Newspaper Article

EDUCATION WATCH; CATCHING UP WITH THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE BOOM

Fiske, Edward B

1985

نظرة عامة

A. There is more stress on speaking and less on grammar and correcting grammar. Teachers don't stop students in the middle of a conversation and correct their grammar and make them feel intimidated. There has also been a shift away from the emphasis on literature as a language teaching tool. It was discovered that many students focusing on ''Don Quixote,'' for example, did not have the faintest idea how to speak Spanish. A. Very much so, and I think it's for the good. It addresses the things we're way behind in. For example, the people at the Library of Congress told me that they were about 10 years behind in their translation of Japanese materials. Language departments are trying to serve professional schools. This was one of the things that was addressed in the report of a Presidential commission in 1979. Popular courses are Spanish for trade, for example, or Spanish for hotel management. What we hear from business people is: ''We don't need French majors, but give us an M.B.A. with French. Our company in Africa can use that skill.'' A. Congress passed an education bill last year that discussed the importance of ''critical'' languages. The ones that were mentioned were Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The enrollments in these languages are all way up.

• الناشر: New York Times Company
• موضوع: Edwards, J David / Fiske, Edward B / LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES