Strides in 'Critical Languages' Remain Small

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Washington Post,

Strides in 'Critical Languages' Remain Small.  Chance Availability of
Teachers Often Determines Whether Arabic, Chinese, Other Classes Are
Offered

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 14, 2006; A04

Montgomery County has more than 44,000 students taking foreign languages,
a rich linguistic feast that puts it No. 1 among U.S. school systems of
similar size. Yet it has only one high school Arabic class and would not
have that if special education teacher Nazeh Natur hadn't come to
Gaithersburg High School. When Gaithersburg lost its Arabic teacher last
year, the head of the language department persuaded Natur to add that
class to his busy schedule. An Israeli Arab who is a U.S. citizen, Natur
once taught Arabic to young Jews and Hebrew to young Arabs. Now from 7:20
to 8:15 a.m. each weekday, he cajoles a dozen U.S. teenagers in Room C-16
to follow the twists and turns of his complicated mother tongue. His
students, he said, "complain that the words are too rich, that they can't
get just one meaning for one word." He tells them "you have to be
sensitive to what you say" because the wrong word can cause trouble.

The United States is in trouble, many foreign policy experts say, because
it does not have enough speakers of what have come to be called critical
languages: Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Farsi, Hindi and others
spoken in countries vital to U.S. interests. On Jan. 5, President Bush
proposed the National Security Language Initiative, a $114 million effort
to close the gap. "Deficits in foreign language learning and teaching
negatively affect our national security, diplomacy, law enforcement,
intelligence communities and cultural understanding," a U.S. Department of
State fact sheet on the initiative states. "It prevents us from
effectively communicating in foreign media environments, hurts
counter-terrorism efforts, and hamstrings our capacity to work with people
and governments in post-conflict zones and to promote mutual
understanding."

But for the near future, the growth of so-called critical languages will
often depend on happenstance, such as Natur's fortuitous appearance at
Gaithersburg High. Or on whether College Gardens Elementary School in
Rockville gets its renovation done in time. It is not often that a
parent's appeal for an elementary school remodeling invokes national
economic competitiveness. But that's what happened when College Gardens
parent Cindy Boeke denounced a threat to funding of the renovation. Space
needed to be set aside for the school's mandarin Chinese immersion program
at a time when "our nation needs this capability to remain competitive in
the global economy," Boeke said in a petition signed by 62 people.

The Bush proposal includes money for grants to schools, study abroad and
summer training, and stipends for foreign teachers to come to the United
States. Still, many educators say language offerings ebb and flow because
of changing student choices and availability of teachers. "In the past
decade, we offered Japanese at one of our high schools, but our teacher
moved to Japan, and we could not find a qualified replacement," said Steve
Johnson, director of curriculum and instruction for Carroll County, Md.,
schools. The system will offer an introductory Russian course at one of
its high schools next school year. "We are able to do that because we have
a native Russian teacher who is certified in Latin and Russian, and she
wishes to offer a course to students," Johnson said.

And although the war on terrorism has sharpened the government's interest
in funding Arabic studies, the experiences of Washington area schools
indicate that such classes are often born out of very different motives.
Fairfax County foreign language coordinator Paula Patrick said Stuart and
Annandale high schools started Arabic classes in the late 1990s because
they had many students whose families came from countries where Arabic was
the most common language. Students and parents were interested in
improving their reading and writing of a language important to their
families, not to prepare for jobs in national security or international
business. Natur's Arabic class at Gaithersburg has students with similar
motives.  Half come from families that speak Arabic or use a language,
such as Farsi, that shares its alphabet. Two of the girls in class wore
head scarves used by Muslim women, and much of the discussion was about
proper terms to use in social occasions, not geopolitics.

The teacher, who recently received a doctorate in school psychology from
Howard University, used flashcards, overhead-projector lessons and
mnemonic devices. His 585-page Yale University Press textbook, arranged in
what American readers would call back to front, encourages students not to
be put off by the intricate and unfamiliar letters: "Although Arabic
script might seem exotic and undecipherable at first encounter," textbook
author Mahdi Alosh wrote, "it is in fact quite consistent and, to the
pleasant surprise of most learners, can be acquired quickly and easily."

Natur said more students have expressed interest in next year's Arabic
class, and he thinks he can add a third year of instruction to the two
years he's now handling. For now, the class is made up of a dozen students
in a Spanish-language classroom that could hold more than twice as many.
"You do run a risk, when you have a class in a lesser-known language,"
Gaithersburg High Principal Darryl Williams said. "But the students talk
to each other, and if they like what they hear, they say, 'This is
interesting.' "

 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301382_pf.html