GRANTS TO PROMOTE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002100150035-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 240
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: January 22, 1982
• Content Type: REPORT

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ool -( 51
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
FROM:
Chief, Legislation Division
0GC
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and DATE
building)
22 January 1982
Attached is a printed copy of
he hearing at which you appeared on
15 July 1981 to testify on H.R. 32:31
bill to provide grants for foreign
language programs. Your testimony
egins on page 91. Also attached
is the report of the House Committee
on Education and Labor on the Bill.
DDCI
FORM 61 0 USE PREVIOUS
1_79 Y4 EDITIONS
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97TE CONoniiss 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES RErolrr
18t Se8Sion I No. 97-316
NOVEMBER 10, 1981.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
Mr. PERKINS, from the Committee on Education and Labor,
submitted the following
REPORT
together with
INDIVIDUAL VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 3231]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred the
bill (H.R. 3231) to further the national security of the United States
and the Nation's economy by providing grants for foreign language
programs to improve foreign language study for elementary and sec-
ondary school students and to provide for per capita grants to reim-
burse institutions of higher education for part of the costs of pro-
viding foreign language instruction, having considered the same, re-
port favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the
bill as amended do pass.
The amendment strikes out all after the enacting clause of the bill
and inserts a new text which appears in italic type in the reported bill.
H.R. 3231 authorizes the Secretary of Education to establish two
state-run model foreign langauge grant programs. In the first, states
would compete for grants to help fund model programs in local school
districts. In the second, states would compete for grants to help fund
model programs in community and junior colleges. In both cases, the
local model program would have to evaluate the foreign language pro-
ficiency of participating students and provide those evaluations to the
state. Also in both model programs, states receiving grants would
have to set aside one percent of the grant for foreign language teacher
training.
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The bill also authorizes the Secretary to make grants to colleges
and universities that have more than five percent of their students
enrolled in approved foreign language courses. If the institution's
first and second year language course enrollments exceed five percent
of the total enrollment of the institution, the award would be $30 for
each student over the five percent level. For each student enrolled in
courses beyond the second year, the school would be eligible to re-
ceive $40. And if the student is enrolled in a course that teaches a less
commonly taught language (as determined by the Secretary), the
award to the institution is increased by $40 per student.
Finally, H.R. 3231 authorizes the Secretary'to award grants of $30
for each student enrolled at colleges and universities that require two
years of foreign language for either entrance to the schools or for
graduation from them.
The bill authorizes $10 million for the elementary and secondary
model programs, $4 million for the community and junior college
model programs, $13 million for foreign language course enrollment
grants and $60 million for the grants to schools with entrance and
graduation requirements.
In November 1979, the President's Commission on Foreign Lan-
guage and International Studies said in its report :
We are profoundly alarmed by what we have found; a
serious deterioration in this country's language and research
capacity, at a time when an increasingly hazardous interna-
tional military, political and economic environment is mak-
ing unprecedented demands on America's resources, intel-
lectual capacity and public sensitivity.
The Commission went on to conclude that as a result of this der
terioriation in foreign language capacity, "Nothing less is at stake
than the nation's security."
On November 17,1980, the House of Representatives went on record
in support of improved foreign language. study when it passed House
Concurrent Resolution 301, which indicates it is the sense of the Con-
gress that local school districts and institutions of higher education
"should consider strengthening the study of foreign languages and
cultures." The same resolution passed the Senate December 8, 1980.
The international situation remains at least as hazardous as when
the Commission issued its report. And yet, as Admiral Bobby R.
Inman, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency testified
at the Postsecondary Education Subcommittee's July 1981 hearings
on H.R. 3231, "The foreign language capability of our country is poor
and is getting worse." Admiral Inman added that this failure presents
"a major hazard to our national security."
The Admiral continued :
In our operations area, we are now losing many of our most
experienced people who have. had 20 or so years of service
using a second and third language. Replacement of these
people has been made difficult by the fact that many uni-
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versities and colleges no longer have, foreign language re-
quirements as part of their mandatory curriculum ... We
need to be able to recruit and hire people who already possess
capability in a foreign language and not lose the time re-
quired to train them in this skill after they are on board.
Major General Richard Larkin, Deputy Director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, told the Subcommittee :
Recent trends show that intelligence opportunities based
on language skills are increasing rapidly, while the avail-
ability of language-trained professionals has been gradually
shrinking. This problem is directly related to the inability
of our educational system to continue to provide the talent
required for understanding foreign cultures and interpret-
ing their behavior.
And Mr. Craig Wilson, speaking on behalf of the Secretary of
Defense, delivered the following graphic evidence of the need for
national action on foreign languages:
Intelligence units to support the RDF (Rapid Deployment
Force) will require an estimated additional 874 military lin-
guist positions for six major Middle East and African lan-
guages and dialects. For these, as well as most all languages,
there is not a trained, recruitable base within the American
population.
Support for federal action to remedy this problem is not limited to
the military and intelligence communities. The President of Standard
Oil Company (Indiana, Richard Morrow, in response to a survey of
leading U.S. corporations, wrote :
The United States can no longer afford to remain a mono-
linguist nation, expecting the rest of the world's peoples to
adjust to our ways. Thus the need for Americans to learn
foreign languages is more urgent than ever.
And John McDougall, Executive Vice-President of Ford Motor
Company, wrote :
It is precisely this combination of foreign language ability
and business expertise * * * that is now needed and will be
required even more in the future by U.S. companies if they
are to compete successfully in these (Asia, the Middle East,
Eastern Europe) markets.
Incentives for foreign language study, seem likely to in-
crease the pool of available talent in this country, to the bene-
fit of both U.S.-based corporations and the U.S. Government.
H.R. 3231, by offering such incentives, must be counted as a
major step toward this goal.
The Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, International, John Elliott, Jr.,
said:
The ineptitude of Americans (including me) in foreign
languages is an embarrassment .for our country. It contrib-
utes to our image of arrogance.
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Vice President for Corporate Affairs with Philip Morris, Inter-
national, Andrew Whist, commented :
The lack of language training of Americans is a broad
social issue, but one whose impact is dramatic in the inter-
national business sector.
And the Vice Chairman of Doyle Dane Bernbach, Inc., Robert H.
Levenson, wrote :
I agree completely that Americans doing business abroad
are significantly disadvantaged by poor and insufficient train-
ing in foreign languages. There is always a suitable, but dis-
tinct, loss of the "upper hand" when one cannot make oneself
understood.
At one of the Subcommittee's field hearings on H.R. 3231, Mr.
Manuel A. Menica, international representative with the Florida De-
partment of Commerce, presented testimony which indicated that U.S.
foreign language inadequacies have :
Created a self-enacted trade barrier more effective than
any protective tariff ever established. While our competitors
continue to succeed in penetrating even our most traditional
markets due to their ability to adapt their product conditions
to the cultural patterns of the target country, Americans con-
tinue to transact business, as well as diplomacy, through inter-
preters. Consequently, it is no surprise that we are con-
stantly outmaneuvered by our competitors in business deals
where delicate, on-the-spot negotiations are necessary.
While the problem is well-documented, finding a solution is not
among the top priorities of most schools in this country. For this is
a national problem and is thus a federal responsibility.
The Joint National Committee for Languages testified that only 15
percent of all U.S. high school students are enrolled in foreign lan-
guage courses today. And just eight percent of U.S. colleges require
it foreign language for admission.
Total college enrollment has increased from 6.9 million in 1968 to
9.9 million in 1977. However, enrollment in modern foreign languages
has dropped over that same period from 1.1 million to just 883,000.
Without some outside incentives, such as those offered in H.R. 3231,
the decline is likely to continue.
At the end of his statement to the Subcommittee, the CIA's Admiral
Lnman concluded :
Decisive action should be taken on the federal level to
ensure improvement in foreign language training in the U.S.
so that we can.cope with the problems we will face in future
years as the pace of our involvement with the rest of the
world becomes ever more important to our own survival and
well being.
H.R. 3231, a bill to further the national security of the United States
and the nation's economy by providing grants for foreign language,
programs to improve foreign language study for elementary and sec-
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on.dary school students and to provide for per capita grants to reim-
burse institutions of higher education for part of the costs of providing
foreign language instruction, was introduced by Representatives
Simon, Coleman, Perkins, Ford of Michigan, Weiss, Peyser, Erdahl,
DeNardis, Panetta and Oberstar in the House of Representatives on
April 10, 1981, and referred to the Subcommittee on Postsecondary
Education and the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary and
Vocational Education of the Committee on Education and Labor.
Hearings were held by the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Educa-
tion on H.R. 3231 on July 14, July 15, and September 25, 1981.
On October 7, 1981, the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Educa-
tion met in open legislative session and reported H.R. 3231 with an
amendment to the Committee on Education and Labor by a voice vote.
On October 20, 1981, H.R. 3231 was ordered reported by the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor by a vote of 21-9.
H.R. 3231 would establish state model foreign language program
grants and grants to institutions of higher education as follows :
States would be able to apply to the Secretary of Education for
money to help fund innovative model foreign language programs
designed and operated by local school districts and by community
and junior colleges. Pending approval of state applications, each state
would be eligible to receive (1) under the elementary and secondary
model program, $50,000 plus 4 cents times the state's population and
(2) under the community and junior college model program, $30,000
plus one cent times the state's population.
Higher education institutions with foreign language course enroll-
ments that represent at least five percent of the total enrollment at
the institution would be eligible to receive grants to help pay the costs
associated with foreign language instruction.
if total first and second year foreign language course enrollments
exceed five percent of the institution's total enrollment, then the school
would be eligible to receive $30 for each first or second year language
student that represents an excess over the 5 percent figure.
.For students enrolled in language courses beyond the second year
the school could receive $40.
And if the language students are enrolled in courses teaching lan-
guages that the Secretary of Education determines to be less com-
monly taught (eg.: Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc.), the
school would be eligible to receive an additional $40 for each of those
students.
PER CAPITA COURSE REQUIREMENT GRANTS
Each institution of higher education that requires either two years
of secondary school foreign language courses for entrance to the in-
stitution or two years of postsecondary foreign language courses for
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graduation from the institution would be eligible to receive $30 for
each student enrolled at the institution.
A. Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office
In compliance with clause 2(1) (3) (c) of rule XI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, the estimate and comparison prepared
by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to sec-
tion 403 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as timely submitted
prior to the filing of this report, is set forth below :
U.S. CONGRESS,
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE,
Washington, D.C., October 26,1981.
:EIon. CARL D. PERKINS,
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Rep-
resentatives, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN : Pursuant to Section 403 of the Congressional
Budget Act of 1974, the Congressional Budget Office has prepared the
attached cost estimate for H.R. 3231, the Foreign Language Program.
Should the Committee so desire, we would be pleased to provide
:Further details on the attached cost estimate.
Sincerely,
ALICE M. RIVLIN,
Director.
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE
1. Bill number : H.R. 3231.
2. Bill title : Foreign Language Programs.
3. Bill status : Ordered reported from the House Education and
Labor Committee, October 20, 4. Bill purpose : The purpose of this bill is to establish a program
to improve foreign language study for elementary and secondary
school students. The program is authorized through 1985. This bill is
subject to subsequent appropriations action.
5. Cost estimate :
Authorization level:
Fiscal year : Millions
1982 --------------------------------------------------------
1983 $87
1984 -------------------------------------------------------- 87
1985 -------------------------------------------------------- 87
1986 --------------------------------------------------------
Estimated total outlays: Fiscal year:
1982 --------------------------------------------------------
1983 -------------------------------------------------------- 8
1984 -------------------------------------------------------- 69
1985 -------------------------------------------------------- 87
1986 -------------------------------------------------------- 69
6. Basis for estimate : The authorization levels for H.R. 3231 are
those stated specifically in the bill. The outlay spending rate reflects
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that of other discretionary education grant programs of 9 percent the
first year, 70 percent the second year and the remainder in the third
year.
7. Estimate comparison : None.
8. Previous CBO estimate : None.
9. Estimate preparedby: Deborah Kalcevic.
10. Estimate approved by :
C. G. NucxoLs,
(For James L. Blum, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis).
B. Estimate of the convnittee
In compliance with clause 7(a) (1) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, the committee adopts the estimate pre-
pared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office.
Pursuant to clause 2(1) (4), rule XI of the Rules of the House of
Representatives, the Committee estimates that the enactment of H.R.
3231 will have little inflationary impact on prices and coss in the
operation of the national economy. It is the judgment of the Com-
mittee that the inflationary impact of this legislation as a component
of the total Federal budget is negligible.
In compliance with clause 2(1) (3) (A) of Rule XI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, this report embodies the findings and
recommendations of the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education,
established pursuant to clause 2(B) (1) of rule X of the House of
Representatives and rule 18(a) of the Rules of the Committee on
Education and Labor.
No summary of oversight findings and recommendations made by
the Committee on Government Operations was available to the Com-
mittee with reference to the subject matter specifically addressed by
H.R. 3231.
No specific oversight activities, other than hearings accompanying
the Committee's consideration of H.R. 3231 were made by the Com-
mittee, within the definition of rule XI of the House.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1 contains findings which indicate the need for expanded
foreign language study in the United States.
Section 2 (a) authorizes the Secretary of Education to make grants
to states which apply to establish model foreign language programs
in local school districts. States whose applications are approved by
the Secretary would be eligible to receive $50,000 plus the sum of 4
cents times the state's population. Funding at that level would con-
tinue for two more years, pending approval by the Secretary.
Section 2(b) outlines the requirements that state applications must
meet in order to receive approval by the Secretary. Those require-
ments are : (1) the model programs described must represent a variety
of innovative approaches to foreign language study; (2) model pro-
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grams in local districts must be open to all children aged 5 through
17 who live in the district; (3) the state must assure the Secretary that
the model program will have enough money from state, local and fed-
eral sources to carry out the program as described in the state applica-
tion; (4) model programs must evaluate the language proficiency of
students in the programs and give copies of the evaluations to the
state; and (5) the state must set aside one percent of the grant money
received under this section for inservice training of foreign language
teachers.
Section 2(c) authorizes the Secretary to ratably reduce the grants
if the funds appropriated are not sufficient to fully implement the
law.
Section 3(a) authorizes the Secretary of Education to make grants
to states which apply to establish model foreign language programs
in community and junior colleges. States whose applications are ap-
proved by the Secretary would be eligible to receive $30,000 plus the
sum of one cent times -the state's population.
Section 3(b) outlines the requirements that state applications must
meet in order to receive approval by the Secretary. Those requirements
are : (1) the model programs described must represent a variety of
innovative approaches to foreign language study; (2) the state must
assure the Secretary that the model programs will have enough money
from state, local and federal sources to carry out the program as
described in the state application; (3) model programs must evaluate
the language proficiency of students in the programs and give copies
of the evaluations to the state; and (4) the state must set aside one
percent of the grant money received under this section for inservice
training of foreign language teachers.
Section 3(c) authorizes the Secretary to ratably reduce the grants
if the funds appropriated are not sufficient to fully implement the law.
Section 4(a) authorizes the Secretary of Education to make grants
to colleges and universities to pay part of the costs of foreign lan-
guage instruction at those institutions. In order to receive any funds,
the school must apply to the Secretary and more than five percent of
the school's enrollment must be enrolled in foreign language courses.
The Secretary is also authorized to establish criteria for evaluating
programs assisted by the grants and to require an annual, report of
the institutions. That report should evaluate the progress and pro-
ficiency of foreign language students in the assisted programs.
Section 4(b) outlines the amounts of the grants and the conditions
under which they will be made. If the total number of first and second
year language students at a school is greater than five percent of the
entire school's enrollment, the school is eligible to receive $30 for
each student above the five percent figure. For all students enrolled in
courses beyond the second year, the institution is eligible to receive
$40. And for all students enrolled in less commonly taught languages
(as determined by the Secretary) the per capita grant is increased
by $40.
Section 4(c) authorizes the Secretary to ratably reduce the grants
if the funds appropriated are not sufficient to fully implement the law.
Section 5 (a) authorizes the Secretary of Education to make $30
grants to colleges and universities for each student enrolled at the
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schools if the schools (1) require 2 years of high school language for
entrance or (2) require 2 years of college language courses (or dem-
onstrated proficiency) for graduation.
Section 5 (b) allows the Secretary to ratably reduce the grants if the
funds appropriated are not sufficient to fully implement the law.
Section 6 states that funds may be distributed under this Act only
as is provided for in the appropriation act.
Section 7 defines the terms used in this Act.
Section 8 sets the authorization levels at: $10 million for Section 2;
$4 million for Section 3; $13 million for Section 4; and $60 million
for Section 5.
COMPARISON WITH EXISTING LAW
In compliance with clause 3 of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House
of Representatives, H.R. 3231 creates a new authority and makes no
changes in existing law.
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INDIVIDUAL VIEWS OF THOMAS E. PETRI, ON H.R. 3231
If our nation is to continue playing a superpower role on the world
stage, we badly need a corps of individuals who are experts in the lan-
guages and cultures of other peoples, especially subgroups, small tribes
and obscure languages. Such individuals should be able to spend time
in the countries they study in order to get to know the local people,
become known by them, and even to become their trusted friend. These
experts should also be available to conduct seminars, brief government
officials and businessmen, and generally provide solid expertise to
assist in the conduct of our foreign policy and private groups' relations
with other peoples.
Of course we already have some experts of the kind I am describing,
primarily in our universities, but we need many more of them and we
need to use them better. One particularly sad example of our failures
in this area was the occasion a few years back when our ambassador to
Afghanistan was kidnapped and none in our embassy could speak the
local language in order to communicate with the kidnappers. We
didn't even have the national language covered, to say nothing of hav-
ing experts who were comfortable among the various tribes in the
provinces.
The Canadians have a Translation Board, which provides, besides
translation services, an institutionalized body of knowledge of the kind
I am trying to describe. I don't know exactly how the British do it, but
they often seem to have individuals who are knowledgeable about
obscure tribes and cultures, who visit them regularly, and who are on
good terms with the local populace and leadership groups.
II.R. 3231 provides a tiny subsidy indiscriminately to hundreds of
thousands of students for foreign language study. It may help in some
very marginal way to meet the need I am describing, but I feel that
some other completely different approach is necessary. I believe the
first requirement is for a long term program that will attract capable
people to foreign area studies and enable them to pursue these studies
effectively. A second requirement is to facilitate the use of these experts
by the government and others.
I don't necessarily believe that adding positions to the State Depart-
ment or the CIA is the answer. Rather the best approach might be to
support a lot of professorships at universities and provide funds for
regular travel abroad, with the understanding that holders of these
positions will be able to get away from the university regularly and
will be available for a variety of activities through which their knowl-
edge can be used. There would also have to be a coordinating body to
allot; these positions, distribute travel funds, keep track of similar
resources that are available, and facilitate the use of these resources by
the government and others.
In any case, it is extremely important that we do not let consider-
ation of H.R. 3231 be the end of our concern for the promotion of
foreign language and area competence in our nation.
