Mainely Middle
Journal of the Maine Association for Middle
Level Education
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2001/2002 |
Making Room for Foreign Languages in Maine and for Our Students in the WorldNext time someone tells you an ethnic joke, listen carefully. Although it may sound harmless and only meant in good spirit, it tells us how we view people who are different from ourselves. Many ethnic jokes make foreigners and racial groups out to be dumb, inferior, and people who smell bad. This does not go unnoticed by other countries who have their own jokes about us. Most of these jokes depict Americans as rude, loud, and egotistical. We have earned ourselves a reputation sometimes of being inconsiderate towards foreigners, for we have not taken the time to get to know them because we assume everybody speaks English. In fact, if jokes about Americans were told in another language, most of us would not be able to understand them. In addition to breaking down harmful stereotypical barriers, foreign languages improve communication with others who do not share the same language that we do. Never before has learning another language become so important. When I was a sixth-grade student back at Bowdoin Central School taking foreign language for the first time myself, the world population was only about 4.5 billion. Today, when I now have my own sixth-grade students, this population stands at 6 billion and continues to grow. In 2050 this population is expected to reach 9 billion people, with the heaviest growth in less economically developed countries… most of these do not speak English as their first language. The truth of the matter is that our school kids, their children, and all of the future generations to come will be living in a world of many languages. Why, they say that by 2007, one year before my current sixth-graders graduate, Chinese will be the number one language on the Internet. Right here in the United States, Metropolitan New York City already boasts two million native Spanish speakers and in the country the numbers already surpass six percent of the population. Have you checked out the regions of Mercosur and the European Economic Community lately? With hundreds of thousands of people and over a dozen official languages, the possibilities for foreign language use in one's professional future and leisure-time activities, both here at home and abroad, are endless. One more little fact for you - although it is true that much of the world does speak English, of the top twelve languages in the world, English only ranks fourth according to the 2001 World Almanac and accounts for only 11% of this group's native speakers. When you study foreign languages, you are also studying peoples' concepts, values, and belief systems. You learn what offends people. You start to care about others, and this care evolves into caring about the environment because not just you, but other people, live there as well. You learn that eating chicken in India the day after someone's father dies is offensive, that our common "OK" sign with the thumb and index finger held in a circle is rude to make in Brazil. This may seem silly to us, but these things should be respected in places where it is called for, and through respecting someone's language, you learn to respect someone's culture and the people themselves. In return, we are respected back. Maine's state government has realized the importance of foreign language study for our youth and has been dialoguing with communities across the State to look at foreign language education for our schools. The results of this dedicated quest for suitable programming and curriculum design are found in Maine's Common Core of Learning and the Maine State Learning Results. These two education reform documents are very similar in content. Both see the testimony that foreign languages offer and want to make our students ready for tomorrow's world. Both documents focus on the importance of starting foreign language education early, and I am in 100% agreement. If we examine a large part of Maine's economy, tourism, we see a large need for foreign languages. Our great state, also nicknamed "Vacationland," attracts over four million people every summer from outside its borders. That is four times the state's population. Many a time have I heard German spoken at a fast food restaurant, Spanish spoken at an amusement park, and French at the seashore. Foreign languages are everywhere. Non-English speakers are coming more and more to Maine. We have migrant workers in rural areas, and refugees and new immigrants in cities like Portland and Lewiston. The state continues to open its doors to both small and large enterprises. With this, the market for foreign languages and ties to other businesses may become more and more vital. State standards, of course, should be in sync with national standards. Standards both at the state and national level place heavy emphasis on cultural understanding, and consider culture an essential part to mastering a foreign language. In addition to culture, both types of standards also emphasize communication, which should be at the heart of any foreign language curriculum. However, there is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of questions to be answered regarding the implementation of national and state standards. Foreign language teachers are in high demand across the nation because there are so few of us. As states start to push compulsory foreign language education for students in kindergarten through their last year of high school, school districts are scrambling to find individuals to fill positions. Newspapers frequently advertise foreign language positions in the classifieds and this will become more and more frequent as more districts work towards Learning Results implementation. There is also the question of budgeting and how to pay for the extra positions, as well as that of scheduling and