undergraduate language requirements

[David J Birnbaum]

Dear SEELANGers,

The University of Pittsburgh is reviewing its undergraduate curriculum,
and I am trying to gather information about language requirements at other
North American universities and colleges. I would be grateful if
SEELANGers could tell me:

1) Is there any sort of general language requirement at your university
   or college? If so, what is it?
2) Are you satisfied with your undergraduate language requirement (or
   lack thereof)? By this I am asking not about strategic self-interest
   (stricter language requirements bring higher enrollment in language
   courses, which brings more money to language department budgets), but
   about philosophy of undergraduate education. That is, given all the
   legimiate educational goals an undergraduate curriculum must address,
   is your school's language requirement appropriate within the context of
   your general curriculum?

Let me start by describing the University of Pittsburgh.

1) We have a very large number of general education requirements (various
types of art, music, literature, formal reasoning, science, writing,
culture, etc.), and the current curriculum reform effort is aimed
primarily at reducing the complexity of this system. The current language
requirement is that students either complete three years of language in
high school with a grade of C or better or take one year of language at
Pitt.

2) Almost all language-department faculty consider this requirement
inconsistent, in that it erroneously equates three years of high-school
seat time with one year of college seat time. Leaving aside the question
of whether a seat-time equivalency system would ever be appropriate, three
years of high-school language study is almost never equivalent to one year
of language study at Pitt. Over 90% of students who arrive at Pitt with
three years of high-school language study who voluntarily take placement
tests because they would like to continue their language study (that is, a
self-selecting sample of the students most interest in language study)
fail to place into a third-semester course or above, which provides very
strong evidence that the equation is invalid. Some faculty in other
departments, particularly those involved in international studies, feel
similarly about the inappropriateness of the current requirement. Proposed
remedies range from retaining the one-year requirement but requiring that
students test out of it, on the one hand, to eliminating the language
requirement altogether, on the other, since what we currently call a
language requirement hardly qualifies as such, and we should be more
truthful about the importance we attach to language study in our
curriculum.

I am particularly eager to learn whether any other university or college
has a language requirement that is satisfied by high-school seat time, in
the absence of any examination. Exemptions from Pitt's two other entrance
skills requirements (basic writing, basic algebra) are obtained by
testing, which means that language is unique among the three skills
requirements in being satisfiable entirely by seat time.

Thanks,

David
________________________________________________________________________

Professor David J. Birnbaum     email: djbpitt+ at pitt.edu
Department of Slavic Languages  url:   http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/
1417 Cathedral of Learning      voice: 1-412-624-5712
University of Pittsburgh        fax:   1-412-624-9714
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA