All people speak or sign a language–whether it is Italian, German, English, Mandarin, or Arabic, all languages are important to one person or another. Languages are universalizing things that bring people together and connect us. To be able to learn a language should not be a privilege; it should be something everyone has access to.
The U.S. is one of the few primarily monolingual countries in the world. While many countries in the world have a majority of speakers fluent or nearly fluent in multiple languages the U.S. has virtually none. The majority of Americans being monolingual is becoming increasingly more and more worrying as the world moves to a point of global connection that has people from all over interacting nearly all of the time. This level of inter-connectedness should be a positive for everyone, but it becomes a danger when language barriers are in the way. Threats of misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and simply losing the ability to communicate with your fellow humans are what make small issues, big ones in the world.
“Language learning provides students, and anyone for that matter, with the chance to expand their world,” said Spanish teacher and Global Scholar adviser Mrs. Llerena. “ Students also create real connections with people and cultures that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”
Despite the importance of language, the American school system has not been doing the teaching of languages any favors. According to a study done by the Modern Language Association, out of 2,000 institutions, 651 language programs have been cut. Between 2013 and 2016 which is about a 5.2 percent drop in just 3 years. In the current day, this is also true because more and more languages have been cut from different schools at the high school, and college level all over the nation.
Norwin is not an outlier in the systematic cutting of language classes either. The Norwin Middle School no longer has any language courses when it used to have Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. Sending students into high school with no language experience can be incredibly damaging to students’ learning ability. The high school currently has German, Spanish, and French, but used to have more options. For example, multiple language courses have been cut like the Japanese course. These changes are showing a decreasing interest in learning the languages, and cultures of different people around the world.
“Universities and employers want to see a well-rounded individual that has many traits, like being multilingual,” said Mrs. Llerena. “We feel it’s a disservice to the students of Norwin not to be able to fit a language class into their schedules.”
The decreasing amount of language learning from a young age is concerning for obtaining fluency in any other language than your own. The concern comes from the fact that language learning becomes increasingly harder the older you get. To be exact, language learning is most effective when starting at least at age 10, but many institutes across the nation start much later. For example, at Norwin, the first time a language is offered is your freshman year of high school, which is when most people are 14 or 15 years old.
With language classes falling out of favor and being viewed more as just another requirement to go to college, the importance put on understanding and respecting others’ cultures is diminishing greatly in the United States. To add to this problem the U.S. is becoming more diverse every day with people from different countries and regions who speak different languages.
People can not afford to have low efficiency in other languages in the global world that we live in. People from all walks of life in the U.S. travel the world all the time. Norwin students are no exception to this. Norwin’s language program being underfunded has inhibited some of the students from speaking another language. “I was in Mexico and this girl didn’t even understand the words I used even though it was exactly what I learned in class.” In this, the student is struggling to make a simple conversation with a Spanish speaker.
To add to these concerns the world we live in is growing, in a growing need for multilingual people. This is due to many jobs in all types of fields needing people who are fluent in more than one language for varying reasons. Also, the ability to speak another language opens up many more work opportunities. For example, Germany has a program that brings in skilled immigrants who are not only proficient in a field that the country needs like doctors, but also have an education in German to a certain degree.
”I also think the mindset around the area is that language learning is not important, thus more science and math classes are pushed here at Norwin.” said Mrs. Llerena.
Even though Norwin’s importance on language learning is diminishing students have been taking matters into their own hands. Two new clubs have been added that are promoting cultural competence, and language learning. One club is the Japanese club, which has its focuses on learning the language and better understanding the culture. The other new club is the International Foods club, which is putting its time into mostly cultural aspects of different people groups their the food they eat.
As much as the new clubs have been driving learning in Norwin the other language clubs and global scholars program have been positively impacting Norwin’s language involvement. The French and Spanish clubs have been going on numerous trips to different places that are not only giving these students experiences with their languages in the actual world but also have exposed students to cultural aspects of the nations that speak their languages. Norwin’s global scholar programs have also been a front-runner in exposing students to many global nature opportunities that allow students to learn more languages and cultures of other nations.
The bottom line for the Norwin side of this story is that change needs to happen. The issues that plague language learning at Norwin are not rooted in the department, but rather the funding that goes into it. The language department is filled with amazing teachers who have to teach an entire school district their respective language in an incredibly limited amount of time. To truly teach students language more time to develop must be given to these students in whatever language they choose meaning language education must start at an earlier grade level.