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENT
HEARINGS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NINETY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
H.R. 3231
TO FURTHER THE NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE UNITED
STATES AND THE NATION'S ECONOMY BY PROVID-
ING GRANTS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAMS TO IM-
PROVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY FOR ELEMENTARY AND
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AND TO PROVIDE FOR PER
CAPITA GRANTS TO REIMBURSE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER
EDUCATION FOR PART OF THE COSTS OF PROVIDING FOR-
EIGN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION
HEARINGS HELD IN WASHINGTON, D.C., ON
JULY 14, 15; NEW HAVEN, CONN., SEPTEMBER 25, 1981
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
84-188 0 WASHINGTON: 1981
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
CARL D. PERKINS, Kentucky, Chairman
AUGUSTUS F. HAWKINS, California
WILLIAM D. FORD, Michigan
PHILLIP BURTON, California
JOSEPH M. GAYDOS, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY, Missouri
MARIO BIAGGI, New York
IKE ANDREWS, North Carolina
PAUL SIMON, Illinois
GEORGE MILLER, California
AUSTIN J. MURPHY, Pennsylvania
TED WEISS, New York
BALTASAR CORRADA, Puerto Rico
DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan
PETER A. PEYSER, New York
PAT WILLIAMS, Montana
WILLIAM R. RATCHFORD, Connecticut
RAY KOGOVSEK, Colorado
HAROLD WASHINGTON, Illinois
DENNIS E. ECKART, Ohio
JOHN M. ASHBROOK, Ohio
JOHN N. ERLENBORN, Illinois
JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont
WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania
E. THOMAS COLEMAN, Missouri
KEN KRAMER, Colorado
ARLEN ERDAHL, Minnesota
THOMAS E. PETRI, Wisconsin
MILLICENT FENWICK, New Jersey
MARGE ROUKEMA, New Jersey
EUGENE JOHNSTON, North Carolina
LAWRENCE J. DENARDIS, Connecticut
LARRY E. CRAIG, Idaho
WENDELL BAILEY, Missouri
WILLIAM D. FORD, Michigan
PETER A. PEYSER, New York
JOSEPH M. GAYDOS, Pennsylvania
TEI) WEISS, New York
IKE: ANDREWS, North Carolina
DENNIS E. ECKART, Ohio
CARL D. PERKINS, Kentucky (Ex Officio)
E. THOMAS COLEMAN, Missouri
JOHN N. ERLENBORN, Illinois
ARLEN ERDAHL, Minnesota (Ex Officio)
LAWRENCE J. DENARDIS, Connecticut
WENDELL BAILEY, Missouri
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CONTENTS
Hearings held in Washington, D.C., on: Page
July 14, 1981 .............................................................................................................. 1
July 15, 1981 .............................................................................................................. 91
New Haven, Conn., September 25, 1981 ............................................................... 171
'Text of H.R. 3231 .............................................................................................................. 3
Statement of-
Black, Robert, project director, education and the world view, Council on
Learning, New Rochelle, N.Y ............................................................................. 76
Boeker, Ambassador Paul, director, Foreign Service Institute, Depart-
ment of State ......................................................................................................... 20
Derrick, William, early language immersion teacher, St. John's School,
Plattsburgh, N.Y ................................................................................................... 173
Edwards, David, executive director, Joint National Committee for Lan-
guages, Georgetown University ......................................................................... 139
Eliason, O. LeGrande, president, Eliason International ................................... 62
Freitag, Bernie, vice president, National Education Association ................... 156
Gray, Tracy C., director, division of language and public policy, Center for
Applied Linguistics ............................................................................................... 74
Hayden, Rose L., executive director, National Council on Foreign Lan-
guage and International Studies ....................................................................... 37
Heginbotham, Erland C., Director General, Foreign Commercial Service,
International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce ................ 13
Inman, Adm. Bobby R., Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency........ 94
Kagan, Donald, professor of classics, Yale University, New Haven, Conn... 193
Kennedy, Moorhead, Foreign Service Officer, Department of State .............. 114
Lange, Dale, director of graduate studies, University of Minnesota; imme-
diate past president, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages .............................................................................................................. 123
Larkin, Maj. Gen. Richard X., Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence
Agency .................................................................................................................... 97
Moskalew, Walter, assistant professor of classics, Vassar College .................. 201
Neff, Charles B., president Associated Colleges of the Midwest ..................... 166
Rassias, John A., foreign language professor, Dartmouth College ................. 204
Richardson, Elliot, former Ambassador at Large .............................................. 20
Shields, Dorothy, director, department of education, American Federation
of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations ...................:.................. 161
Timpe, Eugene, chairman, department of foreign languages, Southern
Illinois University .................. ... .. . ........................................................... 144
Vaisnys, Elona, vice president, Association for the Advancement of Baltic
Studies ....................................... ..... ............................... 188
Williams, John C., chairman, Department of Classics, Trinity College,
Hartford, Conn ........................... .......................................... 200
Wilson, Craig L., Special Assistant to the Deputy Undersecretary of De-
fense for Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence, De-
fense Department ............................................ ..... 102
Prepared statements, letters, supplemental material, etc.-
Alatis, James E., president, Joint National Committee for Languages;
dean, School of Languages & Linguistics, Georgetown University; and
executive secretary, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Lan-
guages, prepared statement presented by ...................................... 126
American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, prepared testimony of............ 169
Black, Robert, project director, Education and the World View, Council
on Learning, New Rochelle, N.Y., prepared statement of ............................ 77
Boeker, Paul H., Director, Foreign Service Institute, Department of State,
prepared statement of ......................................................................................... 26
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Prepared statements, letters, supplemental material, etc.-Continued Page
Derrick, William M., teacher and consultant on early language immer-
sion, prepared statement of ................................................................................ 174
Eliason, O. LeGrande, president, Eliason International, prepared state-
ment of .................................................................................................................. 68
Fredericks, J. Wayne, executive director, International Governmental Af-
fairs, Ford Motor Co., New York, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated 12
May 28, 1981 ..........................................................................................................
Freitag, Bernie, vice president, National Education Association, prepared
statement of ........................................................................................................... 149
Hayden, Dr. Rose Lee, executive director, National Council on Foreign
Language and International Studies:
"The Future Is Now: Serving National Needs Through Interna-
tional Studies," remarks presented at the May 1981 northeast 42
conference ................................................................................................... .
"Xenophobia," article entitled ....................................................................... 59
Inman, Admiral Bobby R., Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency,
prepared statement of ....................... ........................................ 91
Kagan, Donald, Richard M. Colgate Professor of History and Classics,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn., prepared statement of ....................... 196
Lange, Dale L., immediate past president, 1981, American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages, prepared testimony of ............................... 120
Larkin, Maj. Gen. Richard X., Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence
Agency, prepared statement of ......................................................................... 96
McGrath, Earl J., former U.S. Commissioner of Education and presently
chairman, Board of Advisers, Western International University, Phoe-
nix, Ariz., prepared testimony of .. ..................................................................... 35
Neff, Charles B., president, Associated Colleges of the Midwest and on
behalf of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, prepared testimony of.... 164
O'Brien, Edward, government and industry relations administrator, letter 19
to Erland Heginbotham, dated July 10, 1981 ..................................................
Payton, Robert L., president, Exxon Education Foundation, New York,
N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated July 2, 1981 ...................................... 13
Richardson, Elliot L., former Ambassador at Large, prepared testimo-
ny of ....................................................................................................................... 22
Shields, Dorothy, director, Department of Education, American Feder-
ation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, prepared
statement of .......................................................................................................... 159
Simon, Hon. Paul, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois: 171
Opening statement of (Sept 25, 1981) ............................................................ 12
Opening statement of (July 14, 1981) ............................................................
Timpe, Eugene F., chairman, department of foreign languages and litera-
tures, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill., prepared statement 142
of ........................................................................................................................... .
Vaisnys, Elona, Mount Carmel, Conn., "Connecticut Commissioner of Eco-
nomic Development, quoted in the New Haven Register, March 27,
1980," information submitted by ....................................................................... 189
Wilson, Craig L., Special Assistant for Intelligence and C 3 Human Re-
sources, on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, prepared statement of ..... 100
APPENDIX
Adler, James R., president and managing director, Compton International,
New York, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated October 9, 1981 .................. 225
Burton, Richard M., associate professor of business administration, Duke
University; visiting professor, University, d'Aix-Marseille, France, 1975,
1976-77; and visiting professor, Odense University, Denmark, Summer
1978, prepared statement of ..................................................................................... 218
Elliott, John, Jr., chairman, Ogilvy & Mather International, New York, N.Y., 223
letter to Chairman Simon, dated September 8, 1981 ....................................? .... 217
Folks, William R., Jr., program director of international business, University
of South Carolina, prepared statement of ........................................................????... 209
Governor's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, pre-
pared statement of .......................................................................................................
Greene, Dr. William, director, International/ Intercultural Education,
Broward Community College, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., prepared statement of.. 213
Hirsch, Dr. Bette G., Palo Alto, Calif., letter to Chairman Simon, dated
September 25, 1981 ...................................................................................................... 221
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Levenson, Robert H., vice chairman, Doyle Dane Bernbach, Inc. Advertising, Page
New York, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated September 22, 1981 ........... 224
Macchiarola, Frank J., chancellor, board of education, city of New York,
Brooklyn, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated October 5, 1981 .................... 220
MacDonald, J. H., corporate vice president-personnel, McDonnell Douglas
Corp., St. Louis, Mo., letter to Chairman Simon, dated October 5, 1981........... 225
McDougall, John, executive vice president, Ford International Automotive
Operations, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., letter to Chairman Simon,
dated October 7, 1981 .................................................................................................. 222
Mencia, Manuel A., international representative, Office for Latin American
Trade, Florida Department of Commerce, prepared statement of ..................... 215
Morrow, Richard M., president, Standard Oil Co. (Indiana), Chicago, Ill., letter
to Chairman Simon, dated September 21, 1981 ...................................................... 222
Phillips, Dr. Craig, North Carolina State superintendent, prepared statement
of ...................................................................................................................................... 218
Schindler, Marvin S., president, Association of Departments of Foreign Lan-
guages; chairman, Department of Romance and Germanic Languages and
Literatures, Wayne State University; and director, Junior Year in Germany
Program, prepared statement of ............................................................................... 210
Stewart, Philip, chairman, department of romance languages, Duke Universi-
ty, and vice president, American Association of Teachers of French, pre-
pared statement of ....................................................................................................... 219
Stroock, Mark, senior vice president, director of corporate relations, Young &
Rubicam, Inc., New York, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated September
22, 1981 ........................................................................................................................... 223
Whist, Andrew, vice president, corporate affairs, Philip Morris International,
New York, N.Y., letter to Chairman Simon, dated September 10, 1981 ........... 224
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENT
TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1981
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION,
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a.m., in room
304, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Paul Simon (chairman of
the subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Simon, Coleman, and Bailey.
Staff present: William A. Blakey, counsel; Nicholas J. Penning,
staff assistant; and Betsy Brand, minority legislative associate.
Mr. SIMON. The subcommittee hearing will come to order.
Today and tomorrow we will be discussing a little known but
very real threat to our national security and our economic health.
This shortage hasn't received as much publicity as the oil shortage
but, like the oil shortage, it hurts our economy and affects our
ability to function in today's world.
The shortage I am talking about is our national deficiency in
foreign language skills. Fewer than 4 percent of our public high
school graduates have more than 2 years of foreign language study,
and I might add this has declined. We are the only country where
someone can graduate from college, even get a Ph. D., without
having a single year of instruction in a foreign language.
As a result of this language shortage, we are losing potential
markets and potential diplomatic friends at a time when we need
them most. We compete with the Soviet Union for influence with
developing nations; and we compete with Japan, Germany and the
major exporting nations for markets all over the globe. But because
of our language deficiencies we are going to bat against these
countries with one hand tied behind our back.
During the subcommittee's recent trip to the Soviet Union and
West Germany, the delegation relied almost exclusively on the
translation and interpretations of the Soviets to conduct high level
policy discussions. On one occasion, a high Soviet official, who
speaks and understands English very well, corrected the Russian
translator as he attempted to translate his statement into English.
It is very likely that this occurred when the same translator inter-
preted our remarks into Russian.
When the American Embassy in Tehran was taken, only six of
our 52 hostages could speak Farsi. When our Ambassador to Af-
ghanistan was kidnapped and slain, we could not negotiate with
the kidnappers because none of our Embassy personnel could speak
the local languages.
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The State Department has 1,222 positions that have been identi-
fied as requiring foreign language ability, but as of this January
only 67 percent of those positions were adequately filled. The De-
partment of Defense has more than 488,000 active duty military
personnel stationed overseas, but only 314 persons, less than one-
tenth of 1 percent, were classified by the military as linguists last
year.
Our inability to communicate with the rest of the world has also
hurt us economically. While the Germans and Japanese are fever-
ishly learning new languages and aggressively developing new
markets, our businesses continue to take a let-them-learn-English
attitude toward potential customers. Our trade deficit last year was
$20.3 billion.
How much of that was caused by our refusal to learn other
languages?
Then in my prepared statement I have some more specifics
where we have had embarrassment businesswise.
But American corporations don't deserve all the blame for those
blunders. Our schools are not turning out graduates proficient in
the languages of developing nations, and the Federal Government
is not doing enough to encourage schools to offer comprehensive
language programs.
The bill that is the focus of these hearings, H.R. 3231, would help
elementary and secondary school districts to establish model for-
eign language programs and would provide foreign language grants
to colleges and universities.
Today and tomorrow we will be hearing from representatives of
the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, busi-
ness persons and educators. It is my hope that their testimony will
awaken Americans to the fact that, as one writer put it, "What we
don't know can hurt us."
[The text of H.R. 3231 and opening statement of Congressman
Paul Simon follow:]
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To further the national security of the United States and the Nation's economy by
providing grants for foreign language programs to improve foreign language
study for elementary and secondary school students and to provide for per
capita grants to reimburse institutions of higher education for part of the
costs of providing foreign language instruction.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 10, 1981
Mr. SIMON (for himself, Mr. COLEMAN, Mr. PERKINS, Mr. FORD of Michigan, Mr.
WEISS, Mr. PEYSER, Mr. ERDAHL, Mr. DENARDIS, Mr. PANETTA, and Mr.
ORERSTAR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Commit-
tee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To further the national security of the United States and the
Nation's economy by providing grants for foreign language
programs to improve foreign language study for elementary
and secondary school students and to provide for per capita
grants to reimburse institutions of higher education for part
of the costs of providing foreign language instruction.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 That the Congress finds that -
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2
1 (1) the economic and security interests of this
2 Nation require significant improvement in the foreign
3 language instruction offered in the Nation's educational
4 institutions, and Federal funds should be made availa-
5 ble to assist this purpose;
6 (2) many endeavors in both the public and private
7 sectors involving such matters as international rela-
8 tions or multinational business transactions require the
9 skills of individuals with knowledge of foreign lan-
10 guages; and
11 (3) the educational institutions of the Nation
12 should provide students with an understanding of the
13 history and culture which influence the perspectives,
14 values, and attitudes of the people of other countries,
15 and foreign language instruction is one means of
16 achieving this goal.
17 SEc. 2. (a) The Secretary shall make grants to State
18 educational agencies whose applications are approved under
19 subsection (b) in order that such agencies may fund model
20 programs, designed and operated by local educational agen-
21 cies, providing for improvement and expansion of foreign lan-
22 guage study for students residing within their school districts.
23 Any State whose application is approved shall receive an
24 amount equal to the sum of (1) $50,000, plus (2) the product
25 of $0.02 multiplied by the population of the State (as deter-
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3
1 mined in accordance with the most recent decennial census).
? 2 The amount described in the preceding sentence shall be
3 made available to the State for two additional years after the
4 first fiscal year during which the State received a grant under
5 this section if the Secretary determines that the funds made
6 available to the State during the first year of funding were
7 used in the manner required under the State's approved
8 application.
9 (b) Any State educational agency desiring to receive a
10 grant under this section shall submit an application therefor
11 to the Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing
12 such information and assurances as the Secretary may re-
13 quire. No application may be approved by the Secretary
14 unless the application-
15 (1) contains a description of model programs de-
16 signed by local educational agencies, and representing
17 a variety of alternative approaches to foreign language
18 instruction, which were selected by the State educa-
19 tional agency for funding under this section;
20 (2) provides assurances that all children aged five
21 through seventeen who reside within the school district
22 of the local educational agency shall be eligible to par-
23 ticipate in any model program funded under this sec-
24 tion (without regard to whether such children attend
25 schools operated by such agency); and
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4
1 (3) provides assurances that, if the application of
2 the State educational agency is approved, each model
3 program described in the application shall have availa-
4 ble to it sufficient funds from State and local sources,
5 in addition to any funds under this section, to ensure
6 that the program is carried out as described in the
7 application.
8 SEC. 3. (a)(1) The Secretary shall make grants to insti-
9 tutions of higher education to reimburse such institutions for
10 part of the costs of providing foreign language instruction to
11 students. Any institution of higher education desiring to re-
12 ceive a grant under this section shall submit an application to
13 the Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing such
14 information and assurances as the Secretary may require.
15 (2) An institution of higher education shall not be eligi-
16 ble for a grant under this section for a fiscal year unless the
17 sum of the number of students enrolled at such institution in
18 qualified postsecondary language courses on October 1 of
19 that fiscal year exceeds 5 per centum of the total number of
20 students enrolled at such institution. For purposes of this
21 paragraph, the total number of students enrolled in an insti-
22 tution shall be considered to be equal to the sum of (A) the
23 number of full-time students enrolled at the institution, and
24 (B) the number of part-time students who are enrolled at the
25 institution for an academic workload which is at least half the
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4
1 (3) provides assurances that, if the application of
2 the State educational agency is approved, each model
3 program described in the application shall have availa-
4 ble to it sufficient funds from State and local sources,
5 in addition to any funds under this section, to ensure
6 that the program is carried out as described in the
7 application.
8 SEC. 3. (a)(1) The Secretary shall make grants to insti-
9 tutions of higher education to reimburse such institutions for
10 part of the costs of providing foreign language instruction to
11 students. Any institution of higher education desiring to re-
12 ceive a grant under this section shall submit an application to
13 the Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing such
14 information and assurances as the Secretary may require.
15 (2) An institution of higher education shall not be eligi-
16 ble for a grant under this section for a fiscal year unless the
17 sum of the number of students enrolled at such institution in
18 qualified postsecondary language courses on October 1 of
19 that fiscal year exceeds 5 per centurn of the total number of
20 students enrolled at such institution. For purposes of this
21 paragraph, the total number of students enrolled in an insti-
22 tution shall be considered to be equal to the sum of (A) the
23 number of full-time students enrolled at the institution, and
24 (B) the number of part-time students who are enrolled at the
25 institution for an academic workload which is at least half the
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5
1 full-time academic workload, as determined by the institution
2 in accordance with standards prescribed by the Secretary.
3 (3) As a condition for the award of any grant under this
4 section, the Secretary may establish standards for instruc-
5 tional programs assisted with funds under this section and
6 require reports evaluating such programs, including reports
7 which evaluate the progress of students in such programs.
8 (b)(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), any institution
9 of higher education which submits an application under this
10 section for a grant for any fiscal year, and which has suffi-
11 cient enrollment in postsecondary language courses as re-
12 quired under subsection (a)(2), shall be eligible to receive an
13 amount equal to the sum of the following:
14 (A) To provide assistance for the costs of postsec-
15 ondary foreign language. instruction at the level of the
16 first or second year of postsecondary study of a lan-
17 guage, an amount equal to-
18 (i) $30, multiplied by
19 (ii) the number of students enrolled in a
20 qualified postsecondary foreign language course at
21 such level on October 1 of such fiscal year.
