Cuts in European-Language Studies

April 17, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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As more students study Arabic and Chinese, European-language departments are suffering cutbacks. The College Board is axing its Advanced Placement tests in Italian, French literature, and Latin literature—some of its least popular exams. And the University of Southern California is closing its already weakened German department.

USC officials cite limited resources. But critics call the cuts shortsighted and crisis driven. "The EU is not going away," says David Barclay, executive director of the German Studies Association and a professor of history at Kalamazoo College.

Tags:: colleges,; education,; languages

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Americans are amazingly backward about committing resources (school systems) and effort (students) to learning foreign languages. We start foreign language instruction in middle school, too late to take advantage of the natural language genius of childhood which research has shown , for most people, vanishes around puberty. (This is discussed in Steven Pinker's book, "the Language Instinct". )
In Asia, the South Korean government hires native English speakers--, from Canada, Australia, the UK, the US and India---, in droves, to make English instruction available to all students. Their goal is universal English proficiency. Europeans typically learn multiple European languages well.
So our school system has it all backwards: we start too late, we offer too little, we assume people will not learn any foreign language well, and can't imagine anyone would study more than one.
No wonder we are out of touch with the world, and perceived as arrogant in other countries!

J.Baller of CA 2:09AM May 29, 2008

This is a non issue. If there is a limited amout of resources AND students (after all, usually studying one language means you aren't going to study another), and if there is an increase of interest on one language, its going to come at an expense of another. Furthemore, the tone of the article suggest a crisis of significant proportion. Can you let us know how much of a decline in the interest of European languages is going on? Is it a significant decrease, or is it just a a minor blip? Are we talking minor or major percentages and what are those percentages?

Victor of AZ 1:14PM April 26, 2008

Cuts in European-Language Studies

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