By Jon Aske
Department of Foreign Languages

Jon Aske

Many people have argued that the study of foreign languages should be required at US colleges and universities, and perhaps even that they should be part of the core curriculum for all students.  This question has become even more relevant now with the globalization of the economy and the increase in diversity in our society (or as a well-known pundit has put it, now that the earth is flat). And now that there is talk at Salem State of making changes to the core, it makes the question even more pertinent to us, especially since our current standard–the existing foreign language requirement–was created at a time before globalization.  For if we believe that we are providing our students with a liberal arts education and not just vocational training for jobs, and that our job is to prepare students to be flexible participants of this globalized world, then what better way to do so than to prepare them to communicate with people from different cultures who speak different languages?

I would like to initiate a discussion here about the desirability of making any changes to the current foreign language requirements at Salem State College, whether it be to relax them or to increase them. Such a conversation could be nothing but helpful in these times where the core is open for review.

I want to make it clear that I am not speaking in the name of the Department of Foreign Languages nor I am pushing any particular agenda. I truly would like to help the conversation get started at the college. All anybody can hope for is that all options be given a fair review and that a fruitful and thorough exchange take place.

The current situation

At Salem State College there is currently a requirement of most BA programs¹ that students should demonstrate proficiency at the intermediate level in what we’re still calling a ‘foreign’ language.² In practice this means that only a small minority of undergraduate students, around 12% of the total, have a language requirement, as we can see in Table 1³

Table 1: Undergraduate degrees conferred at Salem State College in 2008, with percentages of the total.

The language requirement is fulfilled typically by completing the 4^th-semester course in one of the language sequences (Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish) offered in the Department of Foreign Languages, or by means of some test, of which the CLEP test, available for French, German, and Spanish, and the AP test are the main ones in use.⁴

Thus the language requirement is different from core requirements in that most students don’t have to fulfill it. Another difference is that because the language requirement is defined in terms of competency, a student may satisfy the language requirement without taking any courses, although the student may need to take up to four courses (or anything in between, depending on the student’s language background and which course the student took first).  A student who takes four years of a foreign language in high school and has a good and productive learning experience (which admittedly is not always the case) should not have to take any courses in a foreign language in college to satisfy the language requirement. On the other hand a student who in high school only took a year or two of a foreign language and/or learned very little (or someone who wants to study a different language from the one they learned in high school) may have to take as many as 12 credits worth of courses (or one-tenth of the total required to graduate) that are by most accounts intensive in the time and effort they require to complete.

The benefits and difficulties of foreign language study

Most educators would not disagree with the purported benefits of learning another language, starting with the practical one of allowing us to communicate with people with whom we might not otherwise be able to communicate. This can be quite important in a globalized world and even in our own, increasingly diverse country.  However, it is also widely acknowledged that the major benefit of learning another language is not the practical one I just mentioned (to receive and convey information in another language), but rather to open one’s mind to different ways of thinking and communicating and viewing the world in different cultures. A person who is able to communicate in a second language learns a lot about his or her own language in the process and learns to view the world in a richer way, especially if that ability to speak is put to use in meaningful contact with speakers of that other language and culture (a big if, some might say).

One can argue that there are major issues with the college-level language requirement as an effective way to promote these two lofty goals of enabling cross-linguistic communication and opening minds to new worlds. One of them is undeniably that most students who have not seriously studied a language before they come to college will find it very hard to acquire a minimal degree of fluency even after a couple of years of study.  If a student starts at the 101 level, even in the best of cases it is going to take at least 3 years, or 18 credits, to reach a level where the student can begin to communicate at a rather basic level with native speakers. This is an issue but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. This doesn’t mean that a bit of a foreign language (say two years) is a waste of time or that there are no benefits to such limited study. Some may argue, however, that it is a serious problem, especially since we live in a culture (our students’ culture) that in general does not value the learning of foreign languages, which results in low motivation, which results in many students who take two years of a foreign language not actually putting it to use and thus not fully realizing the potential of learning a foreign language.  On the other hand, although we know that poor motivation does not produce ideal results, the same could be said about any core requirement that students do not readily embrace, from math to science to English. We are probably never going to obtain perfect outcomes, in any discipline or with any core or required subject.

Foreign language study before college

A major issue here is that most specialists would agree that the serious study of language should start at a much earlier age, when learning another language is much easier, than college age.  It is a well-known fact that children until the age of puberty are like sponges when it comes to learning languages, given the right input and motivation.  Unfortunately for most of our students, language study is not a real option until high school and by then language study does not come easy, and students are probably not terribly motivated anyway, and they are terribly self-conscious, something which doesn’t help when you’re asked to communicate at the level of an infant in a new language.

Although in recent years our society has shown incredible disregard for expert opinion about the value of bilingual education, most educators probably would not disagree with the assessment of the American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Center for Applied Linguistics when they tell us that learning a language at an early age

• Has a positive effect on intellectual growth.
• Enriches and enhances a child’s mental development.
• Leaves a student with more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a better ear for listening.
• Improves a child’s understanding of his/her native language.
• Gives a child the ability to communicate with people s/he would otherwise not have the chance to know.
• Opens the door to other cultures and helps a child understand and appreciate people from other countries.
• Gives a student a head start in language requirements for college.
• Increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset⁵

The fact, however, is that very little is being done in regards to teaching languages in elementary and middle school, when it could be most helpful. It is also true that the environment that might promote language learning (societal multilingualism, travel abroad, media in other languages) by and large do not exist in our country. So are we stuck with forcing students to study languages in high school and college and hope that the experience is a positive one? I do not think the answer is simple or that the compromises that need to be made in seeking a balance will be appealing to everybody.

What are other colleges and universities doing?