22 (B) To provide assistance for the costs of foreign
23 language instruction above the level of the second year
24 of postsecondary study of a language, an amount equal
25 to-
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6
1 (i) $40, multiplied by
2 (ii) the number of students enrolled in a
3 qualified postsecondary foreign language course at
4 such level on October 1 of such fiscal year.
5 (2) In the case of any foreign language instruction of-
6 fered in languages determined by the Secretary to be less
7 commonly taught, the per capita amounts under paragraphs
8 (1)(A)(i) and (1)(B)(i) shall each be increased by $20.
9 (3) In determining under paragraph (1) the number of
10 students enrolled in qualified postsecondary foreign language
11 courses at any institution of higher education, there shall be
12 excluded in the aggregate under paragraph (1)(A)(ii) the
13 number of students equal to 5 per centum of the total number
14 of students enrolled at such institution.
15 (c) If sums appropriated to carry out this section are not
16 sufficient to permit the Secretary to pay in full the grants
17 which an institution of higher education may receive under
18 subsection (b), the amount of such grants shall be ratably
19 reduced.
20 SEC. 4. (a)(1) The Secretary shall make grants to each
21 institution of higher education which requires at least two
22 years of postsecondary credits in foreign language (or a for-
23 eign language competency equivalent thereof) for each gradu-
24 ating student. Each institution of higher education which
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1 qualifies for a grant under this subsection for any fiscal year
2 shall be eligible to receive an amount equal to-
3 (A) $30, multiplied by
4 (B) the number of students enrolled in the institu-
5 tion, as determined under paragraph (2), on October 1
6 of such fiscal year.
7 (2) For purposes of paragraph (1)(B), the number of stu-
8 dents enrolled in an institution of higher education shall be
9 considered to be equal to the sum of (A) the number of full-
10 time students enrolled at the institution, and (B) the full-time
11 equivalent of the number of part-time students enrolled at the
12 institution, as determined in accordance with standards pre-
13 scribed by the Secretary.
14 (b) If sums appropriated to carry out this section are not
15 sufficient to permit the Secretary to pay in full the grants
16 which an institution of higher education may receive under
17 subsection (a), the amount of such grants shall be ratably
18 reduced.
19 SEC. 5. No grants shall be made or contracts entered
20 into under this Act except to such extent, or in such
21 amounts, as may be provided in appropriation Acts.
22 SEC. 6. For purposes of this Act:
23 (1) The term "foreign language instruction" shall
24 not include instruction offered as part of a bilingual
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1 education program designed to assist students having
2 limited English proficiency.
3 (2) The term "institution of higher education"
4 means any institution of higher education, as defined
5 under section 1201(a) of the Higher Education Act of
6 1965, which is located within a State.
7 (3) The terms "local educational agency" and
8 "State educational agency" have the same meaning
9 given such terms under section 198 of the Elementary
10 and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
11 (4) The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of
12 Education.
13 (5) The term "State" means any of the several
14 States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District
15 of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-
16 lands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
17 (6) The term "qualified postsecondary foreign lan-
18 guage course" means a course of foreign language in-
19 struction which (A) is scheduled to meet at least five
20 days each week for at least fifty minutes each day, or
21 (B) provides instruction each week for a period of time
22 equivalent to the period described under clause (A).
23 SEC. 7. There are authorized to be appropriated for
24 each of the fiscal years 1983, 1984, and 1985-
25 (1) $7,000,000 to carry out section 2 of this Act;
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1 (2) $13,000,000 to carry out section 3 of this
2 Act; and
3 (3) $60,000,000 to carry out section 4 of this
4 Act.
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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL SIMON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Today and tomorrow we will be discussing a little-known but very real threat to
our national security and our economic health. This shortage hasn't received as
much publicity as the oil shortage, but like the oil shortage it hurts our economy
and affects our ability to function in today's world.
The shortage I am talking about is our national deficiency in foreign language
skills. Fewer than 4 per cent of our public high school graduates have more than
two years of foreign language study. We are the only country where someone can
graduate from college-even get a Ph. D.-without having a single year of instruc-
tion in a foreign language.
As a result of this language shortage, we are losing potential markets and poten-
tial diplomatic friends at a time when we need them most. We compete with the
Soviet Union for influence with developing nations; and we compete with Japan,
Germany and the major exporting nations for markets all over the globe. But
because of our language deficiencies we are going to bat against these countries
with one hand tied behind our back.
During the Subcommittee's recent trip to the Soviet Union and West Germany,
the delegation relied almost exclusively on the translation and interpretations of
the Soviets to conduct high level policy discussions. On one occasion, a high Soviet
official (who speaks and understands English very well) corrected the Russian
translator as he attempted to translate his statement into English. It is very likely
that this occurred when the same translator interpreted our remarks into Russian.
When the American Embassy in Tehran was taken, only six of our 52 hostages
could speak Farsi. When our Ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped and slain,
we could not negotiate with the kidnappers because none of our embassy personnel
could speak the local languages.
The State Department has 1,222 positions that have been identified as requiring
foreign language abililty, but as of this January only 67 percent of those positions
were adequately filled. The Department of Defense has more than 488,000 active
duty military personnel stationed overseas, but only 314 persons-less than one-
tenth of one percent-were classified by the military as linguists last year.
Our inability to communicate with the rest of the world has also hurt us economi-
cally. While the Germans and Japanese are feverishly learning new languages and
aggressively developing new markets, our businesses continue to take a "let them
learn English" attitude toward potential customers. Our trade deficit last year was
$20.3 billion. How much of that was caused by our refusal to learn other languages?
There are numerous examples of the linguistic blunders made by American
corporations when they attempted to sell overseas. "Come Alive with Pepsi" was
translated into German as, "Come Alive Out of the Grave." General Motors tried to
sell its Chevy II Nova in Puerto Rico and South America and didn't realize that "no
va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish.
But American corporations don't deserve all the blame for those blunders. Our
schools are not turning out graduates proficient in the languages of developing
nations, and the federal government is not doing enough to encourage schools to
offer comprehensive language programs.
The bill that is the focus of these hearings, H.R. 3231, would help elementary and
secondary school districts to establish model foreign language programs and would
provide foreign language grants to colleges and universities.
Today and tomorrow we will be hearing from representatives of the Defense
Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, business persons and educators. It
is my hope that their testimony will awaken Americans to the fact that, as one
writer put it, "What we don't know CAN hurt us."
Mr. SIMON. I want to also enter into the record statements from
two people who are not able to be here as witnesses, Wayne Freder-
icks, from the Ford Motor Co., and Bob Payton, from Exxon Educa-
tion Foundation.
[The letters referred to above follow:]
FORD MOTOR CO.,
New York, N. Y., May 28, 1981.
Congressman PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR PAUL: Many thanks for your invitation to testify before your committee on
foreign language instruction in this country.
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As you know from our service together on the President's commission, I feel
strongly about the inadequacies of foreign language competence among Americans.
After studying H.R. 3231 during the Memorial Day weekend, I do want you to
know that I personally support the objectives and program of the bill. Unfortunate-
ly, I will not be able to testify because of my travels. I depart this week for for
Nigeria and Europe and will not be back in this country for several weeks.
It was good to hear from you.
With best wishes,
Sincerely,
J. WAYNE FREDERICKS,
Executive Director.
International Governmental Affairs.
EXXON EDUCATION FOUNDATION,
New York, N. Y., July 2, 1981.
Mr. PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR PAUL: As it turns out, my prior commitment in New York will preclude my
participation in the hearings on the important issue of foreign language education.
From the vantage point of the private sector, there appears to be two outstanding
problems that inhibit progress: the first is the widespread skepticism in the business
community about the utility of foreign language education, compared to other
educational needs; the second is the fact that no philanthropic foundations or
corporate contributions programs have made foreign language education a major
area of attention. I'm pleased that Exxon Education Foundation has been able to
increase its support of international education, and to provide some important help
in foreign language study to John Rassias and Richard Lambert. But there needs to
be a much broader variety of support from the private sector if the consciousness of
the public sector is to be raised.
Your own special contributions to the field are widely recognized and deeply
appreciated by educators and others concerned about American competence in
world affairs. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
ROBERT L. PAYTON,
President.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Bailey, do you want to add anything before we
hear from the witnesses?
Mr. BAILEY. I think we should proceed with the witnesses.
Mr. SIMON. First let me call Mr. Erland C. Heginbotham, the
Director General of the Foreign Commercial Service, International
Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
I might add that the commercial attaches were switched recently
from the Department of State, the responsibility for them, to the
Department of Commerce, so we are interested in what you have to
say, Mr. Heginbotham.
STATEMENT OF ERLAND C. HEGINBOTHAM, DIRECTOR GENER-
AL, FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICE, INTERNATIONAL
TRADE ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. Thank you very much.
I would like to speak from a perspective of 25 years of personal
experience working in the foreign service in support of American
business activities and from 15 months of perspective as the head
of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service.
Certainly-my own personal experience and our experience with
the Commercial Service confirms generally the findings of the
Rand study concerning the problems of demand for language skills
from American business and from American Government.
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I think a contrast in country practices, to add to your list of
illustrations, is noteworthy.
By contrast with what the Rand study accurately points out as a
general indifference to hiring language skills for U.S. business in
Japan, a Japanese company recently brought in its new American
manager, provided the official with 6 months of overlap with his
predecessor in the United States, and had previously given him a
year of graduate MBA studies, as well as prior training in the
language.
The Japanese Diplomatic Corps provides in-depth college level
study at a local university in the country to which those officers
will subsequently be assigned, so that the contrast anecdotally
between American and Japanese companies in terms of their man-
agers ability to deal with the countries in which they are located is
very unfavorable to the United States.
The American company recourse is to hire foreign nationals
because it is cheaper and as we have seen in our own regular
Foreign Service, managers give less weight to language than to
other types of skills and experience.
For example, I have acquired from a Japanese linguist, with
extensive Ph. D. studies in Japanese and some business experience,
a list of recent graduates of 2 or 3 years ago and the difficulties
they have had acquiring employment with American firms.
The pattern is that those individuals with superb credentials
from the best institutions in the United States who have searched
for upwards of a year or more for employment with American
companies without success, and have taken jobs with Japanese
firms or foreign firms competing with American firms abroad.
The consequence is that both in our own Government foreign
services and in business the decisionmakers lack a real understand-
ing of what makes foreign markets different from the United
States and from each other. The loses to the United States in
balance of payment terms must indeed be very great.
U.S. Government language priorities are similarly low. In my
own case in the Foreign Service, not once in 25 years has the U.S.
Government suggested that I take language training in preparation
for a foreign assignment. I did acquire 2 weeks of language train-
ing prior to going abroad on assignment after threatening virtual
mayhem to get that kind of training. Yet the Peace Corps provides
language training for a 1 year tour abroad. The U.S. military of
course has the best program.
The Foreign Commercial Service would indeed like a higher
proportion of language skills in its service than is generally availa-
ble in the Foreign Service as a whole.
The need for us to know and understand in-depth the language
and culture and customs and business practices makes language a
prime requisite. Yet, given the lack of resources we have, it is
extremely difficult to make that priority effective.
I would like to point for just a moment to the costs-of our
inability to develop a sufficient demand for language skills.
The costs in business terms and, therefore, in strategic economic
terms are particularly high in the most exotic languages, such as
Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, and the Eastern European languages,
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where the number of nationals versed in English is particularly
low.
A second area that is of particular concern to me is the area of
technology frontiers. It is my belief that the United States is
within 5 years of determining whether or not it will remain a
? major industrial nation in the modern technologies.
The degree to which other nationalities are increasing, taking
the lead in those higher technology areas, is becoming dramatic.
Our ability as a Nation to keep in touch with those technological
leads through our own nationals becomes particularly critical.
We are now reaching the stage where the Japanese in particular
are developing technological leads. Without language and area ca-
pabilities to track those developments we face a severe disadvan-
tage. In some ways that is compounded by the fact that the Japa-
nese society and culture is a closed and very difficult society to
penetrate in terms of business practices. Yet ironically they pub-
lish even more prolifically than in the United States, so if we had
the language skills and the motivation, tracking those develop-
ments would be relatively easy.
Another area where we see dramatically on a daily basis the
hazards of dependence on foreign nationals for language skills
involves competing for government procurement abroad. With the
completion of the MTN agreement, now there is opportunity for
American firms to compete for more foreign government business.
Yet our inability to respond in the language in which bids are
invited and must be submitted is an important disincentive to our
ability to respond effectively and compete effectively.
I would like to point out some areas for remedying some of those
problems of inadequate demand for language skills.
In fact, government efforts to force-feed language development
could even aggravate the national disadvantage in languages,
unless attention is given first to remedying the obstacles to
demand.
I have seldom met a more disillusioned group of individuals than
skilled linguists with business background. The fact that they have
sought in vain for positions with American firms has led them to
feel that their education was misplaced, that they can only wind up
serving foreign nations, so unless we address this demand and
increase instead only the supply we are going to add to the disillu-
sion and, to the pool of linguists of whom foreign nationals can
take advantage of in improving their competitive position in the
4 United States.
It is my estimate on a brief survey in Japanese language skills,
for example, that only one out of six has been able to find employ-
ment with a U.S. employer.
Some of the structural factors in the weak private sector demand
are not adequately addressed by the Rand study. We cannot com-
pensate for the dollar devaluation when it had an impact, lower
productivity in the short term, and we can't compensate for the
low proportion of trade in the national economic activity.
In Europe, of course, exporting accounts for some 30-40 percent
of the total national economic activity and as a result the market
incentives and priorities for language are very high.
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By contrast the United States has given itself certain unique
disadvantages. For example, it has prevented the development of
one of the major institutions with a large-scale demand for lan-
guage and country studies. This is the institution of export trading
companies. Our customs or practices have prevented those from
developing, so that only 2 percent or less of U.S. manufacturers are
exported by those companies; it ranges from 30-45 percent for
other industrial countries.
The result is that until we have passed the necessary legislation
to permit the development of those companies, one of the major
market motivations is for the use and development of language
skills will not exist, because those companies thrive on in-depth
knowledge and understanding of foreign languages and cultures.
We are also unique in that we alone with Switzerland tax the
earnings of our citizens on income earned abroad, making the cost
of our nationals employed abroad uniquely great compared with
hiring of the foreign nationals.
The Rand study estimates 3 per 1,000 employees is the approxi-
mate ratio of American to foreign nationals serving in U.S. compa-
nies abroad. I would submit that that ratio would be substantially
higher if it had not been for the effects of the toughening of
taxation several years ago.
The cost to the U.S. balance of payments of resultant repatri-
ation of accumulated years of U.S. nationals experienced in foreign
languages and cultures was tremendous and the demoralizing
effect on the demand for languages must indeed have been substan-
tial.
Finally, we have a unique additional factor which mitigates
against investment in language skills by the major sources of
demand, and that is the high dependence the country has on equity
capital. This forces an acute overbalance of attention on short-term
profit and loss, and when you are concerned with short-term prof-
its, you don't invest 1, 2, 3 years in language training for your
employees.
Among our foreign competitors the emphasis is much more on
building market shares, building long-term capabilities to pene-
trate the market. That difference in emphasis deriving from the
financial structure, I believe, is a major factor in our lack of
interest in acquiring language skills for U.S. nationals in business
activities abroad.
So my own view would be that probably the most cost-effective
way of increasing language skills in the United States would be to
attack first some factors which inhibit the market demand and
market rewards for such skills. If there were more language em-
phasis in business, there would also be more emphasis on govern-
ment as well in acquiring the language skills to support American
business.
I hope that the committee will give attention and support to:
First, legislation fostering formation of trading companies; second,
liberalization of taxes on overseas income which create artificial
discentives to hiring Americans with language skills, and third,
encouragement of greater use of language skills in such other
business areas as tourism where government service is also in-
volved in assisting business.
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The Foreign Commercial Service as a source of demand is an
infinitesimal factor in the marketplace, but we reflect in major
respects ways in which language disabilities of the American econ-
omy are an important factor in our difficulties in competing
abroad.
The subcommittee's attentions are in an exceptionally important
cause, and I would encourage the members to give early and high
priority to attacking problems of the weak demand as the most
cost-effective approach to this problem.
Thank you.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much.
Simply to bear out one of your assertions, I jotted down an
illustration told to me here a few weeks ago.
Firestone made a major error because Michelin printed in a
French technical journal why a certain process had fundamental
flaws in producing radial tires. Unfortunately, no one in Firestone
read the French technical journal, and we lost millions of dollars
in the process.
You frequently used Japan as an illustration. It is interesting,
because often people say, well, we don't learn another language
because we are isolated. We are not as isolated in reality as Japan
is.
Let me touch on a few other things in your testimony. What I
was interested in is where you say you were in the Foreign Service
for 25 years and at no point were you encouraged to take any full-
time language study.
Did I hear correctly?
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. Unfortunately, sir, that reflects the fact that
both Mr. Boeker and I were in the economic area where there was
a general shortage of officers. As a result, I think we probably both
found in our careers that there was much more emphasis in our
getting out to posts to fill an immediate vacancy than there was on
doing language studies.
I learned the local language, but mainly in after-hours work on
my own, usually without Department funding. In fact, I don't think
I ever had Department funding and just studied on my own. It
reflects exactly what is reflected in business. The generalist's skills
command a higher premium and are given higher attention.
Mr. SIMON. You mentioned this difficulty of people who have
skills finding jobs and yet at the same time I get letters from
companies saying we can't find anyone who speaks or can trans-
late, whatever the language might be.
Is there a possibility the Commerce Department could set up a
skills bank for business, just a computer where you feed in the
demand as well as the potential?
Has that been considered at all, and I might preface it by saying
my reason for mentioning this, I have an amendment I am going to
offer to your appropriation requesting such a study by the Com-
merce Department.
Has that been looked at at all?
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. Not that I am aware of. It is an intriguing
idea, because your point is well taken. There are certain languages
where there are probably surpluses and others where there may be
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a total absence, so some sort of a clearinghouse of information
would be immensely useful.
I am not sure what the right governmental agency for that
would be, but certainly there is a definite role for a clearinghouse.
It might well be a joint government/private sector undertaking.
Mr. SIMON. I don't know what the right answer is either.
What are you doing in the area of commercial attaches on this
question?
Are you getting us moving in the right direction?
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. Well, sir, this is a difficult thing for us to
deal with. We have increased the number of language designated
positions compared to what they were upon our assumption of
those positions from the State Department.
The difficulty is that we are so severely understaffed. There was
a 21-percent reduction in the number of commercial positions over-
seas in the 5 years before the FCS began operations. The result is
that we are pushed ever more into gaps between assignments and
difficulties just filling the jobs that we have available, so we have
tried to do a number of things which are really secondary in
impact to improve our language capabilities.
We have lengthened tours. It sounds unrelated to language skill,
but it is an important factor. If a person is on an 18-month tour
and knows a language, it usually takes an officer a year to develop
enough contacts to be really conversant and effective in an econo-
my. Usually your last 6 months are preoccupied with getting ready
to leave so you count that out. Thus in an 18-month tour you get
zero effectiveness out of an officer.
In a 2-year tour you get 6 months. In a 3-year tour you get a
tripling, to 18 months of effective time. We have increased our
standard length of tour to 4 years with a preferable 5 wherever
possible. The result is, by that process alone, multiplying many fold
the language effectiveness of our officers.
Secondly, the State Department has had in the past to worry
about "clientitis" in the sense if they have an officer too long in a
post he might develop an undue affection for the local country. Our
"clientitis" is not a danger. Our client is the business community,
and we cannot be too familiar with it.
