[EDLING:1149] MLA Op Ed on Language Issues

[Francis M Hult]

By way of ILR...

> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: MLA op ed on language issues
> 
> 
> 
> Why multilingualism should be a national priority
> 
> By Domna C. Stanton
> 
> Originally published December 28, 2005
> 
> There's an old joke that says: "Someone who speaks three languages is
> trilingual; someone who speaks two languages is bilingual; and someone who
> speaks one language is American." That punch line might have been funny a
> few years ago, but in a post-9/11 world, Americans' lack of language skills
> is no laughing matter. It's cause for great concern.
> Our linguistic deficit has created an increasingly acute national security
> and intelligence crisis. It has affected our ability to build a public
> diplomacy effort that can improve our standing and relations in the world,
> to address burgeoning security challenges and to understand the cultural
> nuances that can spell the difference between life and death at Baghdad
> checkpoints.
> 
> 
> 
> After 9/11, the government discovered that we did not have enough speakers
> of Arabic and Urdu, of Farsi and Chinese, among a host of languages. As a
> result, hundreds of thousands of pages that could contain crucial clues to
> impending attacks remain untranslated in the depths of the FBI.
> 
> And the federal agencies that have the largest foreign language programs -
> the Army, the State Department, the Foreign Commercial Service and the FBI
> - are experiencing shortages up to 44 percent in translators and
> interpreters in such key languages as Arabic, Korean, Mandarin Chinese,
> Persian-Farsi and Russian.
> 
> To tackle this crisis, we need more than just translators. America must have
> multilingual competence, not only for reasons of national security and
> international standing but also to ensure our economic success in the global
> marketplace and to engage in scientific, legal and educational work with
> people around the world.
> 
> To do something about this, we need to gather resources, set new policy and
> raise public awareness. Congress has acknowledged the crisis by designating
> 2005 as "the Year of Foreign Language Study" and calling for the promotion
> and expansion of foreign language study "in elementary schools, secondary
> schools, institutions of higher learning, businesses and government
> programs."
> 
> And Congress has designated 2006 as "the Year of Study Abroad," recognizing
> that we do not have enough graduates with foreign language skills today and
> that intensive study abroad can help "to share the values of the United
> States, to create good will for the United States around the world, to work
> toward a peaceful global society, and to increase international trade."
> 
> But these steps are not enough. There are at least four ways to address this
> critical situation:
> 
> 
> Schools and universities, the best arenas for learning languages at all
> levels, need far greater federal support. The economic burden for Congress'
> initiatives to promote foreign language study should not fall primarily on
> educational institutions.
> 
> The U.S. Education Department should make foreign language competence a new,
> well-funded priority from the early grades through graduate school.
> Our educational motto should be: "no child left monolingual."
> 
> We should look to the millions who speak a second language as extraordinary
> resources instead of trying to strip them of their linguistic heritage to
> assimilate them into American society.
> The language map of the Modern Language Association shows that there are
> more than 1 million in-home speakers of Spanish, French, German, Italian,
> Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese in the United States. These languages and
> the cultures embedded in them are great assets to be tapped.
> 
> 
> At the state and local levels, we should follow the lead of Oregon and
> Washington, which have passed resolutions promoting the policy and practice
> of an indispensable proficiency in English and in a language other than
> English - what is now called the "English plus" movement.
> Multilingual competence is an urgent priority for our nation. We may be
> justifiably proud of the status of English in the world, but we remain
> dangerously handicapped as long as we cannot hear what others say and do not
> know how they view the world. As a federally appointed Commission on the
> Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program recently warned in its call
> for global literacy: "What nations don't know can hurt them."
> 
> 
> 
> Domna C. Stanton, distinguished professor of French at the City University
> of New York, is president of the Modern Language Association. Her e-mail
> address is dstanton at mla.org.