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Judith Ginsberg became the new director of foreign language programs and ADFL in August 1988. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, Ginsberg also received her MA Brown and obtained a PhD in Spanish literature at the City University of New York. Before joining ADFL she was university director of research at Fordham University (1986–88), a program officer in the Division of Education at the National Endowment for the Humanities (1984–86), and a faculty member in the modern languages department at Union College (1975–84). While at Union College she received grants for support of innovative teaching and for curriculum and faculty development. Her articles on Spanish, Latin American, and Chicano literature have appeared in Americas Review, Revista de estudios hispánicos , and Bilingual Review/Revista bilingüe . She has published a monograph, and Angel Ganivet (Tamesis Press, 1985), and a translation of a novel by Alejandro Morales, Death of an Anglo (Bilingual Press, 1988). Ginsberg's academic experience overseas includes a year at Liceo Manuel de Salas in Santiago, Chile; two years on a Fullbright scholarship in Madrid; the direction of terms abroad in Seville and Bogot#225; and teaching assignments in Spain, Poland, and Guatemala.
At its 1988 summer seminars, ADFL conducted aK small survey on non-tenure-track faculty. The survey of eight foreign language department chairs confirmed the findings reported in Phyllis Franklin, David Laurence, and Robert D. Denham's article “When Solutions Become Problems: Taking a Stand on Part-Time Employment” ( Academe 74.3 [1988]: 15–19); non-tenure-track faculty members are often overworked and underpaid, are rarely to vote in committees, have few or no fringe benefits, and have almost to job security. Well over half the respondents indicates that their non-tenure-track faculty members receive no nonmonetary benefits whatsoever. One respondent summed up the feelings of many of ADFL's constituents: “Our faculty's opinion on this issue is that it would be contradictory to our PhD program's mission to train young scholars in our discipline while at the same time denying full-time professional positions on tenure-track for people like them. We lament the growing phenomenon of non-tenure-track and part-time hirings, and view it as discipline#039;s participation in its own self-destruction.”
In an effort to gather more consistent statistical data from a much larger cohort, the MLA#039;s new foreign language programs data base will include several questions on this subject.
Joining the MLA staff as director of institutional research is Bettina J. Huber, who comes to the new position after seven years as deputy executive officer of the American Sociological Association (ASA). At the ASA office in Washington, Huber was responsible for guiding the work of several key committees, including those dealing with publications, academic freedom, professional ethics, and the status of women in sociology. She also conducted research on career opportunities both in and outside the academy and published a monograph, Employment Patterns in Sociology: Present Trends and Future Prospects. She is a coeditor of the latest volume in the ASA presidential series, Social Structures and Human Lives. Huber holds a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD from Yale University. She also studied at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Before joining the ASA staff she was a member of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her scholarly interests focus on two fundamental aspects of individual worldviews: images of the future and gender self-concepts.
Having worked as a consultant with the English programs office of the MLA in developing and analyzing its surveys of English departments, Huber now joins the MLA staff full-time to organize a comparable data base and survey program for foreign language departments (see below).
A project conceived and developed by the Advisory Committee on Foreign Language Programs during the past two years began to take concrete shape this fall. The committee is overseeing the establishment of a sample of college and university foreign language programs that will be surveyed on an annual basis. These systematic surveys will make reliable national data on foreign language programs readily available and enhance understanding of current modes of language instruction in the United States. In the surveys conducted during the first years of the project, particular attention will be given to the relations between current practices, institutional arrangements, and program effectiveness.
During the fall a stratified random sample of 830 foreign language programs was selected from among the approximately 2,850 programs nationwide, and its members received a letter asking them to respond to an annual questionnaire for a period of several years. In addition, the first survey questionnaire, which will be mailed to department chairs in early January, was developed. It elicits information about the curricular and administrative arrangements of foreign language programs, with considerable attention given to the introductory language sequence.
In subsequent years, additional information that is comparable over time will be collected on a regular basis. This should make it possible to recognize trends and identify factors that affect the teaching of foreign languages and the preparation of foreign language teachers. Such information will be useful for planning at the departmental and divisional level, as well as for identifying institutional arrangements and departmental features that contribute to effective foreign language programs.
The foreign language data base the MLA is trying to establish can succeed only if all the programs chosen to participate return the annual surveys in a timely manner. Participation by the two-year institutions in the sample is especially important, because up-to-date and reliable information concerning them is scarce.
