The Language Barrier

The U.S., historically almost deaf to the need for foreign-language study, may be emerging from its soundproof suite in the Tower of Babel. A report last week by the Office of Education sharply defined the deficiencies that the nation must correct to overcome its obstinate monolingualism.

Outgrowth of a conference on foreign-language teaching in high schools last year in Washington, the report starts with a sobering statistic from Howard E. Sollenberger, dean of the School of Languages of the Foreign Service Institute. Three out of four new Foreign Service officers, he reported, do not have enough reading or speaking skill in any foreign language to handle overseas work adequately. Said Sollenberger to the teachers: "The 75% figure surprised even us. We knew the deficiency was serious, but not that bad. Unfortunately, by the time we get these men and women it is almost too late for us to provide them with these basic skills, skills that they should begin to acquire even before they reach their teens. The basic problem has to be handed back to you people."

Core of the problem for the Foreign Service and for the next generation of journalists, pay-later tourists, and businessmen abroad: 56.4% of U.S. high schools, according to the report, do not teach even one foreign language. Less than 15% of public high school students are enrolled in a modern foreign-language course (almost none study ancient languages). Most take French or Spanish; rare are courses in Russian, Chinese, German, Italian or Portuguese. Even students exposed to languages may not take on enough ability to read a menu. Weighting the odds against the student, according to the report: ill-taught teachers, outdated textbooks, aimed at giving no more than reading knowledge, courses too short (generally two years) for proper instruction.

For all their gloom, the conference members reported some progress. Teachers who aim first at providing conversational ability, with reading, writing and grammar added later, are gaining ground. Recordings and taped playbacks of students' own speech are proving valuable. Most encouraging statistic of the report: since 1952 an increasing number of school systems have adopted plans similar to the third-grade-through-high-school proposal of Conference Member Mary P. Thompson, curriculum consultant for Connecticut's Fairfield schools. By 1955, says the report. 270,000 children were learning foreign languages in U.S. elementary schools and that was as many as were arduously decoding Babel in all the nation's colleges and universities.

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