For example, we have an officer in Japan who is expert in the
language, culture, and economy. We have an informal pact with
him that he may spend the rest of his career in Japan if he chooses
to do so. We can encourage that kind of country, and language
specialization without the disadvantage that might occur the diplo-
matic or in intelligence services.
Thirdly, we are trying to recruit for language skills but, once
again, there are quite a number of people we have looked at who
have superb language skills but not an adequate mix of business
skills. We need to stress the commercial skills very heavily also.
We also have nine positions in which we can provide long-term
language training. That in a corps of 162 officers is relatively small
proportion.
In sum, we have made a cut at the problem but we are really not
satisfied that we have the resources or answers to develop the
degree of language and country expertise we would like.
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Mr. SIMON. The one point you mentioned is one that the higher
education community has to consider, and that is our language
training has tended to be literature-oriented, preparing language
teachers rather than having MBA's who are also skilled in Japa-
nese or whatever it might be.
You mentioned that 9 of 166 positions, can you go over that
again?
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. Yes, sir. When you take an officer from a
position abroad you can't encumber that position for a year while
the officer takes language training, so separate positions have to be
set up as training positions.
For example, you take an officer from Africa who is going to a
Latin America assignment, bring him back to the United States for
a year of-well, in Latin America you wouldn't need it-but China,
a year of "hard language study. We use fully the facilities of FSI in
language and area studies.
Mr. SIMON. You mentioned one other thing and that is that you
increase the number of language designated positions.
Why did you do that?
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. The purpose was to give greater incentive
and to place greater emphasis on language skills for selecting jobs.
The Foreign Commercial Service has something between a twenti-
eth to a fortieth of the "manpower"-you will take that in a non-
sexist sense-available to other competing foreign commercial serv-
ices. As a result we have to be highly effective. What we do in
language and country skills are critically important to that effec-
tiveness. So we have to compensate for our comparative disadvan-
tage in numbers by increased skill and effectiveness, and in that
respect language emphasis is more important for us by a consider-
able margin than for the general foreign service.
Mr. SIMON. I thank you very, very much.
I would like to keep the record open. We may want to submit
some additional questions to you.
We thank you for your testimony, and I appreciate your attitude
and your interest in this area.
Mr. HEGINBOTHAM. It is a great pleasure. I wonder if I could
submit for the record a letter I received from one of our Japanese
linguists, entitled, "Language-Trained Horror Stories by the
Apathy of U.S. Multi-Nationals."
It is a great title which I did not suggest. That might be of
interest because it gives a number of case illustrations of people
having difficulty placing their language skills with U.S. companies.
? [The letter referred to above follows:]
JULY 10, 1981.
Mr. ERLAND HEGINBOTHAM,
International Trade Administration,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR ERLAND: Enclosed per your request is: "Language-Trained Horror Stories by
the Apathy of U.S. Multi-Nationals.
Laurence Bresler-Ph. D. East Asian Studies-Columbia University MBA The
Wharton School, University of PA. 3 years in Japan-fluent Japanese and Italian,
reads French and Chinese In 9 months of intense looking, two serious job offers-
Mitsubishi International and Bank of Montreal. He now is stationed in Tokyo with
the Bank of Montreal.
Patrick Tray-MBA University of Pittsburgh Ma East Asian Studies, University
of PA Ba Sophia University, Tokyo 6 years in Japan Fluent Japanese; French After
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EDWARD O'BRIEN,
Government and Industry
Relations Administrator.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much. We appreciate that.
We just returned from a trip from the Soviet Union where one
translator, and those little things become very important, translat-
ed ballet dancers as "belly" dancers. The word differentiation is
very small but it makes a great deal of difference culturally.
Thank you very much.
I am going to ask Ambassador Boeker, who is the Director of the
Foreign Service Institute, to be our next witness, and if you don't
mind, Elliot Richardson is supposed to be here and he is on a tight
schedule, and we may interrupt your testimony to hear from him.
Forgive us for that kind of discourtesy here.
It is a pleasure to welcome Ambassador Boeker. I had the privi-
lege of visiting the Foreign Service Institute finally the other day
after hearing about it and reading about it for a long time.
It is a pleasure to welcome you here.
13 months of job search with over 100 U.S. firms; interviewing, accepted a position
with the Philadelphia National Bank-domestic section.
Edward O'Brien-MA East Asian Studies Language-trained in Japanese by the
Defense Language Institute, Monterey. 3 years in Japan. After 12 months search
with every major U.S. firm, selected position with Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. over
an offer from the Embassy of Japan.
Leslie Latham-MA East Asian Studies, Howard University 2 years in Japan.
Fluent in Japanese. Works for Sony Corporation in N.Y.C.
Mary Numata-2 years in Japan Married to a Japanese. Speaks fluent Japanese.
Works for Tokyo Electric Company in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Edward Lincoln-Ph. D. Economy, Yale University. Speaks fluent Japanese.
Vice President-Japan Economic Institute
Ms. Judy Welsh Sloan-MA East Asian Studies, Standford University Works for
the Asia Society, Washington, D.C.
Sincerely,
STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR PAUL BOEKER, DIRECTOR,
FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE, DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ambassador BOEKER. At the outset, I would like to commend you
and your subcommittee for your efforts in bringing to the attention
of the country the serious problem of our Nation's faulty capability
in the area of foreign languages.
Mr. SIMON. Before you get started, I see Ambassador Richardson
coming in.
I told Mr. Boeker that you were on a tight schedule, Mr. Richard-
son, and we would interrupt him, and he was just about to get
started, so we are very pleased to welcome you here.
Ambassador Richardson has served in a great variety of func-
tions. You have probably served as many prestigious positions as
almost anyone I can think of, including the very courageous service
as Attorney General. But you have also worked in the internation-
al arena, the law of the sea, among other things, and we would
appreciate having your insights here today.
You may proceed in any way you may desire.
STATEMENT OF ELLIOT RICHARDSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR
AT LARGE
Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
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I am delighted to be here, particularly on such an important
issue as the one you have raised with respect to the teaching of
foreign languages.
Mr. SIMON. We think it is important and it is not one that has a
great deal of sex appeal and growing a lot of interest to a lot of
people, but is vital to the future of the Nation.
We can hear your testimony if you wish to enter it in the record
or read it, however you wish to proceed, Mr. Richardson.
Mr. RICHARDSON. I would be glad to enter it into the record and
to touch on a few of the highlights now orally.
Mr. SIMON. Why don't you do that.
Mr. RICHARDSON. With the thought that we could then develop
any points that seemed of interest to you.
First of all, there is really nothing I can add to the very thor-
ough and eloquent diagnosis of the problem that you yourself have
already furnished through your various writings on the subject of
the inadequacy of our present foreign language capabilities and the
need for more adequate and more widespread teaching, and so on
that score I would simply wish to be understood as fully endorsing
your findings.
I could only add from a background of personal experience that
it seems to me important to look at the need for language capabili-
ties on two dimensions. The first is in the context of the actual
business, diplomatic, economic, and military that is conducted by
the United States around the world under circumstances of ever-
increasing interdependence between the United States and people
using other languages.
On that plan, the need clearly is for mastery of languages and
particularly for emphasis on languages that are often not taught
and not taught widely enough.
It is obviously no substitute for being able to speak Indonesian,
to have a good command of Japanese or French, and we do need
people to deal with individuals in that very populous and imporant
country.
The need is for making more widely available opportunities to
learn those less frequently taught languages, and your bill properly
focuses on the need for encouraging that objective.
On a second plane, there is the use of languages that American
citizens generally may have occasion to use as they travel abroad
and have contacts with other people.
Here I think the need is less for the mastery required for eco-
nomic business or diplomatic purposes as it is for a degree of
familiarity with foreign languages that encourages people to seek
to pick up what they can when they can in circumstances where
they are in another country or relating to people from another
culture.
As you have appropriately pointed out, Mr. Chairman, a lan-
guage is a profound form of expressing the individuality of culture,
and there is no higher compliment one can pay to a person from
another culture than to show respect for their language by the
effort to use it, even though this may fall short of the perfection
that would have been needed in a business situation.
Beyond this, Mr. Chairman, I touch on a point which I am bound
to do. I don't know how well recognized but my longstanding advo-
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cacy of block grants, and that is that there needs to be in my view
understood the proposition that those block grants that have
served their original purpose, and have merely contributed to in-
creasing the clutter of competing, matching grant opportunities
from the standpoint of the educational administrator or the admin-
istrator of some office service, ought to give way to, first of all, a
kind of clearance process designed to shrink down their number
and then to the understanding that there ought to be a kind of
last-in, first-out approach maintaining the, more or less, distin-
guishing categorical grants to be responsive to the most urgent
needs from a national perspective.
And so I don't think that the block grant approach, on the one
hand, should be seen as an approach carrying with it the condem-
nation of any and all categorical grants, but I see it as a step
toward simplification of the existing excess, the pruning away of
that excess, in order then to leave room for a selected number of
categorical approaches to crticially important needs.
Given that approach, I would see the categorical program that
you have described as deserving to be among those programs in a
much reduced list, with the idea that then at a later date, 5, 10, or
15 years or periodically, we would look over the roster of categori-
cal programs and decide which ones of them had sufficiently served
a stimulatory purpose so that they could be dropped or folded into
a block grant approach and which new claims and Federal leader-
ship would justify adding a program in a new area.
I had some question, Mr. Chairman, with respect to the degree to
which this program as drafted would have a stimulatory approach,
particularly in the case of that part of it which provides for a per
capita amount for students enrolled in excess of 5 percent of the
existing enrollment.
Here, as I read it, there is either on the one hand no specific
device to expand teaching to the extent that an institution could
qualify on the basis of any numbers of students enrolled is already
above 5 percent, or it relies wholly on the ability of the Secretary
to stimulate the institution into doing more through the manner in
which standards are established and administered.
The latter is, or the former seems to me a little too loose, and the
latter could be subject to abuse, and so I would simply flag this as a
question that might be looked at further in the context of the final
drafting of the bill itself.
These are basically my comments, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared testimony of Elliot Richardson follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR AT LARGE
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to have the opportunity to express my support for
the goals of this legislation. The decline of foreign language instruction at every
level of our school system and the increasing scarcity of Americans able to commu-
nicate in any language other than their own is a serious problem that affects our
national security and economic growth. I support your efforts for these very tangi-
ble reasons and because I think that an increase in the number of foreign language
students would be very much in our national interest.
As United States contact with the rest of the world increases, our trade and
diplomatic ties with other nations become more complex. To be truly effective in
promoting our interests, international businessmen and diplomats should speak the
native tongue of the countries with which they work. But even those Americans
without a professional or vocational need for foreign language training would bene-
fit from an increased understanding of another culture.
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When I travel in another country for any length of time, I always try to learn as
much of its language as I can. Just being able to speak a few sentences in the
language of your host country is a compliment and a gesture of goodwill. The Ugly
American is a symbol of a culture which assumes that it is superior and does not
even attempt to understand or assimilate any other civilization. While English is
spoken all over the world and most Americans abroad can use it to convey their
basic needs and ideas, it cannot help us to appreciate fully the social mores and
philosophy of another land. What does it matter that the United States can make
its positions and ideas understood to the rest of the world if the world does not
believe we have an interest in hearing their ideas in return? Our lack of foreign
language students and speakers has a tremendous psychological and symbolic effect,
as well as a practical impact, on our dealings with other nations.
I applaud your initiative, Mr. Chairman, in taking this step towards opening the
minds of Americans to other languages and cultures. I am bound to say, however,
that I have a reservation about the fact that we would be adding to an endless
accumulation of categorical grants. A given number of such programs can effective-
ly promote specific national priorities but, as their number increases, we reach a
point where state and local administrators may select from an overly large bunch of
Federal carrots only those categorical grants which feed the activities which they
would have undertaken without any special inducement.
I think that this saturation point was reached long ago. To justify any new
categorical program we must first reduce the number of grants to an effective level.
This is the fundamental justification of the block grant proposal that has been
advanced by President Reagan. Given a limited total of programs addressing critical
national priorities, it would then be appropriate to include this one among them. To
keep this system efficient, any newly emergent need would have to displace an
established program. Adding this foreign language education incentive to the exces-
sive number of existing grants would be a disservice to your program, Mr. Chair-
man, and would render it unproductive.
While I support wholeheartedly the aims behind H.R. 3231, I feel I must question
certain provisions which might restrain or diffuse its effectiveness. For instance, if I
read Section 3 correctly, it occurs to me that any university with over 5 percent of
its students already enrolled in foreign language classes would qualify for a grant
without further action. Authorizing the Secretary of Education to establish addition-
al standards could eliminate abuse of the provision but, in general, I feel the bill
gives him overly broad discretionary powers. I also wonder whether requiring each
student at a university to devote one eighth of his curriculum to foreign language
studies is not too strenuous a condition for a federal grant. It could be seen as a
restraint upon the academic freedom of our educational system. My final concern is
that the financial incentives for increasing the study of less commonly taught
foreign languages are not sufficient to encourage raising student participation past
a level at which the university would need additional faculty or facilities to meet
the demand.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting me to share with you and your distin-
guished colleagues my views on this issue. I hope that your efforts to give our
country a better chance at communicating with the rest of the world are as success-
ful as our need is great.
Mr. SIMON. I appreciate them very much.
As many titles as you have had, I don't know whether to address
you as Mr. Secretary, Mr. Ambassador, which do you prefer?
Mr. RICHARDSON. I answer to any one of them, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Richardson will do all right.
Mr. SIMON. I have a sensitivity to the categorical proliferation
problem. I serve on the Budget Committee, in addition to being on
the Education and Labor Committee.
I have to say I could not find any other practicable way of
stimulating our schools to move in this direction other than the
categorical approach.
That is why I somewhat reluctantly moved in this direction.
Mr. RICHARDSON. I would agree with that, Mr. Chairman. If you
take it as is given that a problem for which primary responsibility
is vested in State and local agencies is nevertheless of sufficient
national concern, so that it is important to stimulate a greater
response to that problem than would otherwise occur.
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You have no real alternative to some form of Federal financial
encouragement, whether through a demonstration project grant,
which is essentially what your elementary and secondary schools
part of the bill would provide, or categorical grant, and I think it is
a mistake.
I hope I have already indicated this, to use the undesirable
consequences of the proliferation of categorical grants as a basis for
condemning any and all categorical grants.
The problem with what we have now is that there has been such
an excess that the stimulatory purpose intended is no longer effec-
tively served because you are dangling, as I say in my testimony,
such a language bunch of carrots in front of the State or local
administrators, that they respond only to the carrots that are of
interest to them already.
The result is, therefore, while you have accomplished a resource
transfer at great expense, you have not stimulated any action that
would not have occurred anyway. This is in my view a fundamen-
tal reason why the number should be cut down in order, therefore,
then to make it possible for the holding out of a specific incentive
to have a specific response that would not otherwise have occurred.
Mr. SIMON. I concur in that general approach, and that is what
we are aiming for here.
The 5-percent figure you mentioned, frankly, was put in there
primarily for the community colleges. We face a problem, if you
were to exclude the community colleges, there is no reason we
cannot simply say the colleges and universities that require lan-
guages either for entrance or for graduation, will get this categori-
cal assistance, period. But what you do then is you almost com-
pletely exclude the community colleges.
I am not at all wedded to this particular formula and if someone,
either one of the witnesses or anyone else, can come up with a
better approach to how we encourage community colleges, I would
welcome that. But that is the reason for that particular provision.
It is one that does offer something of a carrot to the community
colleges.
Mr. RICHARDSON. My problem with this, Mr. Chairman, was not
that it sets the level too low, but that it does not on its face embody
a stimulatory device.
If, for example, before enactment of this legislation, the commu-
nity college or other postsecondary insitutiton happened to have an
enrollment' in some kind of language course of 90 percent of its
students, 4 percent of the enrollment would qualify for this per
capita grant, and they would continue to get it without having
done any more by way of language teaching than they were al-
ready doing, so the question I was raising really is, how do you use
this money in a manner that is more sharply directed at getting a
response that wouldn't otherwise occur?
Could you, for example, increase the amount of money per
capita, but aim it only at or largely at, say, the numbers of stu-
dents enrolled in language courses above the number enrolled in a
base year?
Mr. SIMON. There may be some formula like that we can devise.
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We face the general situation in community colleges which is not
very encouraging, one out of five community colleges offer no
foreign languages whatsoever.
There are, in fact, very few now that reach the 5-percent figure.
Digressing from the community colleges, we have State universi-
ties that offer no foreign language, including one in the State of
Illinois which I find an incredible kind of a thing.
I am joined by the ranking minority of this subcommittee.
Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you Mr. Ambassador; it may be that we
will have to work to keep _5 percent.
Recently on a trip to the Soviet Union, we had the opportunity of
'visiting a foreign language institute, and I asked the people there,
the Soviets, how they interpreted our lack of willingness to learn a
foreign language and lack of understanding foreign languages and
so forth, and I asked them to be candid and their response was,
well, it may just show that you are not interested, and I think, as
you well know, in the positions that you have held, it may be
perceived overseas and elsewhere that the United States and the
people of our country are not as interested as others, if we don't
devote our resources and talents toward learning other languages
and other cultures and I find that opposite to what a great number
of people in this country do feel.
If we don't show it in our tangible evidence, it is going to be very
difficult for us to overcome that psychological hurdle.
I appreciate your coming today, and your testimony and find it
very worthwhile.
Mr. SIMON. If I can add one comment to my colleague's state-
ment, one of the interesting things was to learn right now you get
a choice of starting a foreign language either in the first or the
fourth grade, depending on where you live, but starting in the
1.990's, everyone will start getting a foreign language in the first
grade, and we are not quite to that point in the United States, to
put it mildly.
Mr. RICHARDSON. In fairness to Americans, there is a major
difference between the situation in the Soviet Union and the situa-
tion in the United States, as a consequence of, in large measure, of
the colonizing activities in Great Britain in the 17th, 18th, and
1.9th centuries.
I have been serving as the head of the U.S. delegation of the Law
of the Sea Conference, and this is the largest conference ever held
in terms of national representation, and indeed, perhaps numbers
of delegates as well.
We have had up to 160 countries represented which is just about
all there are, and even little countries like Andora and San
Marino, Holy See, spelled S-e-e, I just felt it had oceanic interest.
It is interesting in that conference, although the formal proceed-
ings are conducted in the six recognized United Nations languages
with simultaneous translations, all the serious negotiations have to
take place in English, because English is the common denominator;
and if the Russians in that situation didn't know and use English,
they would be out of it; whereas, we of course, already using
English, are able to get along all right without having to rely on
another language, and this is so far true, that it tends to operate as
a disincentive which is why I distinguished earlier in my testimony
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between the importance of mastery of language, including many
different languages for people who will be part of the whole U.S.
extension of its economic, diplomatic activity around the world.
The problem here is that if what you need to do is to speak Thai,
for example, and there are people in our Embassy in Washington,
and people representing U.S. multinational corporations in Bang-
kok who should be in a position to speak Thai, but it will not, it
does not teach them Thai to have started to learn Spanish, let's
say, in the third grade, but it does, at least, to have started a
language creates a different psychological attitude toward the proc-
essing of learning another language.
I am personally, for example, although I come closest to speaking
French with any fluency, and I have at one time or another studied
German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, I guess that is about it.
