In first grade, I coveted learning, each new shard of information a wonderful mystery that would bring new depth to every facet of my existence. So, when Miss Jane taught us a French song about a little bird, I was immediately fascinated with the beautiful flow of those foreign sounds and the lovely waves of voice that were brilliantly colorful. For the rest of my childhood, the impression of the language stayed with me, and when I had to choose a language course to take in high school, I remembered. I didn’t pause to consider anything other than French. As I investigate what I want my future to be, I am beginning to fully appreciate the practicality and the versatility of foreign language. In today’s global and integrated society, not only can people contact each other on separate sides of the Earth, but companies of all sectors are becoming increasingly multinational and opportunities for jobs are reaching past cultural barriers. Unfortunately, many students in my French class are unable to form a coherent sentence or reproduce the distinct sounds of the language. This deficiency in the skills of most of the students reflects the lack of emphasis the foreign language curriculum is given in the American education.
As competition rises worldwide and humans become more interconnected with each other, the American educational system has remained unchanged in regards to foreign language study, maintaining the same levels of fluency acceptable in years past. American students would be in a better position to learn if state governments required that all schools begin the mandatory study of a foreign language at the beginning of elementary school and also required its continuation through the whole of public education. This system would allow for increased rigor with exposure to the language and culture that cannot be consistently provided by the general present curriculum.
Although the education system is garnering more and more attention in the political realm, government policy towards the encouragement of foreign language study is stagnant. Politicians such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan advocate radical change in the world language branch of the educational system, using President Obama’s call for raising standards as a foundation for change. Duncan reasons that by giving the American people a wider base of opportunity for jobs and careers through foreign language, the economic interests of the United States will become more grounded outside of America helping to pull the American economy from the depths of a recession. In order to achieve this, Duncan hopes to provide American children with a world-class education that emphasizes not only math and science, but also foreign language study . Though the assertion is a noble one, government policy does not support it. Only two programs are in place to further world language education. First, the Foreign Language Assistance Act, part of No Child Left Behind, promised to pay 50% per year of the cost to establish new programs in schools. Second, the Foreign Language Assistance Program gives grants to local educational agencies to encourage programs in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and other languages in the Indic, Iranian, and Turkic families. These programs are hardly sufficient to encourage overall improvement in the American world language curriculum because they are too narrow in their scope of funding and also do not support established programs.
In order to modernize, state governments need to overhaul this specific branch of their education systems, requiring that a foreign language be taught in all public schools. Models for this system exist around the globe, in Europe and Asia alike. Children begin to learn English in elementary school and continue through high school, adding new languages as the student matures. A system such as this does not limit the student to the one language taught in the beginning of elementary school, even though in the United States the school districts or states would be forced to choose between equally important languages. However, the study of one language is a perfect segue into another. By learning French, it has become easier for me to understand the structure of my own language and the specific rules that English uses. Conversely, by learning exactly how English is meant to be spoken and written, my ability in French has increased. The inherent similarity between all human communications is something that has become apparent to me as I continue to learn and grow in both French and English, and it would be the same for children who were taught any language in addition to their native one.
When foreign language education is first undertaken in freshman year of high school, the hardest part of learning is usually listening and speaking it. This is because when the teacher first begins to say phrases and words in the language, they are not considered by the brain to mean anything in particular because it doesn’t know how to differentiate among the noises. As the exposure continues, connections form between adjacent neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain, allowing the student to distinguish specific words and phrases. Pathways are also made between the auditory complex and other areas, creating associations of taste, sight, or smell with words. Eventually, the sounds of the new language can activate the neural circuits, increasing fluency. Initially, these neural circuits are incomplete and require a lot of energy to activate, but with experience and practice, foreign speech becomes gradually easier. As a French tutor, I have tried to expose my student to the language through listening and speaking. Over time, she has become increasingly able to answer questions and make statements that were extremely difficult for her only two months prior. The extra practice and exposure to the language is the key to her ability. For all students, the traditional four years of language study in the American high school is insufficient time to create this skill and does not match the inner workings of the human brain. Because the teachers must begin to teach students as if they were infants, exposure is limited, neural connections remain incomplete, and the abilities of the student suffer. If education were to begin in elementary school, children would have the opportunity to develop recognition of sounds and associations with words, greatly improving the quality of American world language education.
The government seeks to raise the scientific and technological standards in America’s schools, trying to broaden the economy and develop a talented base of research, development, and industry. However, it is time that our ability to maneuver in different cultures and languages matches our goals of international cooperation. Many different sectors of businesses have international firms, allowing their employees to move across the globe and interact with people of every different nationality. When I realized that I wanted to be involved in molecular biology research, I learned that many companies in that sector operate out of France, Switzerland, and Germany as well as China and Japan. Job candidates with the language skills that matched where the companies are located stand a better chance of being hired than does the person who speaks only English, and jobs are hard to come by in today’s economy. Extended foreign language education is important not only for the economic benefit to the United States as a whole, but also to the individual competing for jobs in today’s market.
The Tower of Babel is a Bible story about the emergence of different languages, how one man suddenly couldn’t understand the sounds coming out of another man standing next to him. Because the builders couldn’t communicate, they couldn’t work together to finish the Tower of Babel, eventually abandoning the project. In today’s society, opportunities for multilingual interaction are everywhere, making our world a more interconnected place. American citizens will be increasingly involved in lines of work where knowledge of a foreign language is extremely helpful, or where it can aid in securing a position in the highly competitive job market. The state governments of America need to address the concern that our foreign language curriculum won’t hold up to that of other societies, causing not only the United States to suffer, but also the individual. By beginning to learn languages in elementary school and continuing through high school, children will be better equipped to move into the world, to cultivate a powerful American economy, and to make sense of our personal, global Tower of Babel.
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