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Why Study languages?


Here are some of the reasons

people give for wanting to study a foreign language. For further information, click on the statement:

I want to communicate with speakers of the language I am studying.

It is widely recognized in the American language teaching profession that this is among the top goals of language learners. People who study languages usually wish to leave our courses with some measure of ability to interact effectively and appropriately with speakers of those languages. For this reason, contemporary language courses tend to emphasize a communicative methodology based on assessment and teaching of the kinds of things learners need to be able to do in their adopted language. Although teachers do have many different priorities, today's' language teachers are often more interested in what you can say in the language than in what you can say about the language. Communicative teaching is supported by research documenting how languages are actually used in a variety of contexts, and materials developers are constantly seeking to improve the extent to which textbooks and their ancillaries reflect real language use. Communicative teaching also benefits from guidance provided by research in language acquisition, which strives to explain the processes by which learners develop second language competence. In order to develop communicative ability, language learners need many opportunities to "express, interpret and negotiate meaning" (Savignon 1997). If you join a communicative language class, you can expect to interact actively with the teacher and other students, and to have many opportunities to observe the way native speakers use their language.

For a glimpse at how the American foreign language teaching profession envisions its goals as they relate to communicative ability, check out the Standards for Foreign Language Learning from the American council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages http://www.actfl.org



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I want to prepare for employment in the global marketplace.

Americans have a reputation throughout the world for incompetence in foreign languages, and the ethnocentric attitudes that accompany stubborn adherence to monolinguals. We seem to have assumed that the whole world speaks English, and that this means there is no reason for us to invest in language learning. Unfortunately, our reputation is supported by the facts: according to Senator Paul Simon's The Tongue-Tied American, for example, in the late 1970's there were more teachers of English in the Soviet Union than students of Russian in the United States. President Carter's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies reported on the "scandalous incompetence" of Americans in foreign languages, citing low enrollments in language classes, and lack of continuity in language study by American students, as compared to the norm in most other countries, where high school students are generally required to take four years of foreign language courses. Statistics cited by Brown (1991), however, suggest that the situation is improving with moderately increased enrollments in language classes since the late 1970's and the formation of active advocacy groups such as the Joint National Committee for Languages.



Brown also informs us that:
  • The U.S. government employs 30,000 persons a year with a working knowledge of foreign languages.
  • Many U.S. airlines favor applicants who have foreign language skill.
  • About half of all U.S. multinational company executives know foreign languages.
  •  A survey of 1,200 companies in the U.S. reported over sixty thousand positions requiring employees with a knowledge of second languages.
Inability to speak foreign languages, and our nation's unfortunate reputation in this area, surely hinder efforts to establish productive relationships with foreign business partners- unless of course you prove to be the exception to the rule! Anecdotal evidence suggests that even if you do not achieve a high level of proficiency in the language of your business partners, the effort made by Americans in trying to learn any foreign language is perceived as a sign of good faith in your desire to connect with others, and will serve you well if your professional life involves interacting with multilingual people.

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I want to study the literature and culture of other countries.

"Literature...is the culturally selected and sanctioned set of the best realizations of a culture's unwritten abstract genres and abstract text types. To study a national literature, then, is to study a culture as it has chosen to transmit and to present itself" (Kramsch 1988)

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I want to enhance my cross-cultural awareness.

In discussions of foreign language learning, the word "culture" tends to be used in one of two ways. Sometimes it refers to what we call "big C" Culture, or the major literary or artistic achievements of particular society or nation state. Other times the word "culture" (with a small c) means implicit understandings and practices of everyday life, such as politeness in formal and informal contexts. I

increasingly, language teaching in the United States is expanding its goals to include both ways of understanding "culture": to be able to use language one must know more than just words and grammar. In order to avoid misunderstanding, one must also know how to use the forms of the language appropriately, and have some idea of what they mean to other speakers of the language. The process of language learning affords direct, detailed and immediate access to understanding another culture. When you speak someone else's language, even a little bit, you get to "try on" their way of life.

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I want to pursue a professional or scholarly goal that requires language competence.

Many professionals find that foreign language competence helps them to do their jobs better. For example, medical personnel and social workers in non-English speaking communities within the United States often need an additional language in order  to communicate with their clientele. Many graduate programs in a wide variety of  fields require reading knowledge of at least one foreign language as a research tool.

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I want to be a good language learner, because I may need to learn more languages in the future.

Once you learn a first foreign language, the learning of any other foreign language gets easier. Hard evidence for this assertion comes from a large-scale study of foreign language learning during a study abroad program, sponsored by the National Foreign Language Center. Brecht and his colleagues (1993) studied gains in achievement of Russian speaking skill by students enrolled in a study abroad program in Moscow. According to their findings, the best predictor of significant gains was previous study of another foreign language, usually French or Spanish. Why should it be that learning French or Spanish in the past would help most students to learn Russian more thoroughly and efficiently in the present?



Much of the awareness we have of our native language remains implicit- we don't usually have to think about how our language works. We just use it, and we usually don't experience major difficulties in communicating with other speakers of our native language. The first time you learn a foreign language, you become aware of many of the features of language in general: how grammar operates, what kinds of variation there can be in sound systems, how different cultures can express the "same" idea in different ways. The successful students in the Russian program tended to be those who had already gained some knowledge about how languages work (what linguists call "metalinguistic awareness"). This means that studying any foreign language now will help you in the future should you ever find that you really need any other   foreign language in your professional life.

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