[lg policy] MLA Issues Statement on Language Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

MLA Issues Statement on Language Policy
June 7, 2012 - 3:00am

The Modern Language Association's Executive Council has approved a
statement on the importance of language learning to U.S. policy. The
statement calls the learning of foreign languages "vital" and goes on
to explain why. "We believe this view should be uncontroversial;
anyone interested in the long-term vitality and security of the United
States should recognize that it will be detrimental for Americans to
remain overwhelmingly monolingual and ill informed about other parts
of this increasingly interdependent world," the statement says. "We
are therefore deeply alarmed by the drastic and disproportionate
budget cuts in recent years to programs that fund advanced language
study. We believe that advanced language study is important for the
same reasons many policy makers, advisers, and elected officials do:
Americans need to be literate about the languages and cultures of the
United States’ major trading partners, and Americans need to be
literate in the so-called strategic languages important to national
security."

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/06/07/mla-issues-statement-language-policy#ixzz1xDaXhSSJ
Inside Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/06/07/mla-issues-statement-language-policy

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