[lg policy] New York: A Step Back for Learning Languages

Wed Jun 1 14:36:44 UTC 2011

A Step Back for Learning Languages

By JIM DWYER
New York is filled with people who either cannot speak English or who
can speak nothing but.

Next week, students across the state will take Regents exams in
foreign languages for the last time, as the state is dropping its
tests in Spanish, French and Italian.

This will save $700,000 a year, or to put it another way, roughly the
cost of policing a homestand at one of the baseball stadiums.

Do not be confused, dear citizens and students: the state still
believes that it is important to learn foreign languages and culture
before graduation.

Just not $700,000 important.

“With these exams, we actually tested our students’ skills at
navigating through conversations,” said John Carlino, who teaches high
school German, which was eliminated last year from the Regents testing
scheme, along with Hebrew and Latin.

At a time when it seems as if new tests are being devised every week,
it is almost quaint to see the state dropping one series of them.
Students will still need foreign language for the advanced Regents
diploma, but it will be up to each school district to figure out how
to rate their proficiency.

“If they don’t have the money to print the exams, will the state have
the money to check on what the districts are testing?” asked Mr.
Carlino, who is also the executive director of the New York State
Association of Foreign Language Teachers.

To pass the current Regents exams, students have to show that they can
carry on a conversation, grasp what they are being told and also make
themselves understood. They also have to show that they understand the
cultures of the places where the languages are spoken. It is not just
a matter of filling in the circles on a multiple-choice test.

“Once the state adopted those ideals for foreign language and made
them concrete in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the instruction
changed,” Mr. Carlino said. “You couldn’t continue to teach the same
way. You had to change your instruction to be more communicative. It
doesn’t make sense to teach language if you’re not going to use it for
communication.”

There are plenty of reasons to encourage fluency in languages other
than English. One is that it helps mute the narcissistic impulse that
demands anyone who wants to talk with us to speak our language.
Commerce and security are other reasons. By learning a foreign
language, the world becomes less foreign. Some research even shows
that bilingualism keeps the brain supple.

The state will continue to require that students study foreign
language to receive a “Regents diploma with advanced designation,”
said Tom Dunn, a State Education Department spokesman.

The department requested $15 million for “assessment” programs, but
got only $7 million from the Legislature, Mr. Dunn said. To make up
part of the difference, the state cut the foreign language tests and
stopped offering the Regents test for students in January. “We were
unique in the country in offering that,” Mr. Dunn said. By dropping
the midyear tests, he said, high schools will be able to offer another
week of instruction that had been sacrificed to allow a handful of
students to take the Regents.

But the benefit to students of tests in January was that they could
immediately start college when they had completed all their high
school course work, said Shael Suransky, the chief academic officer
for the New York City schools.

“These cuts have a major impact on a number of fronts, including
undermining our kids who need foreign languages as part of their
college readiness,” Mr. Suransky said. For less than $2 million, he
said, the state could restore the foreign and January tests.

New York City is one of the world’s great linguistic reservoirs, with
an estimated 800 languages spoken here, quite a few of them heard
almost nowhere else on earth. About 1.8 million people lack English
proficiency, and the city has 38,000 seats in adult language classes.
The appetite for learning English among immigrants is ferocious, so
the city has organized the We Are New York Community Project to
connect volunteers with people interested in learning English.

While the non-English speakers are lining up for classes, foreign
language Regents are scuttled for $700,000. “If you want to have peace
in the world, people should be able to talk to each other, on each
other’s terms, and understand each other’s culture,” Mr. Carlino said.
“I realize that doesn’t bring financial help to the State Education
Department. But it’s worth mentioning.”

A Step Back for Learning LanguagesBy JIM DWYER
New York is filled with people who either cannot speak English or who
can speak nothing but.