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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Heather McNamar Senior Member United States Joined 4782 days ago 77 posts - 109 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 1 of 26 10 January 2013 at 3:26am | IP Logged | ||
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This is something I've been curious about for some time now, and I thought I would pose this question to my fellow language learners. If this has been posted before, I apologize.
My question is, if you were in charge of a high school's foreign language program, and it were up to you, which languages would you include or exclude from the course offerings and why? I'm curious about this because I've been out of high school for close to fifteen years now, and the world has changed quite a bit in that time. We've seen the rise of China as a major player on the world scene, and the crisis in the Middle East is nowhere close to being resolved. Also, and I hate to suggest this, some more traditional languages might not be as popular as they once were. When I was a student, my high school offered Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Latin. If it were up to me, I'd keep Spanish because it remains an important world language and it's beautiful and comes in handy. My additions to the courses would be Mandarin Chinese and Arabic, since the areas where those languages are spoken have risen on the world stage in recent years. That's my two cents. Any comments, questions, or additions? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4586 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 2 of 26 10 January 2013 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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When I was in high school (SF Bay Area), we had Spanish, French, German, Latin, and
Swahili. I would definitely add Chinese, and would like to add Arabic, Russian and/or Japanese. I wouldn't want to eliminate any, but if forced to I'd have to look at which one was least popular (regrettably, probably Swahili or Latin). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 26 10 January 2013 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Why would you want to get rid of the 'easy' languages? An overwhelming majority picks the one they've heard will be easier for them, so there should be MORE "easy" options.
My ideal curriculum would give far less attention to the non-language subjects, so that most people could learn 3-5 languages at school. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| freakyaye Senior Member Australia Joined 4838 days ago 107 posts - 152 votes | Message 4 of 26 10 January 2013 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I would look at a mix of
community and world languages, but the most important thing for me is to choose a program that is based on repetition first - not with silly cartoons. Plus teachers who care, my language teachers in HS were so over it they barely bothered. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 26 10 January 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I took five languages during my high school years, and I studied sciences for my finals. In the Netherlands, both French and German are compulsory subjects in high school for 3/2 years respectively. If you do the highest level of education, then you have to pick either for your exam next to English. It's just a question of starting early. People start French at 12 and German at 12 or 13 (depending on the level). In Dutch schools, often French and German are the only options, but they're compulsory. Some schools offer Spanish, and you have official school leaving exams in English (but this is compulsory whatever you do, and it's never questioned) French, German, Frisian (in Frisia), Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Latin, Ancient Greek, and I think also Italian and Portuguese depending on the school. But very few schools offer the languages that are not French, German, Latin and Ancient Greek. Spanish is already exotic. Frisian is only offered in Frisia. I did the standard four languages + Latin (including Dutch) and I don't regret that. I speak German based solely on my school education. Edited by tarvos on 10 January 2013 at 12:12pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5532 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 26 10 January 2013 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Personally, I think that US schools should decide whether they want their graduates to actually speak another language or not. Right now, way too many people make it to A1, or a really weak A2, and that's after 2 to 4 years of classes. And like anybody else at those levels, the students can't really use their skills, and they forget almost everything within a couple of years.
If US schools aimed for B1 Spanish, then students would actually be able to carry on conversations about concrete subjects. And some of those students would keep using their Spanish and eventually reach a decent level. Of course, I'm all for other languages as well, including the dead ones. But if the US is going to teach people foreign languages, we should really try succeed on a semi-regular basis, and that means getting at least some students comfortably up into the intermediate CEFR levels where they can function independently. The current system assumes that virtually all students will fail to reach a minimally useful level, which results in a population that believes learning a language is impossible for anybody over the age of 6. Maybe I'm just feeling too cynical today. :-) Edited by emk on 10 January 2013 at 4:14pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5100 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 7 of 26 10 January 2013 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is probably the wrong sort of question for me to answer, but I'm going to take a shot anyway.
My high school "offered" a minimum of two years of Spanish as well as about two months of Swahili in the senior year before a missions trip to Kenya. If I had my way I would ditch Spanish entirely because the curriculum is abysmal and it seemed as though almost no one actually learned how to communicate in the language (I say "almost" just to give the benefit of the doubt; to the absolute best of my knowledge it should really be "no one") Swahili on the other hand was a crash course that was seldom used during the actual trip, however the class emphasized speaking and listening as opposed to memorising lists and taking written tests (like Spanish). So I'd give more empahsis to Swahili. Truth be told, I'd rather have the ability to force elementary students into a classes which were instructed in a foreign language rather than do the usual high school "I studied this for X years, and I can't speak it." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Heather McNamar Senior Member United States Joined 4782 days ago 77 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 8 of 26 10 January 2013 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
That wasn't my intention. In fact, if it were up to me, I would keep them all and just add those extras. I do love your suggestion about devoting less time to the non- language subjects. It makes me think of the common objection regarding algebra: "When am I ever going to need this again?" On the other hand, a language lasts a lifetime. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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