I don't speak any of them really at all fluently but come close in
Spanish, but I have the feeling it would be relatively easy for me to
learn any of those languages in a few weeks in a situation where I
needed to know them and I have that feeling largely because I
have at least had enough exposure early in life to the process of
learning languages so that it does not intimidate me and the
adaption of my tongue and the creation of a "foreign" sound does
not seem to me to be an insurmountable task, and it would seem to
me this at least is the kind of foundation that would be valuable
for the first purpose I mentioned earlier, and it would be relevant
also to the second one, that is, the general cultural respect, and
that is an early appreciation of any foreign language helps to give
insight into the inseparable role of language as the expression of
cultural uniqueness.
Mr. SIMON. We thank you very much, Mr. Richardson, for being
here and for your testimony, and for your public service.
Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. May I
thank you as a citizen for leadership you and your colleagues on
this subcommittee are showing in a matter of such national
urgency.
Thank you very much.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you. Ambassador Boeker, we thank you for
letting us interrupt your testimony there. You were just about to
begin.
Ambassador BOEKER. Well, with your permission, Mr. Chairman,
I could just as easily review some of the highlights of my state-
ment.
Mr. SIMON. Enter your full statement in the record at this point,
and you can review some of the highlights.
[The prepared statement of Paul H. Boeker follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PAUL H. BOEKER, DIRECTOR, FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE,
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Mr. Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to speak about foreign language train-
ing and its importance to the U.S. Foreign Service. As others have, I want to
commend the role you are playing in bringing the issue of our country's capabilities
in foreign languages to the attention of the nation through your writing and other
initiatives, including these hearings.
The U.S. Foreign Service has a variety of difficult jobs to carry out overseas. Our
political officers need a deep understanding of the currents of change in the host
country's society. Commercial officers have to develop opportunities to promote U.S.
trade. Military attaches must be intimately familiar with the operational effective-
ness as well as the political mood of the local military. Public affairs officers need to
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be particularly persuasive in presenting American policies and accomplishments in
ways that engage the attention and understanding of foreign audiences. A skill that
all these officers need if they are to master their jobs is the ability to communicate
effectively with the people with whom they deal. In the vast majority of embassies
and consulates, this means doing so in a foreign language.
In my own overseas assignments, I have seen how the performance of our diplo-
mats is directly related to their capability in using the local language. I would make
the same observation about Americans who represent the private sector abroad.
I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the American educational system has not
done an adequate job in preparing our citizens to work with foreign languages
abroad either in government or in business. Even among those students oriented
toward careers in foreign affairs, language competence is limited. Over the last 20
years the percentage of new Foreign Service officer candidates with a professional
level of competence in a foreign language has averaged about 25 percent. This
limited base has put a heavy responsibility on the Foreign Service Institute to
provide the necessary training and imposed a significant additional cost on the
Department. It takes $10,000 in instructional cost to train a U.S. Government
employee for 44 weeks in an intensive language course at the Foreign Service
Institute-plus the employee's salary for the period which is also a training cost.
The Department of State has made a major investment over the past 20 years in
providing in-service language training to its personnel. Out of a total of 3,681
Foreign Service officers, 2,820 have a professional level of competence in at least
one language (in other words about 77 percent). Of these, 911 have such competence
in two languages; 263 in three; 81 in four. Moreover, before a junior Foreign Service
officer can receive career tenure, he must now achieve professional competence in
at least one language.
To encourage candidates with language backgrounds to apply for the Foreign
Service, new members of the Service who bring professional level competence with
them receive additional pay. In addition, officers in Service who can speak lan-
guages for which there is a critical requirement, receive pay incentives when they
achieve certain levels of proficiency. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 improves these
incentives, which in some cases will reach 15 percent of base pay. The Department
is also at work to implement Section 2207 of the Foregin Service Act, which
provides for the designation of model foreign language competence posts. At our
posts in the field, nearly 6,000 U.S. Government employees are studying local
languages on a part-time basis.
I believe the Foreign Service Institute has a clear record of accomplishment in
language training, but we intend to enhance this record in the future. At the
Institute we are working both to improve the quality of language training and to
provide it to more U.S. employees. We have undertaken a successful effort to
integrate more effectively the language studies of our students with an improved
curriculum in area studies. Our aim is to provide U.S. Government employees going
abroad with the linguistic and substantive tools to do their jobs.
We are also applying the concept of training for specific job needs to our full-
length language courses, which range in length from 5 months to 2 years. This is
being done by introducing in the courses exercises which simulate accurately the
work problems that employees will need to solve overseas by using the local lan-
guage. In preparing these exercises, we are developing key skills such as the ability
to present a U.S. position on an issue, interview for information, rebut criticism and
persuade a foregin official. I believe that these simulation exercises, which will be
introduced during the 1981-82 school year, will represent a signifcant improvement
in the quality of FSI language training. I also believe that training in specific job-
relevant language skills is a concept that should have wide appeal to the U.S.
business and academic communities.
Another important new program now underway consists of short-term language
courses ("FAST" courses we call them) designed to meet the needs of employees
whose overseas jos do not require a full professional level of fluency, but whose
work effectiveness and morale would be improved by a basic functional knowledge
of the local language. These courses are also designed for the language needs of
family members. This is a critical area, since a rewarding experience in living
abroad for family members can make a profound difference in the performance of
the employee. We now have language courses of 6 to 10 weeks duration in 14 of the
most widely spoken languages. These courses prepare students for the specific work,
logistical, and social situations they will neet overseas. Enrollments in these short
courses have been high, and student response has been very enthusiastic. We plan
to expand this program to include other languages and expect to use it to achieve
over time a significant increase in the number of U.S. personnel overseas with basic
foreign language facility.
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In this connection, I want to mention that many of FSI's language teaching
materials are available to the public through the Government Printing Office and
the National Audio-Visual Center at a modest cost. We believe that these represent
a significant resource which the nation's schools and colleges can draw on now in
their language programs. As we develop new materials, as we are now doing with
the new generation of FAST courses, we intend to assure that the results of this
development work are also available to the public. FSI is also making a contribution
to the academic community's language training efforts in the field of testing and
rating language proficiency. The testing system for measuring speaking competence
that FSI has developed is now widely used in colleges and schools.
The Foreign Service Institute's job is different from that of the schools addressed
by H.R. 3231. Nevertheless, our experience provides some relevant conclusions. Our
objective is teaching language as a capacity to communicate, not as a branch of
literature or any particular discipline or field of study. We are continually working
to provide this communicative capability in the most compact course possible. It
seems to me that postsecondary schools in particular should provide a similar
version of foreign language training if it is to be available to those preparing for a
great variety of professions, with limited time available to acquire the additional
skill of a competence in a foreign language. Several semesters of grammar and
reading before something called "conversation" begins are not very attractive to,
say, a business degree candidate who would like to augment a nearly full course
"load" in this field with some competence in, say, Spanish or French.
In general we have found that quality of instruction, over the 45 languages we
teach, is the most difficult problem and the one most important to maintaining high
student motivation and achievement. The Institute, therefore, has devoted a great
deal of its effort to the essentials of maintaining high quality of instruction. Good
instructors, adequately compensated, continuing training for instructors, continual
development of imaginative new materials and rigid testing of student achievement
as a control on individual course quality are the critical elements of our program.
We have this past year, for example, significantly increased our investment in
training of our instructors, and we believe the results are already apparent. Lan-
guage programs in schools face the same problem of maintaining quality instruction
so that students' motivation and interest are engaged and they are brought as
quickly as possible to the capacity to communicate that makes the language learn-
ing experience enjoyable and worthwhile in educational and professional terms.
I know that this aspect of the problem will be part of the Subcommittee's consid-
erations.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ambassador BOEKER. Even in the highlights, I have to repeat by
tribute to you. Mr. Chairman, because I think it is a sometimes
lonely, but hopefully not always so, service that you and the sub-
committee are performing in bringing this issue to the attention of
our Nation.
I would like to talk a bit about how our Nation's faulty capabili-
ties in foreign language impact upon the U.S. Foreign Service and
its mission.
People in the U.S. Foreign Service have a great variety of jobs to
do. They are called upon to be people of all times and seasons, but
a common element of everything that they do is the need to com-
municate effectively with the people around the world. In the vast
majority of our missions overseas, that means doing so in a foreign
language.
Our experience is such that we have to agree with your general
conclusion, Mr. Chairman, that the American educational system
has not done an adequate job in preparing our citizens to work in
foreign languages aboard, whether in the Government or in the
business sector.
In the U. S. Foreign Service, we see this most dramatically in
the people coming into the Service, and the foreign language capa-
bilities they bring with them.
These capabilities have varied little over the years. We find that
only 25 percent of the people entering the U.S. Foreign Service
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have a professional level of competence in any foreign language.
This limited starting base for our diplomatic service places a very
heavy responsibility on the Foreign Affairs agencies and the For-
eign Service Institute to provide the necessary training to our
people to carry out their jobs. Also it imposes a very significant
cost on the U.S. Government.
The primary cost of training is personnel time. It means you
need higher employment levels and the positions to provide train-
ing, as well as to staff all of your working jobs at home and abroad.
Therefore, it becomes especially difficult to increase that personnel
investment at a time when your overall work force is stagnant or
declining.
The Department of State has made a major investment in provid-
ing in-service language training to its personnel over the last two
decades. Of a total of 3,700 Foreign Service officers, about 2,800 of
them have a professional level of competence in at least one lan-
guage, and many of them have that level of competence in several
languages.
In addition to trying to create a system that over time signifi-
cantly upgrades our capabilities, we have made it a requirement
that junior officers must achieve professional level of competence
on one language before they can be tenured as Foreign Service
officers.
We have established the system of language-designated positions
in our posts abroad as a systematic guide to our language require-
ments overseas. Also we are significantly increasing our invest-
ment in training time.
In the 2 coming fiscal years, we expect to increase our overall
personnel investment in training substantially and by about 30
percent in language training alone.
To encourage candidates with language backgrounds to apply for
the Foreign Service, new members of the Service who bring a
professional level of competence in foreign language with them
receive additional starting pay. Second, officers once in the Service,
who have a professional level of competence in certain critical
languages which are in short supply receive pay incentives for
having that particular skill. Under the Foreign Service Act of 1980,
the amount of those incentives has been increased.
At the Foreign Serice Institute, we have approximately 2,000
U.S. Government employees annually studying foreign languages.
Under our programs, we also finance continuing foreign language
study at posts overseas for an additional 6,000 U.S. Government
employees each year.
Our major effort currently is to increase the quality of our
training programs and provide them to more U.S. Government
employees. In our full-length language courses our overriding objec-
tive is to enhance training for specific jobs needs. Our major new
vehicle for doing this is that of introducing into all our courses
exercises that depart considerably from the classic textbook, tape,
and grammar drill experience.
These excerise will put people through role plays that accurately
reproduce the kinds of work problems that they will need to con-
front and solve overseas in the local language. From now on, in all
of our language courses, U.S. Government employees preparing to
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go overseas or to acquire a professional level of competence in a
language will go through exercises in which they will have to make
representations of U.S. positions, persuade people to change their
mind, interview people for set pieces of information, or simply try
to convey certain specific points which they know, but their listen-
er does not.
This kind of demanding, simulated professional exercise should
significantly increase the capabilities of our people to communicate
and carry out professional tasks in foreign languages.
A second program we now have underway consists of a whole
series of short-term language courses-FAST courses, we call
them-which are designed to meet the needs of employees whose
work effectiveness and morale would be significantly improved by
a basic functional knowledge of the local language.
We think these courses will be ideal for employees going to
positions overseas which are not necessarily language-designated at
a high professional level, but for which they will require some
language proficiency; the courses are also ideal for a number of
support staff members and for family members.
These courses range up to 10 weeks in length, and we now have
them to cover the 14 most widely spoken languages in the world.
We expect to expand that over the coming years to cover perhaps
twice that many.
These courses are based on learning by going through situations,
that people will confront in their life and work overseas.
They are rather dramatically different kinds of courses-with
much less emphasis on structure and much more on actually trying
to cope with specific situations that people face in living and work-
ing overseas.
We have run these courses several times this year and reviews
from them are quite enthusiastic. We expect to use them over the
coming years to achieve a very significant increase in the number
of U.S. Government employees we send overseas annually who
have a working facility in the language of the country of their
assignment.
Many of the materials that the Foreign Service Institute has
developed over the last 25 years in its work on language teaching
are available to the public at a very modest cost through the
Government Printing Office for books and through the National
Audiovisual Center for tapes. It is our belief that these materials
represent a very significant resource for the Nation's schools and
colleges.
As we continue with our new materials and, in particular, the
new generation of FAST courses that we are developing right now,
we intend to assure that the results of this development work are
also available to the public at modest cost.
Another aspect of our work that has already been used widely in
the academic community is the Foreign Service Institute's testing
and rating of proficiency in foreign languages. It is a widely accept-
ed system, and is used by a number of schools to assure that people
get accreditation for language communications facility actually ac-
quired, no matter how many hours they spent in the classroom. It
can be used to significantly upgrade the rewards that one gets for a
year of study overseas because coming back and testing for your
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proficiency in a language, you can get a number of credit hours for
that facility in addition to the credit hours you receive for your
actual study in the classroom.
The job of the Foreign Service Institute is different from that of
the schools addressed in H.R. 3231. Nevertheless, I think our expe-
rience provides some relevant conclusions, two of which I would
like to mention.
First, our objective in teaching language is as a capacity to
communicate, not as a branch of literature or of any particular
field of study and it presumes no particular background.
We are continually working to provide that communicative capa-
bility in the most compact course possible. Post-secondary schools
in particular, if they are doing their job, should try to provide a
similar version of foreign language training, so it can be available
with a very minimal investment in time to people preparing for
careers in a great variety of professions, so they don't have to sit
through semesters of basic grammar, structure, and literature
before they get to something called communication which might be
the much more relevant skill to their own profession.
Our own experience shows that one can teach by going directly
from the beginning to that communications capacity and get a
much higher level of achievement earlier.
In general, we have found that the quality of instruction, over
the 45 languages that we teach, is the most difficult problem and
the one most important to maintaining high student motivation
and achievement.
The critical elements of our program we have found to be good
instructors, adequate compensation, and continuing training for
those instructors, continual development of imaginative new teach-
ing materials and rigid testing of student achievement as a control
on individual course quality.
America's schools face the same problems in maintaining quality
instructional programs. From that quality comes the maintenance
of the students' motivation and interest to insure that they are
engaged and brought as quickly as possible to the capacity to
communicate that makes the whole experience worthwhile, both
educationally and professionally. I know this important factor of
the quality of programs will be part of your considerations as well.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much for your testimony.
You were here when Mr. Heginbotham testified.
Ambassador BOEKER. Yes, I was.
Mr. SIMON. He testified, in 25 years in the Foreign Service, not
once was he ever encouraged to study the foreign language, and at
no time did he receive any compensation in, or assistance for the
foreign language study he did do voluntarily.
Is it still possible for someone to have 25 years in the Foreign
Service and have that kind of experience?
Ambassador BOEKER. No; it is not. First of all, the requirement to
have professional level proficiency in one foreign language before
you are tenured, would, in effect, mean an officer, one way or
another, would have to acquire that proficiency to rise above the
very junior ranks and spend more than 5 years in the Service.
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In addition, there is incentive pay which strongly encourages
study of hard languages. There is the system of language-designat-
ed positions; the kind of positions that Mr. Heginbotham or I have
held overseas are now positions where language proficiency is re-
quired, and, therefore, people assigned to them are assigned to
language training in advance of going there. But he was an over-
achiever, Mr. Chairman, and he could learn that all on the side at
nights.
Mr. SIMON. What about the language-designated positions; 67
percent are now filled? What I am interested in, is that percentage
increasing, and No. 2, the process by which various positions are
language-designated, or is it sensible to give as much responsibility
to an ambassador in a country and as former ambassador yourself,
you can view it from both perspectives and to have an ambassador
who, in effect, say ambassadors who say language isn't important.
We had one country in Africa where we had that precise situa-
tion up until a few weeks ago.
Ambassador BOEKER. It is hard for me to imagine. It was my own
experience not only to give very careful consideration to what
positions were language designated, but also to insist that people at
post continue their language training, even though they already
had enough to meet the LDP designation of their job. I found that
that was not really difficult. As long as continuing language train-
ing was encouraged, people felt that the hour every morning could
be taken. If they had the mission's blessing, they were delighted to
do it.
Mr. SIMON. That was kind of an arbitrary decision on your part
as Ambassador?
Ambassador BOEKER. It was in my authority to make that deci-
sion, and I thought that was essential to the work of our mission.
We did virtually everything we did in Spanish.
Mr. SIMON. Yes.
Ambassador BOEKER. The number of people who spoke English
even at high levels, was very small.
In effect, I would say all the officer-level personnel and about
half of the secretarial personnel at my mission had to have some
knowledge of Spanish to do their job.
Mr. SIMON. At how many embassies totally that we have would
you guess that that is the situation?
Ambassador BOEKER. That would be a judgment one would have
to make going over them post by post, but a significant number. I
think certainly in Latin America, for example, Spanish is not only
the language of the society, but a language they are very proud of
and a language in which they can communicate with all their
neighbors. You really can't get anywhere without it.
In Latin America, that is very definitely the case.
Mr. SIMON. Isn't that true, that very description you make, true
of almost all countries? There are exceptions, but, for example, I
just notice where 13 of 80 of our personnel in Saudi Arabia are
proficient in Arabic. I would almost think Arabic is essential.
Ambassador BOEKER. It is very difficult to do many of our jobs
there without Arabic.
That really gets to the heart of the resource problem, though,
because for every person in an Arabic language-designated posi-
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tion, you are talking about a 2-year investment in training. In
effect, if people are there on an average 2-year tour, your personnel
force has to be twice as large.
It has to be larger by every position you have there that is
language designated for 3-3 in our terms of proficiency in Arabic.
That is a very significant personnel cost and a major problem with
the management of this system.
The tendency Government-wide has been to go on creating lan-
guage-designated positions without drawing any implications for
the work foce. Every time you increase the number of language-
designated positions, you are, in effect, creating new training posi-
tions and requiring an increased work force to fill them. To do so
without changing your work force level creates tensions that are
very difficult to relieve.
Mr. SIMON. You were about to show me a graph there.
Ambassador BOEKER. You had asked about language-designated
positions. Our record there is improving.
We now have over 200 more people in language-designated posi-
tions at a fully qualified level than we did 8 years ago, going up to
780 officers who are fully qualified for the positions they fill.
That still leaves us at the 67 percent level that you mentioned.
In another sense the record is better than that: Inclusion of people
who are very close to full professional proficiency in the language
would bring that total to 78 percent.
These people who are within half a point of the required level
should be able to reach it after 6 months' experience in country
and with the help of continuing language training at their posts
under the past language program.
Mr. SIMON. One comment.
You mentioned the quality problem which is a major problem
and you say good instructors adequately compensated, continuing
training for instructors, continual development of imaginative new
materials, and rigid testing and student achievement as a control
on course quality are critical elements.
As I look over those criteria, good instructors adequately com-
pensated, foreign language teachers in the United States are not
highly paid. Continuing training for instructors, we are doing very
little. New materials, probably we are doing better there. Rigid
testing of student achievement, we are doing very well, so in the
use of your criteria, we have a long way to go.
Mr. Coleman.
Mr. COLEMAN. Tonight, there will be a reception in Washington
for members of the German Parliament. We all talk in English.
They speak better English than we do, I think.
One of the things about your program you opened it up to other
U.S. employees, and I availed myself of the early morning Foreign
0 Service Institute language courses last semester. I got a lot out of it
and was trying to brush up on my French.
