Slavic field

[andrea nelson]

Dear Listmembers:

I would like to respond to the recent postings on the NYT article and
subsequent discussion, especially Genevra's wonderful comments identifying
our purpose as Slavic departments.

This disscussion first of all bears an uncanny resemblence to one which took
place just a few weeks ago on the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
list (SLART-L).  To this list, somebody posted the question:  Are Second
Languages Necessary?   The content of the rest of the message made it clear
that the author was asking the profession of second and foreign langauge
teaching at large what use foreign language education is at the secondary
and tertiary levels in a country and world where English is the lingua
franca in much of commerce, politics and so forth. He got some very scathing
responses, you can imagine, but the thing that was interesting about his
initial question was the passion it evoked in the foreign language teaching
community as represented by those who responded to the list.  These were
teachers of a wide range of foreign languages in this country.  It was clear
to me as responder and reader of the other responses that teachers of
foreign languages in this country are up against a wave of linguistic
conservatism which is pushing for English only education and which sees the
learning of foreign languages as a "luxury" and not as a "necessity."  The
problem some critics had with the advocates of foreign languages (and they
were few) was that there must be some kind of concrete payoff in terms of
money or jobs for these students.  However, many convincing arguments were
made which really emphasized the educational mission of teaching and
learning foreign languages, where the point, in Neil Postman's words
(paraphrased) is not just to enable students to make a LIVING but to make a
LIFE.

So, I think beyond the arguments to our students which involve the vast
opportunities to do business with Russia or to somehow help to hone the vast
natural and other resources of the territory of that continent (arguments
which are certainly valid and should be made) we should also recognize our
purpose as foreign language educators and focus on communicating the
excitement and passion which Genevra expressed in her previous posting.  And
we should communicate this excitement and this passion to students in our
beginning Russian language courses.


Anyway.  My two kopeks worth.

Andrea Nelson