Utah: Intrigue helps fuel language studies. Funding boost means more students may learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian
Harold Schiffman
hfsclpp at gmail.com
Sun Mar 9 17:10:24 UTC 2008
Intrigue helps fuel language studies
Funding boost means more students may learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian
By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/09/2008 04:08:58 AM MDT
It's an accepted truth that speaking a new language requires that you
first must listen. For the Western ear learning Arabic, that maxim
reveals itself with almost every syllable. Whether she's running
through a list of plural nouns, or placing her hand on her lower
throat to help students locate a particular sound, Audrey Bastian is
accustomed to asking her Provo High School Arabic students the same
question time and again: "Can you hear the difference?" To the
layperson unfamiliar with Arabic, those differences are many, not to
mention difficult. Where do you want to start? Arabic reads and writes
from right to left. Whole canyons exist between its written form and
spoken practice. Its dialects are so bewildering that both the CIA and
the American Council For Teaching Foreign Languages rate it, along
with Russian and Finnish, at the very top of languages taking the
longest time and most effort to learn. The running joke about Arabic
is that it becomes far easier to learn after your first 10 years of
instruction.
Why, then, spend hours learning the finer points of Arabic script
on erasable pads when you could be learning Spanish or French,
languages requiring four times less the effort for proficiency? As
far as the 12 students in Bastian's class are concerned, Arabic is
where it's at. Two were turned on to it by a family member in the
military. One hopes to visit Egypt one day with her sister. Another
became so swept up learning the language that his father ordered books
and decided to study along with his son. For all of them, however,
it's Arabic's exotic appeal that beckons. "I may understand only
half the words in songs we hear in class, but it's still beautiful,"
said 17-year-old Aaron Holloway.
For Utah lawmakers, who allocated $480,000 toward the study of
"critical languages" in a surprise bill that passed the Legislature
last week, beauty is beside the point. For them, the number of Utah
students studying Arabic, along with Russian and Chinese, is crucial
to the nation's economic and national security. In prying open the
state's wallet to such an initiative, they're also following the
advice of the federal National Security Language Initiative, which
also includes Farsi, Hindi and Korean on the list.
That money could translate into more Utah students versed in
Arabic, and more opportunities for teachers such as Bastian. Utah
boasts a number of high schools offering Chinese, but only two high
schools - Provo and Lone Peak in Highland, plus Lehi's charter middle
school Renaissance Academy - offer Arabic.
Even by those numbers, Utah far outpaces other states. Brigham
Young University Arabic professor Kirk Belnap estimates that fewer
than 1 percent of high schools nationally offer Arabic instruction,
while 10 percent of universities and colleges do so.
More than six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those
figures either surprise or appall. As director of the National Middle
East Language Resource Center, created and funded by the U.S.
Department of Education in 2002, and based at BYU, Belnap would like
to see the number and quality of Arabic-language programs everywhere
improve. His efforts, along with those of Maggie Nassif, the center's
assistant director, have been central to Arabic's early start in Utah
classrooms, said Bastian, who will finish her first full year of
Arabic instruction at Provo High School this spring.
In the pipeline for a launch this fall is the center's "Arabic
Without Walls," distance-learning program allowing anyone, high school
student or not, to start study of the language.
"Arabs believe deeply that Arabic is the hardest language to learn
in the world," Belnap said. "But if you believe that as a teacher, you
have a way of making that come true for students. One of our biggest
challenges is helping students and teachers realize that students can
learn a lot of the language if you believe in them. A lot of teachers
tend to coddle students learning Arabic."
The prospect of more Arabic in schools appeals both to those in
government, who feel it serves national security interests, and those
in education interested in bridging cultures.
"There's a serious need to open kids' eyes to the fact that people
are people. A lot of people outside the U.S. think America is this
awful place where people get shot in schools or restaurants, so it's
important for us to overcome the stereotype that all Arabs are
terrorists," Belnap said.
Gregg Roberts, world language specialist with the Utah State
Office of Education, welcomed last week's last-minute shot of foreign
language funding, regardless of what Utah high schools choose among
the federal government's menu of "critical" languages. At the moment,
he noted, Arabic has more foreign policy consequences than other
choices, however.
"When the U.S. arrived in Baghdad, out of 1,000 embassy personnel
only 33 spoke Arabic," Roberts said. "And of that 33, only six were
proficient."
bfulton at sltrib.com
SB41
* If signed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., SB41 would provide $750,000
toward dual-immersion language programs, which includes $480,000
toward the study of "critical languages."
* Twenty Utah high schools and junior highs already offer either
Chinese and/or Arabic. The bill would enable another 40 schools to
also offer Chinese, Arabic and Russian.
* In addition, it would help create 15 elementary school
dual-immersion programs in Chinese, Spanish, French and Navajo.
Beginning in kindergarten or first grade, students in the programs
would spend half their time learning in English and the other half
learning in the other language.
