Experts say language skill powerful selling tool in job market
By Brian Goetsch
Posted: 2/27/08, 11:38 PM EST Section: News
An international education conference held in Washington, D.C. last Friday determined that while progress has been made, not enough students graduating from America's colleges and universities are capable of working with "critical languages," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
"The problem is there are a percentage of students who are actually interested in the languages and a percentage of students who are just taking the classes as a requirement," said Bethy Miller, a languages, literatures and linguistics (LLL) graduate student and Spanish teaching assistant at Syracuse University.
Arabic is considered essential for representing U.S. interests in the Middle East, but according to the recent report of an Iraq study group, only six of the 1,000 U.S. embassy employees in Baghdad speak the language fluently.
"It's a terrible thing," said Connie Dickey, an associate French professor at SU. "Our country cannot participate in several parts of the world simply because we are not as internationally competitive as other countries. If we cannot understand a culture, then we cannot function well in that region."
Funding is among the biggest problems facing the language department at SU.
"More funding is needed so that we can have smaller classes," said Gerlinde Sanford, department chair of LLL. "Decreasing the size of the class will allow teachers to focus on individual students for a better understanding and practice of the language."
American education systems give too little attention to foreign languages - much less than in Europe, where it is common for people to speak two or three languages, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Students here are starting to learn an additional language much too late," Sanford said.
Amanda Brown, an assistant professor of linguistics, agreed, "The government should have an impact on public school curriculum. They should make languages a priority earlier in a student's education."
Despite the lack of funding, SU is still trying to do its part in attracting students to its foreign language programs.
"We offer more languages than many other universities, plus we have an excellent SU Abroad program. These are steps toward the right direction, very important steps," Sanford said.
Among the languages offered at SU are Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tamil and Turkish.
"Just look around the campus, Syracuse is rich in both language and diversity," Dickey said. "This is something to be proud of. Students should take advantage of the multiple languages offered at this university."
bsgoetsc@syr.edu
"The problem is there are a percentage of students who are actually interested in the languages and a percentage of students who are just taking the classes as a requirement," said Bethy Miller, a languages, literatures and linguistics (LLL) graduate student and Spanish teaching assistant at Syracuse University.
Arabic is considered essential for representing U.S. interests in the Middle East, but according to the recent report of an Iraq study group, only six of the 1,000 U.S. embassy employees in Baghdad speak the language fluently.
"It's a terrible thing," said Connie Dickey, an associate French professor at SU. "Our country cannot participate in several parts of the world simply because we are not as internationally competitive as other countries. If we cannot understand a culture, then we cannot function well in that region."
Funding is among the biggest problems facing the language department at SU.
"More funding is needed so that we can have smaller classes," said Gerlinde Sanford, department chair of LLL. "Decreasing the size of the class will allow teachers to focus on individual students for a better understanding and practice of the language."
American education systems give too little attention to foreign languages - much less than in Europe, where it is common for people to speak two or three languages, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Students here are starting to learn an additional language much too late," Sanford said.
Amanda Brown, an assistant professor of linguistics, agreed, "The government should have an impact on public school curriculum. They should make languages a priority earlier in a student's education."
Despite the lack of funding, SU is still trying to do its part in attracting students to its foreign language programs.
"We offer more languages than many other universities, plus we have an excellent SU Abroad program. These are steps toward the right direction, very important steps," Sanford said.
Among the languages offered at SU are Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tamil and Turkish.
"Just look around the campus, Syracuse is rich in both language and diversity," Dickey said. "This is something to be proud of. Students should take advantage of the multiple languages offered at this university."
bsgoetsc@syr.edu
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