When the word got out that a couple of Members were taking
the course, I heard other Members of the House mention, one that
didn't know about it, and two, they would like to participate, but it
seems as if, because of our schedules and our lives and what have
you, that better time or a better place might be more appropriate,
and I toss this out as a suggestion, that besides the Foreign Service
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34
and State Department employees, there is probably no more visible
traveler to foreign countries than Members of Congress, and if
those of us who are interested in coming up with a proficiency to
the degree we can venture out to speak to their leadership in their
own language, just the intent is enough to win friends and influ-
ence people, that we try to do this for Members of Congress.
I notice in my circle of friends that knew about it, I could name
you five people to get together immediately to start a course. I
think it is very important and you might consider this. Also, the
availability to the public of your tapes and your books is a very
well kept secret. I didn't know about it until after I took the
course, and if there is some way that we could justify a little bit of
advertising in this area, there would be a lot of people do it on
their own.
I had to go to the Government Printing Office over at State to
find out that they actually sold the tapes publicly. Of course,
members of the class, we ran our own tapes off on the machines,
but that would be a great opportunity for a lot of people to expand
your influence and also help the problem.
Ambassador BOEKER. Let me first commend your Spartan
achievement.
Mr. SIMON. When I visited there, you mentioned, I think, four
Members of Congress. I regret to say I was not among them, Tom
Coleman, Paul Tsongas, I believe, Charles Mathias?
Ambassador BOEKER. And Congresswoman Ferraro, of New York.
Mr. SIMON. And Robert Garcia.
Ambassador BOEKER. I believe over the past year, we have had 12
different people from the Congress taking language instruction, but
we would be delighted to have you.
We offer this and we are very glad to do it. Certainly, if it would
be more convenient to Members of Congress to get together in
groups at a different location or even individually, we would be
glad to respond.
We just want to get you away from the phone in your office
during language classes. That is all.
Mr. COLEMAN. Wonderful.
Ambassador BOEKER. We have tried to get the Government Print-
ing Office to make the availability of Foreign Service Institute
tapes and texts as widely known as possible but publication of
wares available from the Government Printing Office is not some-
thing that is a high priority at the moment for them.
Unfortunately, I think the availability of these tapes and books
has been broadcast more widely by the private sector than by the
Government itself. There are a number of private outfits that do
acquire our tapes and books and sell them for four times the cost.
They advertise widely.
Mr. COLEMAN. Right; the first ad I saw was in the New Yorker
with an outfit for Spanish and French, which said, this is the same
course given to our Foreign Service officers.
Ambassador BOEKER. It is annoying to me personally that many
taxpayers are paying about four times as much as they need to for
these materials developed by their Government.
Mr. SIMON. Could you talk to members of your staff and to
others in the State Department and say you are being pushed by
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this subcommittee, which you are, and to make known a little
more widely what is available, and that we would like, within 60
days, to get some kind of response from you on this?
Ambassador BOEKER. We shall do that and make sure you get
such a response.
Mr. SIMON. Well, we thank you, sir, very, very much for your
testimony and the job you are doing in the Foreign Service. It is
terrific.
Ambassador BOEKER. Thank you.
Mr. SIMON. Our next witnesses are on a panel, Dr. Rose Hayden,
the Executive Director of the National Council on Foreign Lan-
guage and International Studies, and one of the more, probably the
most prolific writers in this field in the Nation, and Dr. O. Le-
Grand Eliason.
Mr. ELIASON. Eliason.
Mr. SIMON. Forgive me. He is president of Eliason International,
and I don't know whether Commissioner McGrath, I don't see him
here. Commissioner McGrath had hoped to be here. His wife unfor-
tunately is now seriously ill, and we will enter his statement in the
record at this point.
[The prepared testimony of Earl McGrath follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF EARL J. MCGRATH, FORMER U.S. COMMISSIONER OF EDU-
CATION AND PRESENTLY CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF ADVISERS, WESTERN INTERNATION-
AL UNIVERSITY, PHOENIX, ARIZ.
At the very outset, Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate you and your nine
colleagues for introducing H.R. 3231. May I also put in the record, Mr. Chairman,
the studied opinion that your recently issued book, "The Tongue-Tied American," is
one of the most convincing briefs for instruction in foreign languages that I have
read in my professional experience. It ought to be read not only by educators, but by
thoughtful citizens in all walks of life who are concerned about our economic and
cultural position in today's world.
On this occasion, I address you as a former officer of the government and as a
private citizen who has visited over a score of foreign countries where English is not
the native tongue. I wish to endorse without reservation the statement of purpose in
your bill "to further the national security of the United States and the nation's
economy by providing grants for foreign language programs." To discuss the subject
in full would require more time than we have on this occasion. The three topics you
mention in your letter of invitation will, however, enable me to express my thoughts
on the provisions in the bill.
First, my experience with our language failures. If you will pardon a personal
reference, I would like to relate my experience as the chairman of a U.S. delegation
of five at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Duplicates of this experience, and other
valuable information in this important subject are presented by Nick Thimmesch in
the February, 1981, issue of Reader's Digest. The Geneva conference was attended
by representatives of over fifty nations. The two official languages of the meeting
were English and French. Except the members of our delegation, all of whom had
had an extensive higher education, I met no one, even those from countries with
limited opportunity for higher education, who could not use a language other than
his own. The most embarrassing experience occurred when I observed the language
facility of the chairman of the Egyptian delegation. From the conference floor he
spoke intermittently English and French. With the delegates of Germany, he used
their tongue. And naturally he spoke Arabic. Whatever its other notable achieve-
ments, and they are many, our educational system had failed to prepare its careful-
ly selected representatives for direct communication on matters of international
importance.
Returning home, as United States Commissioner of Education, with the help of
officers of the Modern Language Association, I organized two national meetings
here in Washington. As studies referred to in your book conclusively show, Mr.
Chairman, those who learn any language at an early age most easily achieve
fluency and a proper accent in its use. Since at the time language instruction was
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rarely offered in elementary schools and not required for a diploma in many high
schools, I stressed the need for action at those two levels.
To my gratification, these conferences were attended by several hundred persons,
not exclusively educators, but also representatives of several branches of govern-
ment, notably the State and Commerce Departments and executives of commerce
and industry. The participants in these sessions exhibited intense interest in in-
creasing the study of languages. The non-educators especially expressed a desire to
support efforts to make American citizens internationally more knowledgeable and
capable of using languages other than their own.
In the years immediately following 1952, reports of the Modern Language Associ-
ation showed a sharp rise in the number of school systems offering language
courses, and a corresponding rise in interest in colleges and universities. For rea-
sons to complex to treat here, this swift burgeoning of instruction in foreign lan-
guages became dwarfed over the intervening years. For financial reasons, some
public school systems have since dropped such instruction in the elementary and
high school grades, and many colleges which for a century or more had imposed
such requirements have abandoned them. The cultural and vocational inadequacies
resulting from these policies have now become threateningly clear. The situation
imperatively needs the thoughtful attention and civic action of all citizens.
Whatever failures have occurred in providing adequate foreign language instruc-
tion for Americans cannot fairly be attributed to teachers of these subjects. Since
the Second World War, the universities have produced a corps of teachers compe-
tent in the idiomatic use of languages and skilled in the cultivation of language
skills at all levels of our educational system. What we need to correct the present
deficiences is an aroused public opinion among citizens in all walks of life. The
passage of this legislation could be instrumental in calling attention to existing
inadequacies.
Second, Mr. Chairman, I wish to focus my remarks on the internationally strate-
gic and economic importance of having citizens well-versed in the everyday use of
languages. Consider first the ecomonic value of foreign language study to the
individual student. Enrollment figures and studies of student interests show that
many young people are avoiding instruction in the humanities, especially languages.
Many do this on the assumption that those who are intensively, but narrowly,
trained in business subjects will be assured of preferred vocational treatment. I do
not depreciate programs in the field of business. I wish to point out, however, that
those who supplement career-oriented instruction with skill in foreign languages
will find a host of vocational doors open to them that would otherwise be closed.
College students today are not sufficiently informed about the career opportuni-
ties available to those who achieve competence in their major field and also facility
in a foreign tongue. Business executives confirm the opinion that many of their
corporations need the services of personnel in marketing their products abroad.
Representatives of industry, commerce, and education can serve their own organiza-
tions, our people generally, and especially ambitious young people, by informing
students in our schools and colleges of these opportunites. By doing so they will not
only benefit youth. They will perform an indispensable public service.
Members of the Congress know better than I that the health of our economic
system will depend upon a more equitable balance of trade than now prevails
between the United States and other nations. To a not inconsiderable extent, the
openness of foreign markets will depend upon the effective communication of our
business representatives in selling our products abroad. Person to person relation-
ships and the attitudes of other nationals toward us may be the decisive factor in
making sales. That these attitudes are affected by the easy and precise use of
another's language is indisputable. We cannot hope to have a healthy economy at
home without the understanding and trust of business men in other countries.
Hence, those interested in preserving the merits of our free enterprise system on an
international scale can do so by improving commerce between our country and
other nations. At the same time, the resultant sale of our products can contribute to
the economic well-being of our people. Knowledge of foreign languages can help in
these efforts and the Congress can play an imporant part in achieving these goals
by enacting H.R. 3231. Even more important than the economic benefits it would
produce is the strategic value in increasing the likelihood that civilization as we
know it can be preserved.
No thoughtful observer of the international scene today can doubt that the
human enterprise is in danger of destruction. While military build-up may be
essential, while parity or even superiority may temporarily engender a feeling of
security, in the long run only understanding among the peoples of the world can
assure their survival. Informed scientists and military leaders agree that already
both the United States and Russia have arsenals of nuclear weaponry sufficient to
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destroy virtually all life on this globe, and the end results will be the same no
matter which adversary makes the first strike. Moreover, many other nations will
soon be adequately equipped to initiate, if not complete, such a holocaust. No matter
how much of the worlds productive capacity and human ingenuity are spent in
armed defense, the effort will be futile unless it is continuously paralleled by
unrelenting efforts by members of the human family to achieve common under-
standing and common goals. Such objectives could, of course, be attained more
easily if we all talked in one tongue, but we don't. Yes, the resolution of issues and
problems will require not only competence in the use of other languages, but insight
into subtle cultural differences-ignorance of which presently erect formidable bar-
riers to understanding and the rational reconciliation of national differences.
Mr. Chairman, some may consider this digression into the larger subject of
national, indeed human, destiny to be irrelevant to the teaching of foreign lan-
guages. To be sure, there are many other compelling reasons for such instruction. It
can lead to great satisfactions, including the gaining of insights into other ways of
life, other philosophies, other ageless literatures, other value systems and other
spiritual commitments. There is an abundant literature on all these outcomes of the
study of foreign languages. None, however, exceeds in importance the potential
benefits in international understanding and lasting peace.
For these reasons, I consider H.R. 3231 a strategically important piece of legisla-
tion. If enacted, as I hope, it will accomplish these things:
1. It's passage will signalize to educators and others throughout the nation that as
a people we recognize the cultural, the economic, and the strategic importance of
skill in the use of foreign tongues. Parenthetically, I should like to observe that we
need instructional programs in language not now commonly found in the school
systems such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and others which will be needed in
business transactions and in diplomatic relations.
2. The bill will strengthen the efforts of educators in the states and in local
communities in their advocacy of additional programs of foreign language instruc-
tion. In this connection, I wish a copy of "The Tongue-Tied American could be
distributed to every local school system and every college and university in the
country in order to stir up the most vigorous discussion of this subject. In all
modesty, I wish tha the national meetings I initiated in the early fifties could be
duplicated today. I feel confident that with vigorous leadership, such efforts would
result in a wide response and highly fruitful results.
3. The bill would attract the moral and fiscal support of the business world for
such programs.
4. The bill would indirectly open new occupational opportunities for American
youth and thus contribute to their economic well-being and their enjoyment of the
satisfactions of foreign travel and experiences in different cultures.
5. The bill will not only contribute significantly to our national economic strength
but to our soical and political position of leadership in the world.
In conclusion, I wish to comment very briefly on several provisions of the bill. It
does not require the federal government to assume the total financial responsiblity,
or even a large part of it, necessary to launch and sustain these efforts. It can,
however, call immediate attention dramatically and convincingly to the related
national educational needs and the intiatory efforts required to fulfill them. Long-
run support is left to local educational units where, in our tradition, it properly
belongs. But this fractional government aid would, I believe, initiate a lasting
development of beneficial activities at all levels of our educational system. These in
turn would have a fateful affect on our national destiny and perhaps on our fellow
human beings everywhere. I hope, therefore, that the Congress will act favorably on
this promising legislation.
Mr. SIMON. Dr. Hayden, pleasure to welcome you here.
STATEMENT OF ROSE L. HAYDEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NA-
TIONAL COUNCIL ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND INTERNA-
TIONAL STUDIES
Ms. HAYDEN. I am Rose Hayden, newly appointed executive di-
rector or the National Council on Foreign Language and Interna-
tional Studies.
I am especially happy to be here today given the fact that
Congressman Simon is a member of our council, which was estab-
lished in 1980 upon the recommendation of the President's Com-
mission on Foreign Language and International Studies.
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Created as a joint effort by private foundations, business corpora-
tions, and government agencies, the council is a nonprofit organiza-
tion focusing public attention on the crucial importance to the
United States of effective communication with and comprehensive
understanding of the world beyond our borders.
The primary task of the council is to make a coherent, persua-
sive, and persistent case that high-quality foreign language and
international studies are truly vital to America's future.
Council members are distinguished citizens from various walks of
life and different regions of the country who share a concern that
the present decline of foreign language and international studies
endangers our national well-being-our security, our commercial
competitiveness, and the quality of our educational system.
Finally, the council's interests encompass all elements of lan-
guage and international studies in the United States: Advanced
training and research; overseas study; global awareness; primary,
secondary and collegiate education; citizen and community educa-
tion; and the needs of business, labor and Government.
In sum, the council strives to prove to the general public and to
policymakers alike that, indeed, the future is now and that our
national needs can be more adequately served through foreign
language and international competencies.
In my remarks this morning, I will not repeat the excellent
insights and suggestions which have already been presented by
others, and will be the focus of other testimony today.
Rather, let me state, at the outset, that H.R. 3231 represents a
necessarily ambitious response to an endemic national challenge-
that of assuring America's viability in a global system which is as
complex as it is unstable.
The overwhelming fact of international life is this: Americans
must know more about the rest of the world, or we will be increas-
ingly at the mercy of peoples and nations whose languages we do
not speak, and whose realities and motives are a mystery to us.
As Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., chancellor of the State University of
New York, and national council member observed, we can be disen-
franchised by ignorance. Often we are content to be served by
cadres of technicians and specialists who thereby gain an ominous
amount of control over our lives.
A recent futurist tract argued that our fear and ignorance about
prevailing technologies put us in danger of becoming modern-day
serfs-techno-peasants. One could extend the analogy and argue
with some justification that our fear and ignorance about other
peoples, languages, and cultures places us in equal danger of disen-
franchising ourselves, of becoming globo-peasants whose lives are
deeply affected by world events, but whose individual capacity to
shape those events is virtually nil.
Truly our professional interests in foreign language education
have never been more compatible and more visible to an ever-
growing segment of our population. The recent election and subse-
quent developments suggest very strongly that the United States is
entering a marked phase in its national history in which the most
dynamic and consistent areas of Federal policy formulation are
likely to be in the foreign affairs and defense fields and in overall
economic policy-particularly those aspects relating to the control
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Well, up there to the north I got about 200 yards, and over there to the west I got
50 yards, and there to the east about another 75 yards, and down there to the south
I got about 200. How big a farm you got?
And the Texan said, "Well, my friend, my spread is so big that I
can get into my car in the morning at sunup and drive all day
long, and at sunset I'm still not at the end of my land."
"Ayup," replied the Vermonter, "I once had a car like that."
So times really have changed.
Someone once said that an optimist builds castles in the sky, a
dreamer lives there, and a realist collects rent from both of them.
Let us work with you and the Congress to make sure that we
actually get to move into this particular castle.
of inflation, to reindustrialization, to energy self-sufficiency, and to
export promotion.
The challenge to the foreign language field is to deepen the
emerging links between international and foreign language studies
within educational establishmnts, and through this difficult but
necessary integration, thus serve our national needs for a more
secure and economically viable future.
With respect to national security, estimates are that America's
defense expenditures will increase by about $1.3 trillion in the next
5 years. Yet the resources to assure brainpower as well as firepow-
er are not similarly forthcoming. Thus, the signal importance of
H.R. 3231 is that despite the disappointing record of our Govern-
ment with respect to funding foreign language, international stud-
ies, and exhanges, H.R. 3231 dramatically encourages foreign lan-
guage study at all levels and restates an essential Federal respon-
siblitiy to support such programs in the national interest.
With respect to economics, between 1950 and 1979, American
exports increased from $10 billion to $175 billion, and American
assets abroad grew from $19 billion to $377 billion. Foregin direct
investments in the United States rose from $3.4 billion to $40.8
billion. The net impact of all this on the man in the street is that
1-in-7 manufacturing jobs in this country is directly dependent on
foreign trade, and that 1-in-3 acres produces food for export.
Yet we could be doing a whole lot better if you consider that
there are 300,000 firms in the United States, and only 250 of these
firms account for well over 80 percent of Amercia's exports. If we
hope to export more in the future, it is axiomatic that we master
the languages of the buyer.
Having noted that on the one hand, the times are propitious for
integrating national and professional agendas, it is only fair to note
that, on the other hand, foreign language educators enter the
public arena at just that time when the mood is one of deepest
concern with America's fiscal circumstances.
Times have indeed changed, and it will be necessary for the field
to realize that if there ever was a good old days phase, we are no
longer in one-the point of this anecdote about a Texas rancher
and a Vermont farmer, a true metaphor for educators in the
1980's:
It seems that a Texan was visting some relatives in Vermont and came up on a
farmer who lived nearby, and they started to talk. "Well, my friend," said the
Texan, "how big a spread your got here?"
The Vermonter responded slowly:
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H.R. 3231 is not intended to provide a comprehensive answer to
all of the endemic problems of foreign language and international
studies, but it does include these needed elements:
One, H.R. 3231 ties American foreign language competence to
America's military, political and economic security and future via-
bility;
Two, in section 2, the emphasis is on those constitutionally re-
sponsible for the provision of educational services-the States. As
.,such, by funding model local projects through the State educational
agencies, H.R. 3231 respects, embodies and energizes the so-called
"new federalism." Cost and responsibilities are truly shared;
Three, alternative instructional modes are stressed, as is access
to quality language instruction. If it remains true that one in five
high schools offers no instruction in any foreign language, modern
or ancient, then H.R. 3231 plays a needed role in assuring equal
educational opportunity, open access to all students to attain a
vocationally as well as personally valuable foreign language skill;
Four, section 3 enhances the prospects that more postsecondary
institutions will require foreign language instruction of students;
and
Five, study beyond the entry-level years is furthered in this bill.
Without going into detail, suffice it to say that a creative and
necessary partnership has evolved between the public and private
sectors with respect to H.R. 3231. This partnership must be
strengthened so that these necessary steps will be taken.
One, public and political support must be registered so that H.R.
