Ed Week, October 6, 2010

On the front page of Ed Week I found an article that immediately demanded my attention:
 "China Flexes Linguistic Muscles.  Millions of Dollars Aim to Encourage Mandarin-Language Instruction in U.S."  As a college-level foreign language instructor I am always interested in issues related to funding and foreign languages in the United States.  Compared to many other countries, I feel we in the U.S. show an appalling lack of interest in encouraging the study of other languages.  A disheartening side-effect of the current recession/depression is that many college-level foreign language programs in diverse languages such as German, Russian, Italian, and French are currently fighting for their lives.  This Chronicle of Higher Education article documents what is going on in the state of Missouri, for example.  The MLA or Modern Language Association will be holding a special one-day session at its annual conference in January 2011 on strategies for defending and maintaining existing Language Programs at the college level.  In the state of Oregon we have gone from 50 viable German High School programs down to 15 in recent years.  From the sound of this article, however, students in Oregon may soon be learning Mandarin.
     According to the article, the Chinese government has provided millions of dollars in aid to establish Mandarin classes in K-12 schools and colleges all over the country. Martha Abbott from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages said what China is doing is not anything new.  She cited past efforts by other countries such as Japan, France, and Germany through their embassies and other organizations like Germany's Goethe Institute.  The key difference seems to be in the vast amount of money China is investing.  Ms. Abbott also indicated that a critical motive of the Chinese government  is to promote Mandarin Chinese as a global language.  I was also surprised to learn that the Chinese government had provided financial support to develop a high school AP course in Chinese language and culture.  In addition, the Chinese government has worked to establish Confucius Institutes at universities throughout the world.  They have also created or enlarged Mandarin Chinese programs at the elementary and secondary levels.  School districts around the country are struggling financially, and the extra funding from the Chinese government is welcome.  Our own government is also encouraging the study of under-taught languages that it views as crucial for national defense purposes.  I learned that the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland College Park administers the federal "Star Talk Program" started by George W. Bush in 2006.  This year this program provided approximately $ 20 Million dollars for K-16 summer programs for teachers and students in desired languages, including Chinese.
     One question I have long pondered is why the United States does not seem to view our many immigrants and their cultural and linguistic knowledge and expertise as the valuable resource I see them as.  I think we should be capitalizing on the many heritage speakers of all languages we have in this country.  I would also like to understand why, although all the research supports it, we do not have our children learning foreign languages at an early age.  There are cognitive and neurological benefits for our individual students, and it seems like in our global economy it would be in our nation's best interest to have proficient speakers of all languages.