AS ORIENTATION rolls around this year, I am reminded of one of my experiences from my first-year orientation. During a particular mandatory lecture, the professor talked about the values of the foreign language requirement and challenged anyone who couldn't see this to walk out of the auditorium. As I looked around, no one moved. I was too scared to be the only one to walk out, but looking back, I should have.
Few classes in the College cause more pain and suffering than those taken to meet the foreign language requirement. But year after year, first and second years are forced to go through the same struggle, not to mention those poor third and fourth years who have procrastinated as long as they could.
The foreign language requirement makes no sense. Most students at the University have taken a foreign language in high school. If they haven't mastered the language within the three to four years they took it in high school, then it's illogical to assume that they'll learn it when they reach the College.
The University doesn't teach foreign languages to beginners in an effective way, either. Most introductory classes are taught by teaching assistants, while the professors teach the upper level courses. This doesn't make sense. The beginners are the ones who need the help of professors to learn the material.
The language lab also doesn't help students with the task of learning the language. In many foreign language classes, students must sit through these recorded conversations at least once a week. Most of the time, these students just wonder what the people on tape possibly are saying as they quickly flip through their foreign language dictionaries. Students are only lucky enough to go through this mind-numbing ordeal if there are no lines at the language lab and they can actually get in.
Obviously, learning a foreign language can be valuable. Although English has become the international language of business, it is often helpful and profitable to know a foreign language when doing international business.
Learning a foreign language also allows a person to become immersed in a foreign culture and certainly is useful for someone who goes to a place where the language is spoken. In the United States, knowing Spanish is a cultural and economic advantage because of the large number of people in the country who speak it. But the issue is not whether it would be good to know a foreign language, but whether taking up to a certain course level should be a College requirement.
Certain people simply are better at learning foreign languages than others. Assistant Dean Richard Handler points out that "some students are good at some things and not good at others. That's true for any subject matter, not just a foreign language." But the problem with foreign language classes is that in an introductory course, the class is split between students who simply get it and those that don't.
In classes like history, there will be some students that are better writers or perhaps know more, but the gap between students of different abilities is not as large. And the gap between these two groups is closed faster and easier than in foreign languages.
Compare foreign languages to a government class. Even if a student knows nothing about the subject, if he does the reading and works at it, he'll usually be able to do well. And while some students may know more, the vast majority will start out with the same common knowledge.
With foreign languages, there usually is a group that knows something to start with. This group can speak the language with the proper accents and seems to get it easily, while the group who doesn't know struggles along and loses confidence.
A final issue is whether or not students really become proficient after two years assuming they started at the 101 level. Krueger agrees that it is "unrealistic to expect near-native fluency after two years of classes, three-five hours per week." Her advice is to go beyond the minimum four semesters.
Handler agrees and gives this advice to students: "Instead of complaining about the requirement, take it seriously. Go beyond the minimum four semesters, think in terms of mastering the language rather than satisfying a requirement." This is good advice, especially to students who are still fulfilling their requirement.
Those who master a foreign language during their time at the University certainly will have learned a valuable subject. But don't make students take a class that they won't learn anything from. Intellectual freedom is the true spirit of the University.
(Harris Freier is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at hfreier@cavalierdaily.com.)
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