3231 is both passed and appropriated; and
Two, administrative officials and representatives of the foreign
language teaching professional groups must collaborate in the
design of effective guidelines for the use of any funds. In such a
fashion, proficiency, quality and continuity of effort will be natural
consequences of programming funded under the aegis of this bold
new bill.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion let me focus on the three areas
which you posed. You asked first about my own experience with
languages. My experience with = our language failures is, of course,
deeply personal. As the eldest daughter of immigrant parents, I
was taught that the maintenance of my parents' mother tongue
was a social liability in this country, a mark of inferior social
status.
As a high school student, I was required to take a foreign lan-
guage sequence to be in the college-bound curriculum. Luckily, an
excellent Spanish teacher and an overseas experience as a Red
Cross volunteer in Chile in 1960 propelled me to a fluency level
and degree of interest not typical of the general student.
As an undergraduate, my interests waned in that the literary
approach in the language department was not useful to me, and
the attitude of the professors was often repugnant to boot.
After graudate school, I both taught and used my Spanish and
Portuguese, moved on to administrative duties in the university,
and then on to language-related assignments such as that of
Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the peace
Corps.
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Forgive the autobiography, but in terms of my own lifelong
involvement with foreign languages, I can say that an excellent
teacher, an overseas experience, a vocational need, and a personal
joy in being able to communicate with others in their language and
on their terms has been uniquely rewarding.
Naturally, I am describing an ideal situation, but I still believe
that access to quality instruction at all levels, plus an emphasis on
the utility and personal enrichment of foreign language proficiency
are keys to future student motivation and subsequent performance.
You also asked for my comments on the strategic and economic
importance of having citizens well-versed in languages. My answer
has been included, at least obliquely, in the text of my comments.
With your permission, I would like to insert a recent article and
speech for the record, both of which provide a more adequate
statement of need.
Mr. SIMON. It will be inserted in the record.
[Material submitted by Rose Hayden follows:]
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42
THE FUTURE IS NOW: SERVING NATIONAL NEEDS
(Remarks by Dr. Rose Lee Hayden presented at the May, 1981 meeting
of the Northeast Conference. Dr. Hayden, former Staff Director of
U.S. Government Exchanges Policy in the International Communication
Agency, is now the Executive Director of the National Council on
Foreign Language and International Studies.)
To quote Jacquin's Postulate on democratic government: No
man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is
in session." This has always been particularly true when the topic
of legislative attention has been foreign language and international
studies support. At just this moment in our national history when
the world is so tightly wired together that a short circuit could
fry all of us, support for foreign language and international studies
once again experiences underwhelming increases and an uncertain
future in these budget-cutting times.
It is surely appropriate that I am with you today, my last
official day of service in Washington, D.C. as the soon-to-be former
Staff Director of U.S. Government Exchanges Policy in the International
Communication Agency. The reason that this is so is that I am about
to begin a most challenging assignment as Executive Director of the
National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies. The
National Council, as you know, was established in 1980 upon the
recommendation of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and
International Studies. Created as a joint effort by private foundations,
business corporations, and government agencies, the Council is a non-
profit organization focusing public attention on the crucial importance
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to the United States of effective communication with and comprehensive
understanding of the world beyond our borders. The primary task of
the Council is to make a coherent, persuasive, and persistent case that
high-quality foreign language and international studies are truly vital
to America's future. Council members are distinguished citizens from various
walks of life and different regions of the country who share a concern
that the present decline of foreign language and international studies
endangers our national well-being -- our security, our commercial
competitiveness, and the quality of our educational system. Finally,
the Council's interests encompass all elements of language and
international studies in the United States: advanced training and
research; overseas study; global awareness; primary, secondary and
collegiate education; citizen and community education; and the needs
of business, labor and government. In sum, the Council strives to
prove to the general public and to policy-makers alike that indeed,
the future is now and that our national needs can be more adequately
served through foreign language and international competencies.
In my remarks this morning, I will not repeat the excellent
insights and suggestions which appear in your conference volume. In
all of my professional life, I have never been more impressed with
the intellectual preparation and sensible approach of any group as
much as I have been favorably oriented by your own, the Northeast
Conference. I congratualte the authors and editors for an outstanding
job, and salute all of you for participating in what promises to be
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a first-rate, timely and exceptionally interesting conference. This
morning I prefer to concentrate on the politics of the field of
foreign language and international studies in the sense of presenting
the case in the national interest, and will conclude by citing some
promising developments in the field itself.
Truly, our professional interests in foreign language education
have never been more compatible and more visible to an ever-growing
segment of our population. The recent election and subsequent develop-
ments suggest very strongly that the United States is entering a
marked phase in its national history in which the most dynamic and
consistent areas of federal policy formulation are likely to be in
the foreign affairs and defense fields and in overall economic
policy -- particularly those aspects relating to the control of
inflation, to reindustrialization, to energy self-sufficiency, and
to export promotion. Our challenge as a field is to deepen the
emerging links between international and foreign language studies
within educational establishments, and through this difficult but
necessary integration, thus serve our national needs for a more secure
andbeconomic ally;;viabl8.- ilu.ture.;;Yes, I will turn to specifics
shortly.
Having noted that on the one hand, the times are propitious for
integrating national and professional agendas, it is only fair to note,
on the other hand, that foreign language educators enter the public
arena at just that time when the mood is one of deepest concern with
America's fiscal circumstances. Times have indeed changed, and it will be
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necessary for the field to realize that if there was ever a "good old
days" phase, we are no longer in one - the point of this anecdote about
a Texas rancher and a Vermont farmer, a true metaphor for educators in
the 1980's:
A Texan was visiting some relatives in Vermont and came
upon a farmer who lived nearby and they started to talk.
"Well, my friend," said the Texan, "how big a spread you
got here?" The Vermonter responded slowly, "Well, up there
to the north I got about 200 yards, and over there to the
west I got 50 yards, and other there to the east about
another 75 yards,and down there to the south I got about
200. How big a farm you got?" And the Texan said, "Well, my
friend, my spread is so big that I can get into my car in
the morning at sun-up and drive all day long and at sunset
I'm still not at the end of my land." "Ayup," replied the
Vermonter, "I once had a car like that."
Things have changed, and the following no doubt applies to our own
as well as other fields of endeavor; an optimist builds castles in
the sky... a dreamer lives there... a realist collects rent from
both of them. We must transform ourselves from tenants into landlords,
from dreamers into realists, I suppose, to meet the challenge of
developing our programs in an age of fiscal weariness.
It is time to spend a few moments now outlining why our topic
is in fact central to America's national security, political and
educational interests, and what professionals can do about the
decline of foreign language and international studies programs in
the past decades. The following facts, appearing in the May, 1981
issue of Harpers, in the section entitled "The Public Record" cannot
be calmly absorbed by either patriot or cynic:
? The United States continues to be the only country in
the world where you can graduate from college without
having had one year of a foreign language prior to and
during the university years.
? If China's Deng Xiaoping had not brought his own inter-
nrator with hi, fnr hie Aie........_..-_
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his negotiations may well have gone uncomprehended given
the fact that the U.S. government does not employ anyone
fully qualified to simultaneously interpret from Chinese
to English.
? Fewer than ten people in this country know any of the
languages of Soviet Central Asia. Only two or three of
them have sufficient experience and scholarly background
to serve our government.
? In the Soviet Union, there are almost ten million students
of English, but there are only 28,000 students of Russian
in the United States.
? At the height of the Iranian crisis, only one Western
reporter could speak Farsi at the time, and he represented
the BBC.
? Only one out of twenty of our high school students studies
French, German, or Russian beyond the second year, and of
our eleven million or so U.S. students enrolled in higher
education, fewer than one percent study languages which are
used by three-quarters of the world's population.
o A Roper Poll last year revealed that forty-nine percent of
Americans surveyed believed that foreign trade was either
irrelevant or harmful to the United States, despite the
fact that one of seven manufacturing jobs relies on such
trade, and one of three of our acres of land produces for
export.
? A 1977 survey of all the collegiate schools of business in
the United States revealed that of close to 4,000 PhD and
DBA graduates, fewer than ten percent had ever taken a
course related to international business.
? Pan American had to interview 16,000 applicants in 1977
to fill forty flight attendant positions. Almost seventy
percent of the applicants were rejected because of insufficient
language skills.
? Of all our students spending an academic year studying overseas,
over eighty percent are in Canada or Europe, yet close to
eighty percent of the world's population resides in Latin
America, Asia, and Africa. In terms of study abroad students,
Latin America attracts about eight percent, seven percent go
to Asia, and Africa receives an underwhelming zero percent.
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? The Tax Fairness Committee last year estimated that the
United states loses about five percent of its overall trade
potential given business' heavy reliance on hiring foreign
nationals to represent subsidiaries around the world. Our
economy, however, is increasingly dependent on successful
international competition, and a greater and greater per-
centage of our GNP is tied up in importing and exporting.
Thus, in 1960, we exported about five percent of our GNP
and imported about four percent, while in 1980, we
exported thirteen percent and imported twelve. If this trend
continues, even in part, it is not difficult to imagine the
size of this effort by the end of this century.
Leaving the pedagogical issuesto you at this conference, I would
like to focus on business today. Are we prepared, as educators, to meet
America's national challenge of promoting trade? Certainly not if
Professor Ricks' bevy of business blunders is allowed to continue. Just
listen to this:
? Most blunders spring from cultural misunderstandings.
A baby food company, with a picture of a healthy little
baby on the jar, learned that some illiterate people
depend on the package to tell them just what is inside.
In this case, they assumed they were being sold ground-
up baby and were understandably reluctant buyers.
? An American hamburger chain decided that they would extend
their dealings in Munich. To determine where to place the
facility, they surveyed frequently traveled sections of
that German city. When the fast food operation was ready
to open, anxious employees braced themselves for a hungry
horde that never arrived. It seems that company officials
never asked just why that section of the city was so popular.
Too late they learned that a popular brothel was just down
the street. Quote:"A lot of people were passing by, but they
weren't interested in hamburgers."
? In yet another German incident, "Come Alive With Pepsi"
was translated "Come Alive Out of the Grave with Pepsi."
Again, the advertising effect was not appealing.
? General Motors had difficulty marketing its Chevrolet NOVA
in its Latin American dealerships until they changed its
name. The reason is simple -- NOVA when spoken sounds like
"No va" in Spanish which means "it doesn't run."
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e The Parker Pen Company once inadvertently advertised that
one-of ....its:'products_helped~_to prevent unwanted preg-
nancies when what it meant to say was that leaks and
stains and unwanted embarrassment would be avoided.
It is perplexing, to me at least, that business rhetoric about
the importance of language and area skills does not in any consistent
fashion match business hiring practices. That businessmen are increasingly
sympathetic to our cause was revealed in a recent survey conducted by
Westchester Community College. Company executives that lived in the County
were surveyed as to their thoughts on the value of learning foreign
languages, and their response was enthusiastic and supportive. I urge
you to obtain a copy of the survey for use with your school boards,
with parents, and with administrators happy to cut language programs
in these difficult monetary times.
One often is exposed to nonsense when analyzing,why it is that
the United States chooses not to learn foreign languages. One of the
most ridiculous prevailing prejudices is that somehow.people from other
nations are born with a unique genetic code that enables them to unravel
other languages with ease, while Americans simply lack the native ability
to learn about other peoples, cultures and languages. Baloney. Other
nations and peoples are more successful because they are motivated to
learn other languages, they invest in instruction, and students spend
a whole lot of time dedicating themselves to some degree of mastery.
That-people in other lands have different attitudes toward language
learning is obvious. One motivation is certainly to learn English or
another world-use language. Language acquisition is often tied to social
mobility. In the United States, speaking a second language, the languages
of immigration, was often considered a mark of inferior social status.
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]Finally, other educational systems are not as comprehensive as ours.
Most systems are highly elitist, with distinct tracks for those who
will lead and those who will follow. Our system is one of the few
in which so many persons have access to education at all levels. The
real challenge to all of us is to assure that there is access and
that instruction is excellent. One need not be labeled an "elitist"
to insist on proficiency and standards in language learning.
Other nations have something to teach us about second-language
acquisition. This is not the place to enter into discussions of com-
parative educational practices, but the language teachers of this
nation represent part of an international guild dedicated to one of
the most frustrating and difficult tasks in the curriculum. If only
some of the Japanese enthusiasm could rub off on our students. Did you
know that during a baseball game between two Japanese teams, the broadcast
was being sent out in English and in Japanese? The viewers called in
saying it was great to be able to watch the game and be able to practice
their English. Can you imagine just what would break loose in this country
if the Super Bowl was beamed out in Russian or German or Spanish, let
alone in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or Swahili? Also, an American woman
was accosted in her hotel lobby by three young Japanese medical students
who didn't want to play doctor. They wanted to buy her a drink and to
practice their English.
Congressman Paul Simon once surveyed 74 nations to see what languages
were required in schools around the world. Even countries like Botswana
require more languages by the fourth grade than we require altogether.
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To get into a university in Austria, you must have eight years of living
foreign language plus four years of Latin. In the Arab Emirates, English
is required from fifth through twelfth grades, while in Egypt, starting
in the sixth grade, six years of English study are required. Honduras
expects its students to fulfill a five-year foreign language requirement,
India has a complex system requiring all students to study two languages
other than the mother tongue. The Swedes, contrary to American opinion
that they are born that way, have studied nine full years of English
by the time they graduate from high school, and have also studied
either French or German from grade seven on. Almost all Soviet students
take one foreign language in high school, one is required for university
graduation, and a second or third foreign language is required in
graduate school. In the United States, one in five high schools does
not offer instruction in any language - modern or ancient. Requirements
have fallen off, and competence is laughable.
Let me conclude this section of my remarks by making a simple
statement: Americans need to know about the rest of the world or we
are going to be increasingly at its mercy. Despite George Washington's
warning about entangling alliances, where else but in America could
you watch a bicentennial minute, sponsored by a Dutch oil company on
a Japanese television set? At least five reasons for enhancing our
competence, for closing the gap between our educational system and
the national interest come to mind:
- The first reason we Americans must globalize education
is elemental - survival. We must sustain informed connections
in order to survive in a competitive and nuclear system.
-- The second reason is humanitarian. If the "haves" of this
world do not care and share, we will have little claim to
self-decency. We will also live in an even more unsrahla
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The third reason for attempting, through education, to
relate to.,aUl.peaples and cultures is an inherently selfish
as opposed to alturistic one - the need for shared brain-power.
Scientific breakthroughs respect no national borders nor
languages. Knowledge must be shared to attack our species
seemingly intractable problems: energy, crime, injustice,
disease, hunger, population, and so on. As Paul Valery
once remarked; The trouble with our times is that the
future just is not what it used to be."
If security, compassion or survival do not appeal, another
reason for other-culture learning would be prescribed as
the insulin to counteract what one observer termed the
excess sugar of a diabetic culture." One way to avoid a
national nervous breakdown is to be aware of the dazzling
diversity and joy of human expression, both around the world
and within our own borders. Full appreciation of human
existence in music, dance, drama, the arts, sports, cooking,
literature, gardening, religious rites is unattainable with-
out an education which opens the mind and cultivates taste.
There are just so many re-runs of Kojalc that any people can
ultimately tolerate.
-- Finally, no democratic leadership, however motivated to build
a peaceful world order can long risk outrunning the capacity
of its people to interpret and respond intelligently to
global challenges and opportunities. The internationalizing
mission of the schools is clearly tied to the national need for
a citizenry sophisticated enough to be able to cope with
international realities.
In sum, this nation requires that our educational system produce at least
a minimal cadre of eNperts about other peoples and cultures; professionals
in business and government who can transact negotiations across national
borders; scientists and technicians who can extend and share human know-
ledge on a global basis; and citizens knowledgeable enough to support tough
leadership decisions and policies in a dangerous and complicated world.
Just where do we stand, politically, and just what is happening
in Washington which affects our profession? Let me briefly share some
thoughts about recent developments. A major theme of our recent election,
and one supported by most Americans is the reassertion of America's vision
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and role in the world arena. While from its birth this nation has always
been part and parcel of international commerce and politics, the degree
to which America's history is being shaped by external forces has never
been greater.
The Reagan Administration, Congress and by extension all Americans
want to improve U.S. political leverage abroad, enhance national security
and increase private sector involvement in the conduct of trade and
diplomacy. It is my conviction that one of the most cost-effective, proven
instruments of influence -- international experience and foreign language
competence -- directly serves America's national interests and serves
them quite well. Furthermore, I firmly believe that one of the more
practical, substantive steps which the current Administration can take
to realize the vision of a strong America in the world is to reverse the
serious decline in federal support for international education, research,
exchanges, and foreign language instruction. Support of these programs
symbolizes our willingness to reinvest in our future. For in a world of
alarming headlines, Americans need direct and personal international
contacts and competencies possessed by far too few today. Given the
twin challenges of reindustrialization and getting America back to work,'
knowledge about and access to international markets is the name of the
game. There are over 300,000 firms in the United States, yet only 250
of these account for over eighty percent of America's total exports.
Where will we recruit the kinds of cosmopolitan managers our economy
requires if not from among those Americans educated for the world view
as well as for the immediate managerial tasks of any given firm?
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Of all the resources that make American diplomacy effective, few
f
have been as neglected and misunderstood as the educational, linguistic
and cultural affairs components of American foreign policy. All the
weapons in our expensive arsenal are insufficient if we continue to
underinvest in the non-military aspects of our defense'-- political,
economic, educational and cultural alliances which serve to counteract
the distorted images of America in the minds of men and women everywhere.
We assure our place in a more amenable world order through the sharing
of information, technology, and ultimately, of basic human values. In
such a fashion, we shape rather than merely cope with international events.
Unfortunately, the federal investment in our field is fast diminish-
ing, even as defense spending is projected for $1.3 trillion increases
over the next five years. The Fulbright Program, a major vehicle for the
exchange of persons, has, since 1946, sent 45,000 Americans to foreign
countries and brought 85,000 foreign students, teachers and scholars to
our shores. In real terms, the program now operates at only 60% of its
1965 levels. Funding for Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which
supports language and area studies programs, is projected for stiff
cuts in FY 1982. The Peace Corps, which fielded 15,000 volunteers
per year in the mid-Sixties now barely fields 5,500. We all know what
is happening to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National
Science Foundation. The International Communication Agency is given less
money to tell America's story overseas than Proctor and Gamble's annual
advertising budget. Should we be surprised, then, when other nations do
not like us or fail to understand us? We are simply not willing to foot
the bill for assuring American competence and influence, for "brainpower"
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as opposed to "firepower." There is a false frugality at work. Of
course, a strong military is important, but arms do not represent
the sole instrument of America's security. Surely the American taxpayers
deserve more cost-efficient spending in the name of national security.
Both our allies and our adversaries seem fully mindful of the
political and. economic advantages that accrue when Third World
leaders are educated in their countries, are trained to utilize their
technologies, and are participants in their social, political and cultural
life. Soviet information/cultural expenditures are estimated to total
some $2 billion annually -- at least four times the U.S. investment.
Only 1,800 Africans studied in the United States under our sponsorship
last year. The Soviets supported 24,000.
To continue with comparisons, France and the Federal Republic of
Germany commit almost 1% of their national budgets to educational,
cultural, and informational activities; the U.S. only 0.1%. Helmut Schmidt
has defined politics, commerce and public diplomacy as the "three pillars"
of German policy. The government of France asserts that "cultural relations
are as important as politics and trade and perhaps more important" to key
interests.
Americans cannot and will not accept the decline of this nation's
international presence and viability, let alone its reputation. We have
never shirked.our global responsibilities, nor are we about to ignore our
global opportunities. And the most telling fact of our times is that we
now know that the world is not, nor will it ever be a better place should
America withdraw.However, if our profession does not begin to address
the broad national agenda and make a perceptible difference, then I
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55
change.
