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The MLA Office of Foreign Language Programs recently conducted a study examining the possibility of a positive correlation between foreign language degree requirements and foreign language enrollment. Data came from the MLA's 1974 and 1983 enrollment surveys and degree requirement surveys. Analysis of the data supports the hypothesis that a continued trend of reinstitution of foreign language degree requirements will cause a rise in foreign language enrollment.
Looking at the total United States college population, the surveys found that students studying foreign languages at four-year institutions increased by 3% over the nine-year period from 1974 to 1983 (from 750,277 students in 1974 to 769,444 students in 1983). In contrast, undergraduate foreign language enrollment at four-year institutions that adopted foreign language degree requirements between 1974 and 1983 grew far more than 3%. Of the 1,190 institutions that responded to both the 1974 and the 1983 surveys, 37 colleges and universities introduced a foreign language requirement for all degree candidates. Thirty-three of these 37 institutions reported stable or increasing enrollments in foreign language, with the average increase at 21%.
On the other hand, 57 of the responding institutions dropped their foreign language degree requirements between 1974 and 1983. Of those institutions, 44 reported stable or declining enrollment in foreign language. Their combined undergraduate enrollment in foreign language decreased by 15%.
In hiring and promoting managers, even for posts with important responsibilities abroad, United States Fortune 500 companies with substantial foreign operations give business skills clear priority over international expertise. This is a key finding of International Expertise in American Business , a recently released study commissioned by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to explore what kind of international expertise managers consider valuable, how they acquire it, and how important they think it is. Funding was provided by the Exxon Education Foundation.
Stephen J. Kobrin of New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration surveyed managers at the 202 Fortune 500 firms that generated at least one-fifth of their sales abroad and bankers at the fifteen largest money-center banks. He found that:
International Expertise in American Business is one of a series of studies IIE has undertaken to explore the relation between business careers and education with an international dimension. Single copies of the 59-page report may be ordered free from the Communications Division, Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.
Members of ADFL who participated in the 1985 Summer Seminar East (2–5 June, Louisville) proposed the following resolutions and recommendations, which will be presented to the ADFL Executive Committee at its next scheduled meeting. It should be noted that the statements, until approved by the committee, represent the views not of ADFL but only of the majority of members present at the seminar.
Whereas we as a group are concerned with justifying the introduction, maintenance, or reinstatement of foreign language requirements for bachelor's degree students; and
Whereas we are regularly confronted with a lack of understanding of the value of such a requirement on the part of high-ranking administrators, our colleagues in other fields, and our students,
We as faculty in the humanities resolve that ADFL develop for the profession a clear and convincing statement regarding the place of foreign language study in the humanities curriculum and its intrinsic value as an intellectual and humanistic discipline at all levels of teaching and learning.
ADFL should include a plenary session on proficiency testing and one on problem faculty.
We recommend that an MLA task force be convened immediately to examine the critical national shortage of language teachers qualified to meet the demands that are being created by new state legislation mandating foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools. To aid in effective planning of solutions, the study should analyze the cause of the problem; assess the extent of the problem by language, using data on existing programs and on financial support available for the development of new programs; and recommend appropriate measures to facilitate the prompt certification of needed teachers. To expedite the process of arriving at realistic solutions that will ensure disciplinary competence, such a task force should consult with state supervisors of foreign languages.
Given the urgency of the situation, we ask that the ask force report preliminary findings and recommendations by the end of 1985 and consider whether its work should result in a proposal to NEH or another appropriate agency.
We recommend that ADFL appoint a task force to study proficiency-based testing and its presuppositions and implications. Questions to be addressed should include the following:
Where does the proficiency model come from?
What class sizes and contact hours does it assume?
What are the implications of the differing times it takes to achieve a given level of proficiency in the various languages?
How will proficiency-based testing affect existing curricula in literature and culture?
What consequences might an emphasis on proficiency skills have for the teaching and learning of foreign languages as a humanistic discipline?
What will be the relation between national and institutional guidelines?
Discussion Group C requests that ADFL provide the profession with an official statement of good practice and factual data on class size for foreign language instruction, such as that currently available for English through ADE.
Discussion Group C (PhD-granting departments) concurs with the many members of the profession who, in discussion and debate at ADFL sessions, urged the need for greater diversity and interdisciplinary breadth in the preparation of PhDs. It urges ADFL to do whatever it can to speed the process of reviewing and reforming graduate education and the preparatory levels that lead to it.
Resolutions from Seminar West (27–30 June, Seattle) will be published in January.
© 1985 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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