Funding boost means more students may learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian
By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/09/2008 04:08:58 AM MDT
Click photo to enlargeAudrey Bastian teaches Arabic at Provo High
School on Friday... (Al Hartmann/Salt Lake Tribune )«12»PROVO - It's
an accepted truth that speaking a new language requires that you first
must listen. For the Western ear learning Arabic, that maxim reveals
itself with almost every syllable.
Whether she's running through a list of plural nouns, or placing
her hand on her lower throat to help students locate a particular
sound, Audrey Bastian is accustomed to asking her Provo High School
Arabic students the same question time and again: "Can you hear the
difference?"
To the layperson unfamiliar with Arabic, those differences are
many, not to mention difficult. Where do you want to start? Arabic
reads and writes from right to left. Whole canyons exist between its
written form and spoken practice. Its dialects are so bewildering that
both the CIA and the American Council For Teaching Foreign Languages
rate it, along with Russian and Finnish, at the very top of languages
taking the longest time and most effort to learn. The running joke
about Arabic is that it becomes far easier to learn after your first
10 years of instruction.
Why, then, spend hours learning the finer points of Arabic script
on erasable pads when you could be learning Spanish or French,
languages requiring four times less the effort for proficiency?
As far as the 12 students in Bastian's class are concerned, Arabic
is where it's at.
Two were turned on to it by a family member in the military. One
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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hopes to visit Egypt one day with her sister. Another became so swept
up learning the language that his father ordered books and decided to
study along with his son. For all of them, however, it's Arabic's
exotic appeal that beckons.
"I may understand only half the words in songs we hear in class,
but it's still beautiful," said 17-year-old Aaron Holloway.
For Utah lawmakers, who allocated $480,000 toward the study of
"critical languages" in a surprise bill that passed the Legislature
last week, beauty is beside the point. For them, the number of Utah
students studying Arabic, along with Russian and Chinese, is crucial
to the nation's economic and national security. In prying open the
state's wallet to such an initiative, they're also following the
advice of the federal National Security Language Initiative, which
also includes Farsi, Hindi and Korean on the list.
That money could translate into more Utah students versed in
Arabic, and more opportunities for teachers such as Bastian. Utah
boasts a number of high schools offering Chinese, but only two high
schools - Provo and Lone Peak in Highland, plus Lehi's charter middle
school Renaissance Academy - offer Arabic.
Even by those numbers, Utah far outpaces other states. Brigham
Young University Arabic professor Kirk Belnap estimates that fewer
than 1 percent of high schools nationally offer Arabic instruction,
while 10 percent of universities and colleges do so.
More than six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those
figures either surprise or appall. As director of the National Middle
East Language Resource Center, created and funded by the U.S.
Department of Education in 2002, and based at BYU, Belnap would like
to see the number and quality of Arabic-language programs everywhere
improve. His efforts, along with those of Maggie Nassif, the center's
assistant director, have been central to Arabic's early start in Utah
classrooms, said Bastian, who will finish her first full year of
Arabic instruction at Provo High School this spring.
In the pipeline for a launch this fall is the center's "Arabic
Without Walls," distance-learning program allowing anyone, high school
student or not, to start study of the language.
"Arabs believe deeply that Arabic is the hardest language to learn
in the world," Belnap said. "But if you believe that as a teacher, you
have a way of making that come true for students. One of our biggest
challenges is helping students and teachers realize that students can
learn a lot of the language if you believe in them. A lot of teachers
tend to coddle students learning Arabic."
The prospect of more Arabic in schools appeals both to those in
government, who feel it serves national security interests, and those
in education interested in bridging cultures.
"There's a serious need to open kids' eyes to the fact that people
are people. A lot of people outside the U.S. think America is this
awful place where people get shot in schools or restaurants, so it's
important for us to overcome the stereotype that all Arabs are
terrorists," Belnap said.
Gregg Roberts, world language specialist with the Utah State
Office of Education, welcomed last week's last-minute shot of foreign
language funding, regardless of what Utah high schools choose among
the federal government's menu of "critical" languages. At the moment,
he noted, Arabic has more foreign policy consequences than other
choices, however.
"When the U.S. arrived in Baghdad, out of 1,000 embassy personnel
only 33 spoke Arabic," Roberts said. "And of that 33, only six were
proficient."
bfulton at sltrib.com
SB41
* If signed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., SB41 would provide $750,000
toward dual-immersion language programs, which includes $480,000
toward the study of "critical languages."
* Twenty Utah high schools and junior highs already offer either
Chinese and/or Arabic. The bill would enable another 40 schools to
also offer Chinese, Arabic and Russian.
* In addition, it would help create 15 elementary school
dual-immersion programs in Chinese, Spanish, French and Navajo.
Beginning in kindergarten or first grade, students in the programs
would spend half their time learning in English and the other half
learning in the other language.
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