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<h1 class="" itemprop="headline">Washington lawmakers want computer science to count as foreign language</h1>
<h2 class="" itemprop="description">If bill passes, two years of comp sci would count toward university admission.</h2>
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by <a itemprop="url" href="http://arstechnica.com/author/cyrus-farivar/" rel="author"><span itemprop="name">Cyrus Farivar</span></a>
- <span title="Fri Feb 06 2015 09:25:32 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)" class="">Feb 6 2015, 9:25am EST</span>
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<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sincretic/2127209535">Mircea Turcan</a>
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<p>Two Washington state legislators have recently introduced a bill
that would allow computer science class (e.g., programming) to
effectively count as a foreign language requirement for the purposes of
in-state college admissions. On Wednesday, the bill was presented before
the Washington State House of Representatives Committee on Higher
Education.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1656974-1445.html">House Bill 1445</a> would
amend current state law, which only recognizes “any natural language”
that is “formally studied... including a Native American language,
American Sign Language, Latin, or ancient Greek.”</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time that such a bill has been attempted: in fact, Kentucky legislators have <a href="http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Ky-Senator-wants-foreign-language-credit-given-for-programming-290174351.html">introduced</a> a similar provision this year, too.</p>
<p>The bill’s author, <a href="http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/roster/rep-chris-reykdal/">Representative Chris Reykdal</a>
told Ars that while he does believe in a “well-rounded” education
including foreign language, most students end up studying a language for
the first time in high school—far too late to usually be effective.</p>
<p>“If we were serious, we would put language in our elementary schools
when the brain is mapping in a different way, and we would have kids
fluent by 6th or 7th grade,” he said. “By high school it's just a way
for kids to get into college. If we're serious about language, we should
embed it earlier.”</p>
<p>But, he pointed out, high-paid computer science jobs are growing far
faster than people can fill them. So why not take advantage of the labor
disparity?</p>
<h2>Ein bisschen Deutsch?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm">According</a>
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “employment of computer and
information research scientists is projected to grow 15 percent from
2012 to 2022, faster than the average for all occupations.”</p>
<p>“We consistently hear about kids that are not getting jobs as they're
going overseas,” Reykdal added. “It strikes me that we don't give kids a
meaningful shot in getting some computer science basics before they go
to university.”</p>
<p>The bill's co-sponsor, <a href="http://houserepublicans.wa.gov/chad-magendanz/">Representative Chad Magendanz</a>
(a Republican, software developer to boot, and Ars reader), described
his interest in the bill as being as “less enthusiastic" than Reykdal.</p>
<p>Magendanz just wants students to “have a conversation” about the
merit of high school language education and isn’t necessarily as sold on
the bill’s passage. “We have a mismatch between our priorities—claiming
that world languages are an important requirement for going to
college—but there's a drive to make that as a graduation requirement and
yet there's not a commitment at K-12 or higher education to make that
happen,” Magendanz said.</p>
<p>Some, though, are worried that making computer science classes serve
as an incentive for college admissions will automatically have a
negative effect on traditional foreign language classes.</p>
<p>“I’ve nothing against students learning more about programming, but I
think it’s a disingenuous way of getting around foreign language
requirements,” Patrick Cox, an editor on PRI’s <em>The World</em>, and the host of <a href="http://www.pri.org/collections/world-words">The World in Words podcast</a>,
told Ars by e-mail. “It’s an indication of the low value that many
American politicians—and unfortunately, educators—place on foreign
language learning. No linguist I know of buys the argument that a
computer programming language is even close to a natural language and
should be treated as such.”</p>
<p>So what languages do the bill’s co-sponsors speak? Reykdal said he
has studied "three years of German in high school, and I can barely
speak a lick of it today!"</p>
<p><a href="http://houserepublicans.wa.gov/chad-magendanz/">Magendanz</a> has studied “a little German, took Spanish and Italian in high school, and I learned survival terms in southeast Asia."</p>
<p>“I’ve been a software developer for 20 years, which certainly
wouldn't help me communicate as I’m trying to do business in other
countries,” he added. “We introduce our kids to foreign language at a
late age, we don't have the opportunity to become fluent.”</p>
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