Hables espanol?
I was quite pleased to see this announcement coming from the Bush administration yesterday:
I myself took three years of high school Spanish, and I still think Spanish is an exceedingly useful language given the percent of the world that speaks it, but they're spot on with regards to the dearth of Chinese and Arabic speakers. It's a bit archaic that we still funnell most non-Spanish students into French and German. Don't get me wrong, they're still useful languages, but this is one of those situations where with limited resources and the same basic product you should be tailoring the program to your needs.
I've also always been bemused by the fact that we start teaching foreign languages in school right after the cognitive developmental stage at which children are most ready to learn a new language. It seems to me that, given both the world's increasing globalization and the linguistic cognitive benefits of language, it should be a subject that we start teaching in the earliest grades. I'm just not entirely sure where in the school day to squeeze it in. Though I do wonder about Secretary Spellings' last remark; I'm fairly certain that foreign languages are taught from very early on in other countries -- couldn't we find our models there?
Either way, this is a laudable beginning.
The Bush administration on Thursday proposed spending $114 million on educational programs to expand the teaching of Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and other languages typically not taught in public schools.
Speaking to more than 100 college and university presidents attending a two-day conference at the State Department, President Bush said the effort would play a critical role in national security and lead to American students' gaining a better understanding of foreign cultures.
[...]
[Asst. secretary of state Barry Lowenkron] said that only 44 percent of American high school students were studying any foreign language and that 70 percent of those were learning Spanish. Ms. Powell said that by comparison, the nation had only 2,000 Chinese language grade-school teachers.
Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, said in an interview that efforts to teach such languages as Chinese and Arabic to children as young as 5 were brand new. "We don't know how to do it. This whole notion is in its infancy. But our hope is this is a start, and we can build on it."
I myself took three years of high school Spanish, and I still think Spanish is an exceedingly useful language given the percent of the world that speaks it, but they're spot on with regards to the dearth of Chinese and Arabic speakers. It's a bit archaic that we still funnell most non-Spanish students into French and German. Don't get me wrong, they're still useful languages, but this is one of those situations where with limited resources and the same basic product you should be tailoring the program to your needs.
I've also always been bemused by the fact that we start teaching foreign languages in school right after the cognitive developmental stage at which children are most ready to learn a new language. It seems to me that, given both the world's increasing globalization and the linguistic cognitive benefits of language, it should be a subject that we start teaching in the earliest grades. I'm just not entirely sure where in the school day to squeeze it in. Though I do wonder about Secretary Spellings' last remark; I'm fairly certain that foreign languages are taught from very early on in other countries -- couldn't we find our models there?
Either way, this is a laudable beginning.
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 06, 2006 at 9:19 AM.
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