Raising Global Children

Originally appeared on Huffington Post.

Although most high schools and colleges/universities sometimes require one or two years of foreign language study for graduation,this small effort won’t suffice if our students are to compete successfully inthe global marketplace.

It’s safe to say that as a country, our foreign languageskills are spotty — if not downright poor. According to a report that’s due outin November from the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL), inthe 2007- 2008 school year, only 32 percent of students in public secondaryschools were enrolled in language classes and only 18.5 percent overall K-12.Foreign language in college proves even worse. According to the 2006 report bythe Modern Language Association, only 8.6 percent of students study a foreign language, down from 16.5 percentin 1965.

As a comparison, all Chinese students must study Englishbeginning in the third grade. Before this mandate, students were allowed tostudy English, Korean or Japanese, but had to study one through elementary andsecondary schools.

Marty Abbott, the director of education at ACTFL, worriesabout the lack of U.S. students’ preparedness: “We are very concerned that at atime when business leaders are calling for employees that can communicate andunderstand the cultures of our business partners around the world, thestatistics point out that our students are woefully underprepared to meet thesedemands.”

Why are the numbers so dismally low? Why aren’t moreparents, students and business people advocating for mandatory foreignlanguage?

Budget cuts seem to be a big factor. Many schools are faced with significant cuts and language is at the front of the line. Some people don’tthink the ROI makes sense: the time commitments required to achieve and retain a high level of skill, weighed against expected use and the widespreadperception that foreign language skills are not really necessary — do not favorlanguage learning in school.

This has got to change. Our educationsystem needs to be radically altered. What we need is nothing short of a revolution — a cultural language revolution.

We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. In Oct. 1957, the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik1, the world’s first artificial satellite. The Russian aerospace accomplishment surprised U.S. intelligence and launched the space race. It also initiated a shift in American education toward math, science and foreign languages. The National Defense Education Act of1958, sponsored by the U.S. Dept of Defense, funneled $1 billion into elementary school curricula. Teaching Russian was viewed as critical to national defense.

Today’s Sputnik is globalization with the competition comingfrom the rising super economies of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and the new Russia. At stake is our ability to compete successfully in the raw globalarena, and one of the deciding factors will be Americans’ ability to speakstrategic foreign languages. So far, the primary thrust has been in learningMandarin: U.S. student enrollment in Chinese language courses since 2000 is upfrom 5,000 to 50,000. Not surprisingly, a second focus since Sept. 11 has beenArabic.

Fifty years ago, we needed language skills to keep tabs onour competitors. Today we need these skills to keep pace with them.

Thankfully there are language advocates across America andtheir voices are getting louder and stronger. The ACTFL, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to improving and expanding theteaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction, is at theheart of the effort. They have a call out to support U.S. Congressmen Rush Holt(D-NJ) and Paul Tonko’s (D-NY) sponsorship of HR 6036,which will revamp national, state and local levels for language education.

The legislation is a great place to start, but we also needto revolutionize the way we — as parents, as students, as Americans — thinkabout foreign language. Foreign language should be a “must-have,” an integralcomponent of a great education in the U.S. Our children should graduate highschool bilingual, at least, and perhaps with a strong working knowledge of athird language.

All is not lost
Glastonbury is a historic Connecticut River Valley town that dates back to the late 1600s and is considered a national leader in language learning in the public school system. Sputnik spawned its language program, which has included teaching the Russian language for more than 50 years. Now mandatory Spanish begins in first grade; a second elective language can be added in seventh, and a third in high school. Of graduating seniors, 95 percent have received the full 12 years of foreign language instruction, and are proficient enough to achieve bilingual fluency in college or university. This far exceeds the national average and gives Glastonbury High School a significantly strongerlanguage program than most prestigious private schools.

Although this one shining jewel is not the norm, it can setthe example for other schools. But in order to enact a massive overhaul withinthe education system, all sectors of society must participate.

Businesses, for example, must continue to embraceinternational operations through expansion and operations abroad, butsimultaneously through language and cultural acquisition. The more companiesvalue a cross-cultural workforce, the greater likelihood our school system willproduce.

Universities and colleges must build collaborative programswith K-12 so that the foundation for learning language is strong and they canrealistically require the new, better prepared students to achieve foreignlanguage proficiency in order to receive a bachelor’s degree.

The U.S. government must be unrelenting in its drive toincrease the number of Americans mastering critical languages — 70 as listed bythe U.S. National Security Education Program — and the teachers and resources forK-16 schools in order to achieve its objectives.

STARTALK hasinstituted intensive summer language sessions across the country since 2007.This past summer, 78 programs in towns from California to Connecticut taughtone or more of the following critical languages: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi,Persian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu. In fact, my twin daughters haveparticipated in the STARTALK Chinese program in Glastonbury, Conn., for thepast several years.

These are just a few of the many programs that recognize theimportance of foreign language learning for both security and global competitiveness. Moreover, many of these programs offer career opportunities tostudents involved in the programs, thus becoming more than educational as they evolve into networking channels and careers.

And yet, it’s even more than language skills. Multi-lingualpeople agree that language proficiency means more than just being able to read,write and speak. It also includes cultural knowledge. By incorporating cultureinto the foreign language curriculum, students receive an enhanced level ofsociological, political and historical context.

Arguably, bold and innovative new methods of incorporatingforeign languages into the fabric of our education system are needed now morethan ever. Cultural knowledge and understanding (gestures, choice ofvocabulary) need to be married to actual language acquisition in a systematicway. School districts, colleges, universities, local and federal governments,business people and parents must work together to promote enhanced languageproficiency. Our children’s future — and our country’s — depends on it.

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