During the Cold War, the federal government pushed public schools to teach foreign languages to American students. Since that time, our world has become even more interconnected in trade, education and politics. “To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010. “Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages.”1 One may be lead to believe that the increased demand for foreign language fluency in America would have lead to a correlative rise in language education offered, but the exact opposite proves to be true.
Even though learning foreign languages promotes communication, understanding, and appreciation between cultures, American education is downplaying language learning. In general, “only 18 percent of Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53 percent of Europeans (and increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language.”2 This is partially because less colleges and universities are requiring language courses to graduate, and public primary and secondary schools are cutting their language departments.
I have seen this trend played out even at my own university. Though Saint Martin’s University offered Spanish, Japanese and French courses during the Spring 2016 semester, language requirements can be fulfilled by high school credit and many students never end up taking a single class in a foreign language, much less becoming fluent. If a student wants to study abroad, there are English-speaking options in almost every major country. The push to learn and master foreign languages is relegated to those who have a passion for linguistics or know that they will need them in their chosen career path, rather than being part of a liberal arts education.
I am excited to report, however, that my university is offering a fourth language in Fall 2016: Latin. In addition to the language’s connection to the Catholic Church and history, it is also my favorite foreign language. I was blessed to experience four years of Latin instruction at my high school, Mount Rainier Lutheran High, and it was an incredibly positive experience. Latin classes lend themselves to historical and classical cross-over lessons that have enriched my knowledge of Western civilization. The etymological benefits of learning Latin increased my English vocabulary, my performance on the SAT, and my ability to understand and learn other romantic languages.
Learning a language, especially at a young age, shapes one’s mind in a peculiar way, just as math, literature and music all have unique impacts on the brain. Research shows that early language learning results in better pronunciation and higher levels of proficiency, as well as cognitive benefits associated with being bilingual.3 A Dordt University masters student also found that language is acquired best when instruction is initiated in early childhood and sustained over an articulated number of years.4 Many other countries, such as Canada, have taken this research to heart and focused their language learning requirements at grade schools and middle schools.
I have personally found that learning languages is almost always more beneficial at a young age. I believe that part of my success with Latin was fostered by supplemental programs that I attended in grade school that taught rudimentary Gaelic and Portuguese. In my own Latin classes, students who had gone to a middle school in which they were taught basic Latin learned at an accelerated rate compared to students who had never been exposed to the process of learning another language. As a choir teacher for students in Kindergarten through eighth grade, I found that my younger students were better at grasping songs in other languages. My kindergarten class picked up “Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes” in Latin in under 20 minutes, and remembered it the next week. My first grade class loved to sing “Mica Mica Parva Stella” ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") after I taught it to them in just one class period. The young mind is especially equipped to pick up on language cues and store them in long-term memory.
But language instruction at young ages is not happening in the US on a wide scale. Though some private schools and preschools boast bilingual or immersive education, the percentage of public and private elementary schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 31 to 25 percent from 1997 to 2008. This is in part because 25 percent of elementary schools and 30 percent of middle schools report a shortage of qualified foreign language teachers.5
So, this is a problem, but what should you do?
Learn languages! No matter how old you are, whether you take a community college course in a language, or begin to study it online, learning a foreign language helps to reshape and improve your brain, as well as giving you an appreciation for other cultures.
Travel! If you’ve been wanting to study abroad or take a vacation in a foreign country, try to learn the local languages in more depth than just what you need to order food or a cocktail. Your experience will be more rewarding and you’ll be able to connect with the local community and culture.
Encourage your public schools to offer language courses! Many public schools are cutting programs that seem extraneous as they struggle to balance their budgets. Your taxes are paying for your local schools! Let them know that language learning is vital for individual student success and for American education as a whole.
Footnotes:
1: Skorton, David, and Glenn Altschuler. "America's Foreign Language Deficit." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 July 2016.
2: Ibid
3: Chandler, Michael Alison. "From Spanglish to Bilingual: Parents Seek Early Foreign Language Courses, but Most Schools Start Late." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 01 July 2016.
4: Pollema, Mary Beth, "Case for Foreign Language in the Elementary School" (2014). Master of Education Program Theses. Paper 5.
5: Skorton, David, and Glenn Altschuler. "America's Foreign Language Deficit." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 July 2016.