Without attempting to make anything near an exhaustive review of what other colleges and universities are doing, let us just look at some representative examples to see what some of the options are.

Many liberal arts colleges have a language requirement for all of their students.  Columbia College, for instance requires it of all students⁶ and so does Columbia University.⁷ Other colleges require it of students in their schools of arts and sciences and often others as well. Boston College for instance requires it for all students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Carroll School of Management.⁸

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst there isn’t a global foreign language requirement. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has a Global Education Requirement, one of whose options is the Foreign Language Option.⁹ The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UMass Amherst requires that all students “demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language at the intermediate level,” just as it is required of most Bachelor of Arts programs at Salem State College (but none of the Bachelor of Science programs). The School of Nursing at UMass does not have a language requirement.¹⁰

The core typically consists of both course requirements in different content areas and competency requirements.  At the University of Colorado at Boulder,  the “core curriculum requirements are divided into two parts: skills acquisition and content areas of study,”¹¹ and foreign languages are considered part of the skills core, along with Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Skills, Written Communication, and Critical Thinking. Actually, students are expected to meet the requirement by the time they start college and are considered “deficient” if they do not.¹²

It would not be unreasonable to think that that is where at least part of the solution lies for Salem State, namely to encourage the acquisition of the basics of a foreign language before getting to college by having a language entrance requirement (which could perhaps be waived if a student is willing to take additional courses to graduate). This would encourage students to take foreign language study seriously before college and schools to take the teaching of foreign languages seriously as well. As we have seen, a foreign language is easiest to acquire at an earlier age. This would also allow colleges to concentrate on teaching higher level language and culture courses where faculty talents are put to full use, rather than the way it is now where most faculty teach basic language courses at least half of the time, something akin to math faculty teaching arithmetic.

Some options for the future

One major difference between Salem State and colleges with a strong language requirement is that in the latter students rarely need to take 12 credits of a foreign language, since they took three or four years of a foreign language in high school and thus can place high enough so that with one or two courses the requirement can be satisfied. At Salem State, however, there is not a foreign language admission requirement and not all students have taken a foreign language before coming. Thus at Salem State it is more common for students with a language requirement (few as they are) to start at the 101 level and to take 12 credits. Another thing we find at Salem State is that often students purposefully place themselves lower than where they should be, something the faculty is unable to prevent when students want to do less well in placement tests than they could.  Although one might think that students would not want to waste their time in lower level language classes where they don’t belong, the anxiety produced by the thought of being in a language class where one is truly challenged seems to be too much for many students.  In addition, some students want to obtain easy A-grades in such classes.

If students were encouraged to take foreign language before college by means of an entrance requirement or some such means, this would force students to begin learning a foreign language in earnest in high school (or before) and this would facilitate the fulfillment of the language requirement by taking at most one or two courses (or none in some cases). That’s how it is at many other colleges and this results in students not having to take 12 credits in foreign languages, but rather 3, 6 or even none (as long as they stay with the same language). If Salem State extends the language requirement to more students but does not make sure that they study a foreign language before college, then many of these students will end up taking closer to 12 credits in foreign languages on average, since they are more likely to start at the 101 level. This is probably not acceptable to many. Since many of us believe that our students already come to college with a weak preparation in the basics (reading, writing, math, history), it would be hard to justify those 12 credits in foreign languages, a higher percentage of the total (on average) than peers at institutions that have an admission requirement or a similar way to encourage foreign language study before college. High schools typically recommend that college-bound students take foreign language courses, because most colleges value foreign languages for admission.

To conclude, there is much to think about when considering the place of foreign language study in the core competencies for students at the college.  Foreign languages have to compete with many other worthy areas of study that will prepare students for the global world they will meet upon graduation. In theory the study of foreign languages and cultures should play an important role in that core of such a world, more so now than when the world was a less interconnected. On the other hand there are many other things that have become equally crucial in the education of our students. If anything the case could be made for standards to be increased for students before they reach college. But that case has already been made for many areas (math, writing) and in some areas policies have been implemented to increase standards at the pre-college level. Boosting foreign languages in our schools is not being considered, however. If anything, foreign languages and many other subjects are being neglected to make more time for “basic skills”, the ones students get tested on.  Whether that is the way things should be is something open to discussion.

This article is part of ASpect’s March 2010 issue on the core curriculum.

For “[a]ll students in Bachelor of Arts programs (except for B.A. Art Majors with concentrations in Art Education, Graphic Design, Interactive Multimedia, Painting, Photography, Printmaking or 3-D Studio and B.A. History Majors with a concentration in Applied History),” p. 14: http://www.salemstate.edu/registrar/ugrad_0810.pdf

Referring to languages such as Spanish or French as foreign languages is something that many do not feel comfortable about, since that presumes that languages other than English are not American, even though they have been part of this country from its inception (particularly Spanish).

http://www.salemstate.edu/IRA/Pub_FY04-08_Fact_Book_Final.pdf

The NYU test available for 30 languages was also recently introduced as an option. The SAT subject test is currently not an option, though it could be, as it is in other schools.

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3651

http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/core/fl.php

“The key to every Columbia student’s liberal arts experience is a solid knowledge of at least one foreign language and culture. You may choose to acquire a new language or continue studying a language with which you already have some familiarity. Whether you plan simply to fulfill the Core foreign language requirement or to pursue a major in languages and literature, language acquisition opens new worlds of knowledge and new ways of thinking” http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/csa/cc_core/language.php

http://www.bc.edu/admission/undergrad/transfer/corerequirements.html

“15 credits of one foreign language starting at a level above current ability.” http://www.umass.edu/sbs/academics/undergraduate/global_ed_requirement.htm

http://www.umass.edu/nursing/prospective/faq.html

http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/students/undergraduate/core.html

http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/students/undergraduate/as_core.forlang.html