how to fit a new curriculum into the current school day. In most districts, where foreign language study has not become commonplace at the elementary level, ideal middle school language programs do not exist. Due to the fact that students often do not have previous foreign language experience before entering middle school, foreign language educators must teach the basics and cover all of the K-8 Learning Results in middle school. They must forego many of the explorations with the languages that they could otherwise do in their class. Teachers in other fields can take their students one step further because students already have some prior knowledge before reaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. You cannot have a true middle level program without the first level. Schools need to push for elementary foreign language programs right now. The question also arises as to which language offerings to offer. Traditionally schools in Maine offered French and Latin, but the number of offerings has expanded a little over the last twenty years. Some schools offer German, while Spanish has staked its claim as one of the biggest languages in schools today. I had the chance to study four years of Russian in high school when that program existed, but that was rare for Maine, and still is. Very few districts offer languages outside of the four above. If we are looking to make our economy stronger, and make our youth's future economically more secure, we need to continue looking at languages which are spoken by world political, technological, and economic giants. We need to procure languages spoken in countries that are large trading partners with the United States, high in natural resources, and where we should consider future economic outlooks. The Common Core says we need to start teaching languages such as Chinese, Russian, and Japanese to be "effective trading and diplomatic partners." According to the 2001 World Almanac, the ten most spoken languages in the world in order of native language are: Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, and Korean. This total accounts for 2,792,000,000 people or about half the planet. Doesn't it make sense to offer as many of these languages as possible? Why not learn a foreign language that has many speakers? After all, chances are good that if you run into a foreign language it will be one of the above. How many of these are being taught in Maine schools? When we look at the Learning Results, Maine's Common Core, and other standards, we need to consider cost of implementation of new foreign language curriculums and revamping existing ones. One such effective alternative option for Maine is the Critical Languages Program. The Critical Languages Program is based upon Foreign Service Institute methodology. It is ideal for Maine's future, because often our institutions' financial resources are limited and so is our staffs. In this program, the focus is on communication and languages are self-taught. Students meet several hours a week with native speakers to drill what they have learned and to converse over a wide array of topics using the new material each class. The tutors who guide students are native speakers in the community and are not hired full-time. By reducing salary costs, schools are able to offer tutors an above satisfactory wage and keep their costs low. Languages that have been taught successfully through this program include: Arabic, Swahili, Italian, Korean, and Polish. The Critical Languages Program was first introduced at the University of Maine in spring 1994. It has continued success and coordinates several languages. A few public schools have also become interested in the program. This is a viable option for Maine. Maybe the answer to which languages should be learned, should be left up to the students themselves. This is where exploratory programs come in; programs that introduce students to a variety of languages to give them an overview of how language works and insight into which particular language route they would like to follow. Often students start a foreign language without any previous study. Students often comment that they take Spanish because it is "easy" and many students avoid German because they think it is "hard." However, in the majority of these cases none of these students were ever exposed to Spanish or German prior to the start of their foreign language education. What is wrong here? Students are going into classes thinking that they are automatically hard or that they are an impossible challenge. This leads to frustration on the student's part because s/he has already made up his or her mind that languages are difficult and to frustration for the teacher who must overcome such student perceptions. It is often found that these students are not familiar with language concepts such as gender, and terminology such as verb conjugations, articles, tenses, etc. Exploratory programs help solve this problem by preparing the student with a sort of mini-course in each language and by pointing out its special characteristics. Exploratory programs are also valuable because they introduce students to a variety of cultures. While concentrating on different languages, cultural aspects are also covered. This also aids the student in choosing a language path. When cultural sides of a given language are taught in the classroom, students may become interested and see some relevance to learning the language, making languages more enjoyable. I have seen three important positive changes in terms of foreign language education right here in Maine. The first of these is how foreign languages have become more interdisciplinary. Today more and more, teachers in all fields are combining their efforts to promote learning across all levels and subject areas. Students are learning that foreign languages are not isolated disciplines that they go hand in hand with other school subjects. The Learning