The above statement clearly shows how far behind other nations we are in this area. The traditional two-year foreign language sequence, which has been the route of those aspiring a college education, is a highly inadequate path if we are to effectively compete in the world market (Met, 1994). To provide a comparable education with that of the industrialized world, all students, not just those headed for college, will need to learn a foreign language and begin studying it well before entering 9th grade. And yet, according to Met (1994), "only 9 of the 50 states mandate foreign language instruction in the elementary grades, plan to do so soon, or offer incentives to schools and the school systems that provide if" (p. 86).
How have we arrived at this situation? According to Freivalds (1995), "the American lack is due in large part to the educational system" (p. 26). And since the educational system is the cause, I propose that it be the solution. With the overwhelming evidence citing the advantages of Bilingualism, and Hawai'i's unique geographical location with its resulting melting pot of languages and cultures, why has mandatory second language acquisition not yet been implemented in our elementary school curriculum?
The critical age hypothesis holds that language is more easily acquired at a younger age than an older one. In an article written for U.S. News Report (1998), Brownlee states that Elissa Newport, a psycholinguist at the University of Rochester in New York, has discovered that the window of opportunity for acquiring language begins to close around the age of 6 and the gap narrows with each successive birthday. For that reason, Newport advises "schools might rethink the practice of waiting to teach foreign languages until kids are nearly grown and the window on native command of second language is almost shut" (p. 54).
Other advantages in the acquisition of a second language at a young age are that youngsters are not inhibited by making new, strange sounds that come along with language training and develop a native accent if exposed to language lessons early. The generally accepted cutoff point for mastering the subtleties of an accent is puberty (Wells, 1986). In addition, it has been found that learning foreign tongues stimulates a child's mental development. According to Wells (1986), "research has shown that bilingual youngsters are more imaginative, better with abstract notions and more flexible in their thinking than monolingual children" (p. 60).
Perhaps Hawai'i educators should take their cue from three Fairfax County schools who have been teaching math, science and health classes entirely in Japanese. Their aim is to make their students fluent by junior high school and eventually enable them to hold their own in business with the Japanese. Local Congressman Frank Wolf initiated the program after his survey of U.S. companies trading with Japan indicated that most of the successful ones employed people fluent in Japanese. Wolf, who believed that the most effective way to compete was to speak the language, arranged for a $276,000 federal grant to train the teachers. This grade school immersion program in Japanese began in Eugene, Oregon in 1988 and spread to Anchorage, Detroit and Portland. Fairfax County's program was the first to receive direct federal subsidy (Chiu, 1991).
The
article Two Languages Come Early relates another innovative solution. The award
winning "Foreign Languages in the Community" program is the brainchild
of Paul Nikol. Nine years ago, he teamed up with Mary Jo Renzi and Patty Michiels
to develop a program that has guided 20,000 elementary school students through
a Spanish language program in five California school districts. Nikol's mission
was to introduce students to foreign languages while they were still in elementary
school. To compensate for a lack of language teachers, Nikol turned to high
school students to teach Spanish once a week for 30 minutes between January
and May. The advantages are twofold: The high school students get practical
use and gain proficiency in languages they are still studying. And, in addition
to learning teaching skills, the younger students they tutor discover that learning
a foreign language can be fun. In order to ensure America's continued success in international trade especially for the future, we must begin to rebuild our image and speak the language of the consumer. For when we speak to them in English we speak to their intellect but when we speak in their native language, we speak to their soul (Freivalds, 1995). And we need to begin now by implementing foreign language instruction in the elementary school curriculum.
In preparing our children for the future, international business is but one area in which foreign language skills are an advantage. McIntyre (1991) states that "companies large and small are increasing their search for employees with multi-language and culture skills and experience" (p.20). Language-centered jobs such as teaching, translating and interpreting use foreign language skills as the primary skill. Language-related jobs comprise positions in which knowledge of a foreign language complements other skills. In any case, the combination of a foreign language and almost any other skill tremendously increases the possibility of finding interesting employment (Bluford, 1994).
Furthermore, because foreign language study acquaints the student with the geography, history, customs and traditions and includes the logic and culture of the language, this knowledge augments effective communication and can lead to appreciation, acceptance and tolerance of cultures other than one's own (Bluford, 1994). This understanding could be one step towards world peace.
Our responsibility as parents and educators is to ensure that children possess all the skills necessary to be effective in the world. We need to further explore the possibility of incorporating foreign language study into elementary curriculum and discern for ourselves if it has merit. If it does, we must act upon that knowledge and give our children the opportunity to become bilingual and the advantages it affords.
