I read a blog post the other day which was in essence complaining about the state of bilingual education that currently exists in the United States. The article suggested that bilingual education is going from bad to worse. For example, many school districts are dropping their foreign language programs altogether. The argument was that a loss of these programs is leading to a monolingual society.
Well, this is probably the case, but I don’t think the problem is as grave as this author wanted his readers to believe.
I do agree that our foreign language education still has a long way to go, but when compared to other countries, I would say that we’re about in the same situation.
In the travels I have made to other countries around the world, I have noticed that foreign language education is not much than it is here. One of the biggest faults of this instruction in other countries is that it is mostly limited to English instruction. At least here in the United States there is usually a choice of foreign languages to choose from. In my high school, for example, we could choose Spanish, German, French, or even Chinese. I have never seen that kind of choice in schools in other countries. Students are forced (or at least strongly encouraged) to study English.
One of the positive aspects of foreign language education in other countries is that they usually include more than one or two years of study. However, even after that, most students’ language skills in English are probably on par with foreign language skills of students here after a couple of years studying.
The one exception to this are many of the countries in Europe. But I believe that the main reason that foreign language education in Europe is fairly good is because non- native languages aren’t necessarily foreign. Each surrounding country speaks a different language, and that close proximity helps develop the foreign language skills of the people.
So the next time someone you know starts complaining about the state of affairs in foreign language education in the United States, remember that while it can always be better, it’s not as bad as it could be.
By: Clint Tustison
© 2012 Education Assistant
