ANALYSIS: U.S. must strengthen foreign language education

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Unless America pumps up foreign language education, both the nation’s global competitiveness and national security could be at risk.

That’s the opinion of a cross-section of experts concerned that a weakened economy and heightened international tensions leave the nation in need of clearer communication with friend and foe alike. Deficiencies in Middle Eastern and Asian languages pose the most immediate problems.

“If the U.S., in the modern world, is going to maintain its position as a global leader it’s going to have to become more conversant,” said Ken Gude, a former Center for National Security Studies policy analyst.

An estimated 200 million school-aged children in China study English, according to a 2006 Education Department release. Just 24,000 of their U.S. counterparts study Chinese languages. The gap is significant.

David Gray, former Labor Department acting assistant secretary for policy, said one thing is certain to emerge from the retooling of the worldwide financial system - greater global challenges to America’s economic dominance.

It used to be that the United States could skate by with workers who spoke only English because they sold to a more concentrated customer base and the quality of their products was superior, Mr. Gray said.

But now that countries like India are closing the quality gap - offering products that are equally good or better - U.S. businesses are forced to adopt new strategies.

“In a more competitive market where products are increasing in quality we need to be able to compete on relationships and service, (and) languages are an important factor,” said Mr. Gray, who now works at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

Technology and globalization are also boosting the number of players in competitive markets, putting the United States at a further disadvantage with countries where workers grow up learning multiple languages.

“The communication and technology revolutions make it imperative that we be able to communicate with people who don’t speak English (primarily),” Mr. Gray said. “To make a sale, you have a great disadvantage if your competitor speaks the language of the customer and you don’t.”

Just 31 percent of American elementary schools (and only 24 percent of public elementary schools) teach foreign languages, and 79 percent of these schools are geared at basic language exposure, not proficiency, according to Center for Applied Linguistics data put forth by the Education Department in 2006.

“We are very unusual in the world’s developed countries in our learning of foreign languages and the tiny space it gets in the curriculum,” said Catherine Ingold, director of the National Foreign Language Center.

Less than half of American high school students are enrolled in foreign language classes, according to the 2002 Digest of Education Statistics, released by the Education Department in 2006.

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