The following is a report by the Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies.
A candidate for president of the United States gives part of his acceptance speech in a foreign language; Congress passes legislation to reduce the nation's trade deficit that contains major provisions for foreign languages and interdisciplinary international business centers; the secretary of education designs the ideal high school, making foreign languages an integral part of the curriculum; thirty-one states reinstitute foreign language requirements; sixteen require world history or world geography.
These activities are only a small part of increased public visibility and improved policies dealing with foreign languages, exchanges, and international studies in recent years. Why the renewed interest? One of the primary reasons is the decision of the professional associations to enter the realm of national policy-making and public advocacy. To do this, the language community created the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) to address and create national policies. It very quickly became obvious that discussing public policy (even in a unified, cooperative fashion) wasn't enough, so an expanded group of associations formed what is now the National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS) to engage in public advocacy: to deal with the media, other associations, Congress, the executive branch, governors, and state legislatures.
Presently, these two organizations have an overlapping membership of thirty-six national associations concerned will all levels of language study, exchanges, and international education. JNCL-NCLIS have established a track record that is impressive by any standards. Their accomplishments are even more notable in the light of a national deficit that has made funding for new education programs difficult to obtain at best and produced proposals to eliminate all federal assistance to foreign language and international studies at worst. They have been made more difficult to achieve by a national mood for protectionism and neoisolationism produced by the trade deficit, immigration reform, and the English Only movement.
What are these accomplishments? First, the language and exchange associations, in particular, and associations with international dimensions, in general, are talking to one another about goals and strategies. JNCL members have approved three statements on national policies and activities. Recently, JNCL has been active in coalition building to expand interest in and cooperative ventures dealing with languages and international understanding beyond our associations.
Second, NCLIS has helped create thirty-two new federal programs since 1981. We have supported certain programs, such as Language-Competent Embassies, the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program, the Soviet-East European Studies Program, the US Peace Institute, the Japanese Technical Literature Program, and the English Literacy Grants Program, because they address a specific, identifiable national need. Other innovations, such as the inclusion of critical foreign languages in the Education for Economic Security Act, the seven new provisions for language study in the Higher Education Act, the three new international programs in the Omnibus Trade Bill, and the teacher awards and model language programs in the Elementary-Secondary Education Amendments, would not exist but for our involvement. NCLIS has been able to amend an immigration bill and transition bill, as well as create technical amendments to save existing critical language programs and continue major research efforts. We have helped draft legislation such as the Foreign Language Assistance for National Security and International Education for a Competitive America bills.
With NCLIS advocacy, funding for foreign language studies and international exchanges, while still inadequate, has doubled since 1980. Funding for compensatory education, bilingual education, and magnet schools has experienced healthy increases. While Congress has been hesitant to fund new legislation, a majority of the programs in our field have received appropriations. Also, significant funds have been appropriated for foreign language training in the areas of defense and intelligence.
During the last four years, and again this year, JNCL has conducted an ongoing survey of foreign language offerings and enrollments, international studies, and exchanges at the state level. The first and the most comprehensive studies of this type, the JNCL state activities updates, have been used by the policy associations of the national governors, the southern governors, the state school boards, the chief state school officers, and others. JNCL has also tracked reports on educational reform since A Nation at Risk, providing input to the researchers and summaries to our members. Finally, we have been instrumental in getting public and media attention with reports on language education and national needs appearing everywhere from CBS and NBC to page 1 of the New York Times and Washington Post to Better Homes and Gardens, Stars and Stripes, and The 700 Club.
The successes have been inspiring and at the moment we are riding the crest. However, funding remains inadequate, the language (including bilingual and ESL) teacher shortage is severe, and support for pre- and in-service education is limited. Articulation remains a problem, elementary school programs are only just starting, literacy is a national dilemma, and cooperation across disciplines and sectors, particularly with business, needs to be strengthened.
What can you do to help? There is no question that JNCL-NCLIS has been effective because of support from the field. Get involved in your professional associations; attend national, regional, and state conferences; write a letter to the editor; visit your legislator; clip the Better Homes and Gardens article for your principal or dean; and invite business leaders and policymakers to campus to see your programs.
Contributions to the Joint National Committee for Languages are tax-deductible (contributions to NCLIS are not) and can be sent to JNCL, 20 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20001.
© 1989 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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