foreign language skills.”
Read NEA’s policy brief on Global Competence details just how urgent it is that America’s students understand global issues, and the key role that world languages play in that education. View related video here.
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Why are language classes essential? My daughter in law and son both work for an international company and neither know a language or have to because the language spoken internationally is ENGLISH! My brother imports ready to wear and he does not need to speak another language either. In a period of scarce resources putting an emphasis on foreign language in high school is old school. Make sure students can read and write in ENGLISH before teaching a foreign language. Foreign language teachers are on the chopping block – so what? Talk to art, music, phys ed, family and consumer sciences, career tech – you won’t get much sympathy there! We live in a small world but unless you are willing to take every language from Croatian to mandarin Chinese, which language are you going to pick? ENGLISH! So the question is- What is your purpose in teaching a foreign language? If it is to become fluent in another language then you have missed the window of opportunity after the 2nd grade. If it is to be a world citizen then teach world cultures in a serious way – not necessarily a foreign language.
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Something “brown” may not have thought of – in the business world if you do not speak the language of the person with which you do business and that person speaks English, you are putting complete trust in the English teachers – foreign language teachers of that country or that person. Then, if you don’t speak their language and they don’t speak yours, you depend on a translator/interpreter. That means that the translator/interpreter is running your business and deciding your deals and that you are depending on that translator/interpreter’s ability and their teachers also. You can’t get around it – either way you are depending on teachers of second languages to do your business. Wouldn’t you rather have been in that position first-hand as the learner than trusting all of those strangers?
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So, Gonzalez, which language would you start with? If I am doing business in Germany and I happened to take Italian in high school then I’m out of luck. Or if I am doing business in China which form of Chinese should I take in high school. Do you have a crystal ball as to which language we should put our arms around? How about English? Kids are graduating from schools now and have no idea how to write a decent letter. When you read the newspaper you consistently see quotes from people that are evidence of poor language skills. I’m just saying that in an environment of scarce resources, foreign language is not any more important than art, music, career tech, business (probably less important than business), etc. I don’t see why NEA backs languages when it does not back some of the other subject areas. I could argue that any one of the above areas are as important as learning a language and probably more so in some cases.
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