Why a foreign language

Title

Language

English

Year

1967

Subject

Language & languages

Communicative competence

Oral communication

Foreign language education

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

There are practical and cultural advantages from one's knowledge of some languages of important nations.

Fulltext

■ There are practical and cultural advantages from one's knowledge of some languages of important nations. WHY A FOREIGN LANGUAGE? Looked at purely as acade mic work, language opens the mind to a new way of thinking and constructing, makes the student more world-conscious, and gives him an awareness of a new and different history, literal ture, and culture. This can be a most broadening and valuable experience, for in no other language are thoughts expressed in just the same way as the student, up to this time, has expe rienced — his knowledge having been limited to his own language entirely. While students may never have to use the language of their choice for performance or material gain, an under standing of languages other than our own is necessary, for a well-balanced way of think ing in this cofnplex world of ours, which so badly needs men and women of good will, compassion, and understand ing. With each year our world is shrinking as trans portation and communica tion become more rapid. We all must grow in understand ing and international think ing if this. world is ever to become a better place in which to live. The study of a foreign language should begin in the grade school or high school. To send a student to the uni versity without this exposure to language is as distressing as it would be to ask him to work out some difficult problem in higher mathe matics without first teaching him how .to add, multiply, subtract, and divide! Too often this lack of exposure at an early age leads a col lege student to think, through ignorance and inex perience, that language is an easy subject. Knowing no thing whatsoever about what lies ahead of him, he often feels he can take it easy. By the time he wakes up to the fact that he is tackling a very difficult task, it is too late. 42 Panorama His first year's work may be wasted and he may have to repeat it the following year — a great waste of time and money, as well as a great deal of needless suffering on hlis part. Just as a mind has not been properly rounded-out unless it h?is been exposed to English and Mathematics, so on mind is really well trained — educated in the truest sense of the word — without a good working knowledge of at least one modern foreign language. As James B. Conant, president emeritus of Harvard Univer sity, salid recently: “Unless a person has acquired some thing approaching mastery of one foreign language, he has missed an educational ex perience of the first impor tance.” , Dr. Conant also stressed the fact that the most difficult areas of study were science, mathematics, and foreign language. This is seldom realized. Understanding of English, also, is influenced and en hanced by the study of a for eign language. Not only are English constructions and vo cabulary highlighted but the richness and beauty and worth of the language are also better understood and appreciated when one can feel all that has gone into its development. Jawalharlal Nehru, the late prime minister of India, wrote what I think is one of the most sensitive expla nations of the very essence of any great language: “A language is infinitely more than grammar and phi lology — the science of the structure and development of language. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have molded them.” — Anna B. Lous in The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. February 1967 43

pages

42-43

Media