Comments RE Call for response: Tipoff from Becky Kline RE:article in AMERICAN EDUCATOR

[McGinnis, Scott]

From: Maria Carreira [mailto:carreira at csulb.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 12:00 AM
 
Thank you, Brian, for your very thoughtful response.

I agree entirely with your first point. To your second point I would add that
in addition to its enriching effect, music serves other more practical
functions which should be mentioned in any argument on behalf of this
discipline. For example, I believe that music can have therapeutic effects on
people suffering from various physical and emotional problems. I am certain
that music serves other important functions in society, but I leave it to more
knowledgeable people to supply these. The point is that disciplines have value
for many different reasons and all such reasons should be clearly articulated.

Regarding your third point, I agree that we don't HAVE to justify our
profession, but I believe that it is in our own best interest as well as in the
interest of society to do so. Clearly, the NBA does not have to justify itself
because market forces are operating in its favor: young men (and some not so
young either) all over the U.S. would love nothing better than to grow up to be
professional basketball players. Unfortunately, the MLA does not enjoy a
similar level of popularity. For this reason, if we believe that the foreign
languages are important, we should do our best to attract the best and the
brightest students to our field (by the way, the American Chemical Society, the
American Society of Civil Engineers, and other professional groups do this, why
shouldn't we?).

Finally, I disagree that foreign language instruction, as it is currently
structured, serves to bring into focus issues of cognition and the language
faculty. A cursory book at the best selling Spanish language textbooks, for
example, reveals that these topics do not figure prominently (at all?) in first
year courses. Rather, these very important topics are generally confined to
linguistics courses. Maybe it would be good to consider including some mention
of these issues in beginning language courses.

Kind regards,

Maria Carreira, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Spanish,
California State University, Long Beach





"McGinnis, Scott" wrote:

> From: Brian Doyle [mailto:brian at gael-image.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 1:42 PM
>
> There are two questions at hand here:
>
> One is the argument that (short-term) study of a foreign language forces a
> student to reflect on his or her own mental grammar, yielding a better
> understanding of language and communication in general, including one's
> mother tongue. This argument is similar to the one asserted to a similar
> question, "why do I have to learn trigonometry? When am I ever going to use
> this?" The answer, of course, is that study of math improves a student's
> critical thinking skills. It's the secondary benefit that is important.
>
> On the other hand, convincing people that it is important to spend long
> hours to attain fluency in a language is like trying to convince them that
> literature or music is important in its own right. What argument can be made
> in favor of recreational reading, mastery of a Bach concerto, or fluency in
> a foreign language other than to say that they enrich our lives? Isn't that
> really the reason that we ourselves are drawn to them?
>
> Besides, why do language professionals have to justify their vocation but
> not, say, pro basketball players? I want to know, what essential life
> function does dribbling serve and why do I have to plod through 10 pages of
> sports news in every bleepin' national newspaper in the country?
>
> The "glorious morning" argument is not limited to simple differences in
> vocabulary and idiom. It goes to a central issue in cognition. How do we
> think? How do we *know* when an utterance is grammatical or not? Second
> language learning can draw these issues into focus.
>
> I personally think that language teachers are well-served by the argument.
> It may not justify the long hours needed for attainment of fluency, but it
> can spare language programs from complete elimination during a budget
> crunch.
>
> My 2¢.
>
> Brian Doyle
> Graduate student
> Northeastern Illinois University