Foreign Language requirement revisited

[BGG]

I don't have a citation on hand for this but I think it
is based on Department of State guidelines for foreign
language instruction - an individual needs 180 hours of
instruction - that is the equivalent of 4 classes with
45 hours of instructon - to get enough of a foundation
to be able to enter another culture. With that
foundation, a person knows enough to participate and
acquire more of the language in environments where it
is used.  Without a base, everything is pretty much
incomprehensible and you don't learn more.  To prepare
for sabbatical in Brazil, I took about 200 hours of
classes.  Initially in the country, I understood
little. Once I developed an ear for the language - in a
few weeks- I was able to interact and within my time
there I was able to do presentations without any
interpreters.
The number of hours of instruction adequate for
establishing a base will vary from language to
language.  The State Department, I believe, has
determined learnability indexes or something of the
sort for different languages (Korean takes many more
hours than French).

Barbara Gerner de Garcia


On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 11:21:07 -0700, "Grushkin, Donald
A." wrote:

>
> Hi all--
>
> Our university is considering making a change in the
> Foreign Language
> requirement to eliminate the third semester
> requirement.  This is not just
> for ASL, but for all the F.L.s here at CSUS.  Their
> rationale is that since
> it is agreed by all that we cannot expect fluency from
> the students after 3
> semesters, and one of the points of the F.L.
> requirement is exposure to
> other cultures and ways of thought, two semesters is
> felt to be sufficient
> for this.
>
> In my own experience, while students are not anywhere
> near FLUENT after 3
> semesters, they are at the point where they are
> starting to become
> COMFORTABLE with the language, and able to express
more
> higher-level
> thoughts.  My feeling is that two semesters is not
> enough for students to
> truly begin to understand the other world view through
> language; it happens
> with more exposure.
>
> We need to provide a rationale for keeping the third
> semester requirement by
> the beginning of May.  We do not want to use the "P
> word" proficiency, but
> we want an argument that makes sense to people not in
> the FL field.
>
> I have checked out Sherman Wilcox's site on academic
> acceptance, but it does
> not have what I need.  Can anybody give me some ideas
> on this?
>
> On a side note, I have noticed some comments from
> people at these meetings
> that sound a little biased toward ASL, primarily
> because our enrollments are
> so large in comparison to the other FLs.  From my
> discussion with people,
> I'm getting the impression that they feel people are
> taking ASL instead of
> other languages, even when they took other languages
in
> HS, and that they
> think (fac and students) ASL is a "shortcut" of some
> sort (I KNOW it's
> not!).  Has anyone else experienced this kind of
biased
> sentiment?
>
> Donald A. Grushkin, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor/Coordinator, ASL Program
> Eureka Hall Rm. 312 (Campus Zip # 6079)
> California State University, Sacramento 95819
> (916) 278-6622 Voice; 278-3465 TTY


Barbara Gerner de Garc Mß
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Foundations and Research
Gallaudet University
800 Florida Ave NE
Washington DC 20002-3695