STANDARD COURSE OF STUDY

• Rationale for Language Learning

• Benefits

• Status of Foreign Languages in North Carolina

In addition to the need for communication within a global world, the study of a foreign language is needed to ensure economic competitiveness, to maintain national security, and to teach tolerance and respect for others inside and outside of the United States.

Finally, learning another language is a passport to greater understanding of one’s own language and culture.

• The National Commission on Excellence in Education published a report A Nation at Risk (1983) which ranked foreign language education at the same level as the "basic academic fields - English, mathematics, computer science, social studies, and the natural sciences" (pp. 25-26).
• The College Board (1983) recommended expanding basic skills to include foreign language education for all students.
• The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) stated that "...it is far more effective to initiate foreign language study in the elementary school than in secondary school both from the perspective of more advanced language study and enhancing general academic skills" (p. 1).
• The American Council on Education Commission on International Education in the document What we can’t say can hurt us: A call for foreign language competence by the year 2000 (1989) urged leaders of higher education to require competence in a foreign language as an admissions requirement.
• The Goals 2000 : Educate America Act states: "By the year 2000 all American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign language, civics and government, arts, history, and geography..."

In 1980, Representative Paul Simon of Illinois, in a book titled The Tongue Tied American : Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis addressed the critical need for the inclusion of foreign languages in the schools. There are many other reasons for studying another language. These reasons can be divided in three categories:

• economic reasons
• social reasons, and
• academic reasons.

• Each year, 200,000 Americans lose out on jobs with business because they do not know another language (The Tongue Tied American).

• One third of all the corporations in the U.S. are either owned or based abroad.

• One out of every six production jobs in the U.S. depends on foreign trade.

• One half of the top profit making companies on Fortune magazine's "500" list are foreign controlled.

• Four out of five new jobs in the United States are created as a result of foreign trade.

• Twenty million foreigners travel annually the to the U.S. and expect foreign language skills from Americans. They spend $8 billion in the U.S.

• The U.S. is the third largest Spanish speaking country in the world.

• Fifty percent of all the jobs for the 21st century have not been created yet. What is known is that communication will be central to the majority of these jobs.

• In NC alone there are over 800 international firms. The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and France have the largest number of firms.

• According to the Kiplinger Washington Editors (1996), the Hispanic share of the workforce will increase by 25 percent by 2010. The Asian share will increase by 50 percent. Minorities will keep moving up the corporate ladder in the next 15 years. Managers who know how to deal with a diverse workforce will have an advantage.

• "The workplace of tomorrow is a world of many cultures and languages ...with new forms of global commerce we can't even imagine today" (Kiplinger Washington Editors, 1996).

• The study of language helps students develop a sense of cultural pluralism. Through the study of another language students interact and communicate with others and thus discover genuine similarities and differences among various cultures. At the same time, they develop respect and appreciation for the cultural perspectives, practices, and products of the different cultures.

• The study of language increases travel opportunities and increases chances of meeting people from other lands.

• North Carolina has a growing non-English speaking population. There are more than 170 languages currently spoken by students in our schools. The immigrant population is expected to rise as long as the state’s economy remains strong. The ability to speak a second language helps us to communicate directly with those who speak that language. In addition, it enables us to understand firsthand the process for second language acquisition and to be prepared to handle the challenges of living and working with non-English speakers.

• The study of another language contributes to the achievement of national goals (economic, national security, etc.).

• Data from the Admissions Testing Program of the College Board show a positive correlation between SAT scores and the study of a foreign language. Verbal scores of students increased with each additional year of language study. The most interesting piece of information is that the verbal scores of students who had taken four or five years of foreign language were higher than the verbal scores of students who had taken four or five years of any other subjects.

• It helps students develop greater cognitive skills in such areas as mental flexibility, creativity, divergent thinking, and higher-order thinking skills.

• The study of a foreign language has been shown to enhance listening skills and memory and can contribute a significant additional dimension to the concept of communication.