Results and the Common Core emphasize the importance of cultural awareness. If we truly want to understand other cultures, and our own, we need to look at other areas in addition to foreign languages. These areas include: history, geography, anthropology, sociology, economics, art, music, ethnic studies, area studies, and the classics. In order to study and understand culture, we need to take other classes into consideration when we are preparing our curriculums. Following the scope and sequence method we can develop satisfactory means of making foreign language education part of an integral education. Other classes can use foreign languages in their classrooms too, from doing basic math problems in a foreign language up to reading historical documents and treaties at the more advanced levels. With the new plan of incorporating foreign languages in the realm of education for Maine's youth, foreign languages can follow the student into all areas of the school and make learning them more real and practical. Advances in technological resources are a second positive change for the foreign language classroom. Thanks to the Internet, there is a plethora of sites to explore that make language learning fun, meaningful and accessible. Not only can students learn the most taught languages in public school, but a multitude of others. There are websites to learn Albanian, Icelandic, Welsh, and Zulu. Students can translate words online in numerous languages, learn how to cook traditional food from recipes, meet pen pals to practice their new language, learn about the countries and people that speak a given language, and even go as so far to look at tour itineraries, hotel accommodations, and airlines. Teachers now have the opportunity to realize their dream of being able to take their students on a trip abroad to immerse them in the language and culture, albeit a virtual one. There are also CD Rom programs for everyone. These appeal to various types of learners. The opportunities for exploration are endless, but still teachers need adequate support to locate such technology, as well as training on how to enrich their current curricula with it. It is a shame to have such powerful resources that the students really enjoy and not use them to their full capacity. The third step in the right direction, although it varies from school to school, is that foreign languages are being offered to more and more students. Traditionally languages were only for those who pursued post-secondary study and were electives. While this is still the case in some schools, I am very glad to see that more and more schools are embracing the idea to make languages available to all students. No student should be robbed of the joy of experiencing a new language and a new culture. Of course, by not making languages a compulsory subject like mathematics, history, etc., schools end up tracking students, but they also ignore the benefits that languages bring to everyone. Foreign languages aid students in their rationale, verbal skills in their native language, and cultural awareness. As the world continues to grow, the job market for bilingual or multilingual jobs will increase, and many of these will not necessary require college experience. We need to prepare all students. Foreign language education is important. Foreign language study gives middle school students a chance to learn about the world around them and to be able to communicate with the people who live inside of it. The world is so small today and with technological advances it will be even smaller tomorrow. We have felt for a long time that learning other languages is unnecessary, or maybe somewhat necessary, but not as much as some other subject areas when it comes to schedules and budgets. But our students will lose out if they do not command the adequate language and culture skills that so many multi-lingual foreign nationals do. We need to think of where we want to go in terms of prosperity and good relations with our neighbors - the other countries of the world. The best way to work on future economic, political, and social ties is to solidify foreign language curriculums into a piece of art; into a functioning vehicle that takes us where we need to go, and to make them more beneficial. In order to do so, we can turn to standards on national and state levels, exploratory programs, alternative options such as the Critical Languages Program, technological resources, and to each other in terms of becoming more interdisciplinary. We have all of the right tools, components, and parts we need to start constructing and putting together a solid foreign language curriculum. All that is missing now are the mechanics and how to assemble each piece… but what if the instructions come in Japanese? When middle school students are actively enrolled in a strong foreign language program, they will walk away with an appreciation for differences and an interest in languages and other cultures. They will be able to travel in other countries, make new friends, increase their job opportunities, become a more well-rounded citizen, and be able to understand jokes that do not point the finger at or make fun of anybody, but that are good fun for all.
Resources Commission on Maine's Common Core of Learning (1990). Maine's common core of learning. Augusta, ME: Author. Kennedy, D. & De Lorenzo, W. (1994). The case for exploratory programs in middle/junior high school. Foreign Language Annals, v. 21, No. 1. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press. NCSSFL (1994). Foreign language programs and the middle school of the nineties. Foreign Language Annals , v. 21, No. 1. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press. State of Maine Department of Education (1996). Maine state learning results. Augusta, ME: Author. World Almanac Education Group, Inc. (2001). The world almanac and book of facts 2001.
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