• It fulfills college entrance requirements in most colleges and universities.

(Sources: International Westinghouse Electric Corporation, American Institute for Foreign Study, and National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies.)

Over the past twenty years much research has been conducted documenting the immediate and long-range benefits of foreign language learning.

In the area of language arts, students of second languages are thought toimprove their reading comprehensionin the native language and also score higher in reading achievement, including vocabulary, cognitive learning, and total reading ability (Masciantonio, 1977; Rafferty, 1986).

With respect to cognitive abilities, Ginsburg and McCoy (1981) cited research findings to support that when students learn another language at the elementary level and there is good program articulation, second language students advance more rapidly than monolingual students in cognitive abilities, independent of IQ.

Regarding creativity, in the Landry (1973) and Kessler and Quinn (1980) studies, students who studied a second language in elementary school scored significantly higher on tests of divergent thinking as measured in terms of figural fluency and figural flexibility independent of age and IQ.

Recent research indicates that "the length of time students study a foreign language relates directly and positively to higher levels of cognitive and metacognitive processing" (Rosenbusch, 1995).

Neurobiologist Carla Shatz believes that there are windows of opportunity which open and close one by one throughout a person’s life. "The implication being that if you miss the window, you’re playing with a handicap" (Newsweek, February 1996). Obviously, learning continues to take place throughout a person’s life; however, the optimum time for learning occurs until the age of 10 to 12 when the brain of young children is believed to be most receptive (Chugani). For this reason, language learning is most effective when it is started early on in a child’s life.

Data from Profiles, College-Bound Seniors, 1984 and 1990, tell essentially the same story. Again, sheer time spent taking a subject appears to relate to a better test score, and concentration on foreign languages for periods of four or more years results in the highest SAT-verbal average of any of the subject group.

(Thomas C. Cooper. "Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores." The Modern Language Journal ,Volume 71, Number 4, Winter 1987.)

Further and more detailed study of interrelations among parts might reveal, as suggested by Jarvis, that the mental processing skills required to do mathematics problems are also developed by language processing and vice versa.

growing. Proficiency in a foreign language combined with the skills and knowledge of another area heightens a person’s desirability in the market place.

The Nebraska Foreign Language Frameworks (1996) states

that "learning a foreign language provides a competitive edge in career choices in today's and tomorrow's world. The foreign language experience enhances cultural sensitivity and provides linguistic insights necessary for citizens in a worldwide community."

Currently, students begin their study of a second language at different entry points (reflected by the beginning and continuing headings for some objectives in this Standard Course of Study). Forty-six percent of high school students are studying another language compared with twenty-three percent at the middle school level and twenty-seven percent at the elementary level.

* In partial immersion programs, the foreign language is used during half of the school day.

In immersion programs, the "regular" curriculum is taught in the foreign language.

A variation of immersion programs includes two-way bilingual programs. These programs group native speakers of English with native speakers of the target language. Instruction is provided both in English and in the target language on alternate days, according to academic subjects, or according to a daily schedule (morning in one language and afternoon in the other).

Depending on the extent of the program, beginning sequential programs may allow students to place out of some foreign language classes at the high school level.

Continuing programs allow students to take the language without any major break in the sequence.

With adequate instructional time, continuing programs allow students to place out of some foreign language classes at the high school level.

Because the course length has been shortened by 30 hours in a block schedule, careful examination of what students can realistically learn at each level of instruction must take place. Locally-developed pacing guides are helpful to address this concern.

The AP language courses emphasize the use of active communication. The AP literature courses are an introduction to representative works of prose, poetry, and drama from different periods. Literature courses may or may not have a required reading list; however, the content of the courses is geared toward helping students do well on the AP examination.

a) to use Spanish to acquire new knowledge; 

b) to develop understanding of the cultures of the many people who speak Spanish; 

c) to use Spanish for effective day-to-day communication.