Let me conclude by citing some evidence of progress in our field.
These examples prove that the three sectors that you yourselves
have identified are cooperating to create public awareness and
competence -- the sectors being professional, public and political
groups.
Whereas the federal government is not, has not, and will not be
the best place to invest expectations, and local and state activity
will be the key to the next phase of progress, several legislative
initiatives must be mentioned as significant. Late in 1980, the House
and Senate did pass a Joint Resolution (#301) which stated the
concern of the Congress that there is a national need to strengthen
course offerings and requirements in foreign language studies and
international studies in the Nation's schools, colleges and universities."
In addition, Congressman Simon has reintroduced the Foreign Language
Assistance Act (H.R.3231), and Congressman Henry Gonzalez is in favor
of a bill to establish a National Commission for the Preservation of
Language Resources.
In the bureaucracies, some hopeful signs are present as well, The
Comptroller General told the State Department that for the first time
language competency outside a language-designated position will be
recognized for reward -- fiscal and promotion -- and that the re-use
of language skills already developed will be rewarded. The International
Communication Agency plans to increase attention to its programming
under the auspices of its Private Sector Programs Office which supports
community-based efforts to assist Americans to learn more about the
world. Citizen understanding programs continue to be supported in the
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56
Department of Education, where cuts in programs other than the international
ones have been exceptionally severe. A new section of the Department's
program is aimed at promoting U.S. export performance, and there are some
of us who hope that all of you will press for appropriations for this
section. The Agency for International Development is also being told
to "beef up" private sector programming. The Fund for the Improvement
of Postsecondary Education and the National Institute of Education are
finally beginning to show interest in supporting foreign language and
international studies grants.
On the professional front, new coalitions are springing up,
such as the International Education Exchanges Liaison Group, the
Joint National Committee for Language, the Global Perspectives
group, and the International Research Opportunities Board. Entering
the political process effectively is a must if our field is to contribute
to America's needs for international security and economic success.
We must be prepared for a sustained effort on our part as it is
not an accepted part of our political culture to be a "cultured person."
The political constraints are real, and include American attitudes about
self-sufficiency; dislike of any possible inference of world government;
fears about acculturation of immigrants; the lack of trained teachers
and materials; a return to the "Basics" but not to language education;
a heavy emphasis on teaching about literature and not on teaching skills;
and more - so much more.
From the President all the way down the line, foreign language
competence has not been a strong suit of our people. Historically
speaking, a researcher named John Krueger, discovered that on the whole,
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16/Hayden Speech
-- John Adams, our second President, was a Latin master
in a grammar school and knew some French. John Quincy
Adams actually spoke French and Dutch and was fully bilingual
when he was fourteen years old. Chester Arthur was a Latin
classics major.
-- Millard Filmore -- remember him? -- refused to accept
an honorary degree from Oxford University in England on
the grounds that it was written in Latin and no one ought
to accept what he himself cannot read. Herbert Hoover
failed German in 1893. Franklin Roosevelt did not use an
interpreter when dealing with DeGaulle, De Gaulle wished
he had. Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly -- French and German
that is -- an carried a big stick. When former King Carroll
of Rumania once tried to engage Harry Truman in a conversa-
tion and asked him: "Do you speak French?" Truman replied,
No French, and very little English." The King got the message
and left.
The political woods, in sum, may not be lovely, but they are
dark and deep and as a field, we have miles to go before we can sleep
easily. Not much, afterall, can be cut in the federal budget. Our
programs are small and quite vulnerable, lacking as they do a vocal
constituency, and running up against deeply held American prejudices
and practices. For language programs to be successful at all political
:Levels of support, we must prove that we are effective, and present
convincing data in that regard. Most funding comes from the state,
local, and institutional level, yet few lobbying efforts are ever
directed at the Golden Goose. Congressmen at all levels rarely hear
from their constituents in support of foreign language and international
studies programs. We must move beyond preaching to the converted in
the political arena, and on the professional front, we must assure our
supporters that students of foreign languages will attain a respectable
level of fluency. Fluency, after all, is the most potent motivation for
attracting students of all ages.
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17/ Hayden Speech
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is much to be done and you are doing
it. At all levels, efforts are underway to forge a truly operational
link between the national interest and foreign language and international
studies.State education departments are moving to require more adequate
curricular sequences for students; magnet international high schools
are beginning to spring up across the country; more and more institutions
are requiring foreign language competencies for graduates; national
associations have sponsored and continue to sponsor international
committees; some states have set up their own Foreign Language and
.International Studies Commissions (e.g. Oregon and Hawaii) while
others have passed legislation and resolutions in support of our
field (e.g. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina); and public
opinion is increasingly on our side.
And just to show you that no nation has a monopoly on the
secret to successful foreign language instruction, and that we must
all work continually to improve the reach and effectiveness of our
programs, I end my comments to you with this quote(taken from an
elevator door in a Rumanian hotel lobby)which appeared in American
Way magazine: "THE LIFT IS BEING FIXED FOR THE NEXT DAYS. DURING
THAT TIME, WE REGRET THAT YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE."
Hoping that I have not abused your patience and intelligence
and have not been similarly unbearable, I thank you all for your
attention and wish you every success with this fine conference.
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HARPERS'
May, 1981
XENOPHOBIA
The United States continues to be the only country
where you can graduate from college without having
had one year of a foreign language prior to and
during the university years.'
? Rep. Paul Simon (De m: Ill.), The Tongue Tied
American, Continuum, N.Y., 1980.
Most area specialist officers in the Executive Branch,
including the intelligence services, do not, and usually
cannot, read the materials of greatest concern to
them in the original, and cannot converse in their
foreign counterparts' native language beyond mere
pleasantries.'
When President Carter was in Poland in December
1977. his wish to "learn your opinions and under-
stand your desires for the future" came out in
translation as "I desire the Poles carnally.-
- Ibid.
When a Russian sought political asylum in the
U.S. embassy in Kabul, he was unable to find anyone
who spoke Russian.'
Interview with Rose Hayden, former staff director of
U.S. government exchange policy, USICA, January 1981.
Only three positions in the State Department
require proficiency in the Persian language spoken
in Afghanistan.'
* Barbara Bum and James Perkins, Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science, May 1980.
Fewer than ten people in this country know any
of the languages of Soviet Central Asia. Only two
or three of them have sufficient experience and
scholarly background to serve our government.'
? Allen Kassof, executive director, National Council on
Foreign Language and International Studies. From a taped
lecture to the Council of Graduate Schools, November 1980.
The office of the secretary of defense has about
1,500 employees, yet only one job was specifically
reserved for someone with foreign-language skills,
and that was for a Russian-speaking SALT treaty
coordinator-a post filled by someone who does
not speak Russian.'
If Deng Xiaoping, China's senior deputy prime
minister. had not brought with him an interpreter
skilled in English, his discourse with President Carter
in January 1979 might have gone uncomprehended.
The United States government, it turns out, does not
employ anyone fully qualified to simultaneously
interpret from Chinese to English.' The European division of the office of the secretary
of defense has seventy to eighty employees, who
deal mainly with base site negotiations. None of the
staff speaks German or French.*
The Stale Department no longer requires any
background in another language as a condition
of entry into the Foreign Service.' About 25 percent of army and navy jobs for which
? Rep. Paul Simon, op. cit. foreign-language skills are deemed essential remain
' J. William Fulbright, "Our linguistic and cultural myopia ? Shirley M. Hufstedler, former secretary of education,
is losing as friends," The Bridge, Summer 1980. The New York Times Afagacine, January It, 1981.
(Reprinted with permission from Newsweek.)
officers could speak minimal Farsi. In Pakistan only ? The New York Times, January 4, 1981.
five of thirty-two of America's diplomatic officials
are required to be proficient in Urdu. In Kenya, only In the Soviet Union there are almost ten million
one officer in twenty-two at the American embassy students of English, but there are only 28,000 students
is required to speak Swahili.' of Russian in the United States.'
Only one Western reporter could speak Farsi at the
No one in the U.S. embassy in India speaks Hindi.' height of the Iran crisis, and he represented the BBC.'
unfilled. About 20 percent of such positions in the air
force and 35 percent in the Marines remain unfilled.'
F,mn "A"uvi,a Glohn!!y Blind, Dwl, n?d Dumb," compiled try Joseph Lo,ie, Di-tor of lno-,nationnl F.durnlion, Adelphi Uni.
ve...ity. Ca,den City, N.Y.,1981.
84-188 0-81--5
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While the Voice of America broadcasts some 800
hours per week in thirty-eight languages on few
frequencies, often with weak signals, the Soviets
broadcast 2,000 hours in eighty-five languages on
many more frequencies, with more powerful signals.'
' The 1Fashington Star, August 9, 1980.
Only one out of twenty public high-school students
studies French, German, or Russian beyond the
second year.'
? The President's Commission on Foreign Language
and international Studies, November 1979.
Of the eleven million U.S. students seeking graduate
and undergraduate degrees, fewer than 1 percent
are studying the languages used by three fourths
of the world's population.'
? Rep. Paul Simon, op. cit.
President Reagan's nomination of William P. Clark
for deputy secretary of state met with ridicule in
the foreign press. De Volkskrant, an Amsterdam
daily, called him a "nitwit," the Daily Express of
London ran the headline, "Ask Me Another," and
the Soviet press agency Taw stated, "for all
practical purposes he knows nothing about foreign
policy." Mr. Clark had admitted to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee that he didn't know
the names of the prime ministers of Zimbabwe
and South Africa.'
? From an Associated Press report, The New York Times,
February 5, 1981.
A recent study of American schoolchildren's
knowledge and perception of other nations showed
that 40 percent of twelfth graders could not locate
Egypt and that 20 percent could not locate France
Only 5 percent of prospective teachers
or China
.
study international affairs or foreign peoples.'
? Presidential commission Report on Languages and
International Relations.
In a recent UNESCO education study of 30,000
ten- and fourteen-year-olds in nine countries, American
students ranked next to last in their comprehension
of foreign cultures.'
Federal funds for international education have declined
in real dollars by 50 percent. Private corporate
funding in this field represents less than 2 percent
of all gifts and grants given.'
? Rose Hayden, "The World and You," pamphlet, 1977.
Despite repeated attempts to increase its external
research funding, the Bureau of Intelligence and
Research received a 1978 budget allocation of only
$1 million, giving the State Department one of
the smallest research and development budgets of
any federal agency.'
? Rom Hayden to the House subcommittee on
International Security and Scientific Affairs. March 22, 1978.
A 1980 Roper poll revealed that 49 percent of.
Americans surveyed believed that foreign trade was
either irrelevant or harmful to the United States
economy, despite the fact that one of three U.S. acres
produces for export and one of six manufacturing
jobs is directly dependent on foreign trade.'
? Interview with Rose Hayden, January 1981.
"Body by Fisher," describing a General Motors
product, translated as "Corpse by Fisher" in Flemish,
which did not help sales. Schweppes Tonic Water
was advertised in Italy as "bathroom water." Cue
toothpaste, a Colgate-Palmolive product, was
advertised in France without translation errors, but
Cue happens to be the name of a widely circulated
book on oral sex. A laundry soap ad in Quebec
promised users "clean genitals." "Come Aiive with
Pepsi" almost appeared in the Chinese version of
Reader's Digest as "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors
Back from the Grave."
? Rep. Paul Simon, op. cit.
When General Motors put out its Chevrolet Nova,
apparently no one thought of foreign sales.
Nova, when spoken as two words in Spanish, means
"It doesn't go." Not surprisingly, sales in Puerto
Rico and Latin America were few. With the name
hastily changed to Caribe, the car sold well.'
* Fred Hechinger, The A'ew York Times, March 13, 1979. A 1977 survey of business-school graduates showed
A national assessment of the world knowledge of that 75 percent of recent Ph.D.'s and D.B.A.'s hadn't
taken
seniors showed that 40 percent thought any international courses and that another
Israel was an Arab nation, and only somewhat 10 percent had taken only one international course.'
di the International Dimensions
fewer that Colda Meir was president of Egypt.' of Higher dmat ion 1,p-wamy ftass San Francisco, 1980.
? Chaage magaz magazine, Octolxr 19778.
A 1977 Gallup poll showed that 50 percent of all Pan Am had to interview 16,000 applicants in 1977 70 Americans did not know that the United States must - to fill t forty the applicants lice werositi clad Almost
use of rej import petroleum. Less than 10 percent knew we l cef pl nls
were importing one half of our energy requirements.* insufficient language skills.'
* Callup poll of 1977. Aid.
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Ms. HAYDEN. I should say that none of this is new to you. After
all, you wrote the book, "The Tongue-Tied American," as well as
the Law.
Finally, H.R. 3231, as I have suggested, is a timely statement of
public importance, which forges a new relationship between the
Government and the schools and universities of this Nation, in the
service of addressing the critical challenge of extending America's
global competence. It stimulates public awareness of the problem
and suggests concrete incentives to facilitate action. Viewed in the
context of an uneven and even fickle Federal involvement with our
field, H.R. 3231 represents a critical, positive step to meld public
purpose with private initiatives. It requires the endorsement of all
branches and levels of government, of business, of the media, and
of educators if it is to succeed. As its chief architect, we applaud
your vision and stand ready to assist you as you indicate.
From the President all the way down the line, foreign language
competence has not been a strong suit of our people. Historically
speaking, a researcher named John Krueger discovered that on the
whole, our Presidents were not and are not speakers of foreign
languages, to wit:
John Adams, our second President, was a Latin master in a
grammar school and knew some French.
John Quincy Adams actually spoke French and Dutch and was
fully bilingual when he was 14 years old.
Chester Arthur was a Latin classics major.
Millard Filmore-remember him?-refused to accept an honor-
ary degree from Oxford University in England on the grounds that
it, was written in Latin and no one ought to accept what he himself
cannot read.
Herbert Hoover failed German in 1893.
Franklin Roosevelt did not use an interpreter when dealing with
deGaulle-deGaulle wished he had.
Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly-French and German that is-and
carried a big stick. When former King Carroll of Romania once
tried to engage Harry Truman in a conversation and asked him:
"Do you speak French?" Truman replied, "No French, and very
little English." The King got the message and left.
I think that we Americans have to get the message and change
our habits of arrogance and apathy with respect to others.
We are often exposed to nonsense when analyzing why it is that
Americans do not learn foreign languages. The implication is that
we cannot change. One of the most ridiculous prevailing prejudices
is that somehow people from other nations are born with a unique
genetic code that enables them to unravel other languages with
ease, while Americans simply lack the native ability to learn about
other peoples, cultures and languages.
Baloney.
Other nations and peoples are more successful because they are
motivated to learn other languages, they invest heavily in such
instruction, and students spend a whole lot of time dedicating
themselves to some degree of mastery. If we choose to confront our
linguistic paralysis, I, for one, am convinced we can achieve im-
pressive results.
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By increasing its modest investment in foreign language instruc-
tion, the Federal Government can take a demonstrable step toward
reversing the decline of American influence abroad by extending
American competence in world affairs.
As a nation, the United States must invest its energies, talents,
and resources so that its level of international influence and re-
spect remain commensurate with its actual power.
America has always met her international challenges. Indeed, we
now know that the world is not nor will it ever be a better place
should America withdraw from its global vision and role.
H.R. 3231 is, admittedly, only one modest response to an enor-
mous national challenge. Nonetheless, its very existence both for
our field and our Nation gives any collective response to America's
international quest some promise of future achievement. That, in
and of itself, is significant.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much.
I think what I would like to do is hear Dr. Eliason and direct
questions to both of you.
Doctor?
STATEMENT OF O. LeGRANDE ELIASON, PRESIDENT, ELIASON
INTERNATIONAL
Mr. ELIASON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As you can see, this is a $100 bill.
Anata wa kono yo na biru ga watakushi ni kudasainasen ka?
Obviously, Mr. Simon, you did not understand that I invited you
to give me another $100 bill that looked just like this one. Some-
times this is misinterpreted with this kind of an introduction to
accept my $100 bill.
I think of the frustration that must have existed in the Ameri-
can Embassy in Afghanistan when the Russian soldier tried to
defect. I can see American personnel running aroung hither and
yon, and the Russian probably speaking louder and louder thinking
that louder means clearer and this has been my experience when I
have been in situations or observed situations in which Americans
assume this.
Mr. SIMON. If I may interrupt the witness, that Soviet soldier
happened to also speak German. There was no one at our embassy
at Kabul who spoke either Russian or German.
Mr. ELIASON. I appreciate your book. I have not read it, but I
have read excerpts from it, and read quite a bit from your book.
One of your phrases concerning the importance of language, it is a
key to opening minds and attitudes, to speak, read, write and
understand other languages is the beginning and understanding of
other people.
Today there is not time for me to enlarge on the number of
examples that have happened personally to me. There must be
literally thousands and thousands in my 12 years in the Orient, in
my interaction with people in the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan,
Korea, and the benefits that have come to me as a result of
understanding some of these languages is just enumerable.
Language is so important, it seems to me, that one company has
stressed hiring language-qualified people and teaching in the tech-
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nical responsibilities of jobs rather than hiring technicians and
trying to train them in language.
I think a problem that is often misunderstood in the United
States today is the fact that there is no relationship between the
language problem and availability of language-qualified people,
there are literally at my beck and call, I suppose, I could say,
thousands and tens of thousands of language-qualified people who
are interested in obtaining any type of employment in which they
? can use their language skills.
Some of them are now actively looking, and many of them would
willingly change their employment were such positions available to
them.
I think the entire problem of language in this country is not the
available or unavailability of languages. I think it is the hiring
practices of Government and of business.
I think this will nail down the entire problem and I think that if
businesses were to hire and give hiring preference to individuals
who speak foreign languages, if Government would give hiring
preference to individuals who speak foreign languages, I think we
would create a demand which would drop down to the public school
system and enhance the language training.
Of course, I am in favor of teaching languages at very early ages.
In my travels throughout the Far East, I have often envied the
young Japanese or Chinese child at their affluency at their own
language and I suppose they may envy us for ours.
I think you mentioned in your book and elsewhere, that the
State Department does not require an individual to speak a foreign
language for being hired and yet that same agency is estimating
that it will cost over $8 million to eliminate the language problems
within that particular department.
All the Government agencies have estimated over $34 million
would be required to train their people to that extent that there
would be no language problem.
So my recommendation would be in addition to what I have
written that a foreign language coordinating council be organized
in which university presidents from prominent universities and
prominent business presidents and industrial leaders and Congress-
men be called together and evaluate language training within the
United States and the use of the foreign languages and there are
several things they could do to enhance that.
One thing would be to, as I mentioned previously, to give hiring
preference to individuals who speak foreign languages within Gov-
ernment and within business and I would like to see universities
matriculate only students who have a background in foreign lan-
guages and graduate only students who have achieved a certain
level of foreign language study. And I see where a bill that would
supplement the universities for the loss and attrition of these
students. I think that such a requirement by universities and by
government and by business would require individuals going into
the universities to have these languages, and businesses would hire
on a preferential basis those who have the languages, and this
would impact on the public school system, so if the demand would
be there, then the supply would automatically come. There would
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64
be a much higher demand for engineers resulting in an increased
number of engineers.
I think in conclusion, we might compare the language study with
the stockpiling of vitamin capsules. Without use, either of them
lose their effectiveness.
Also, if I may take a minute to comment on the items that have
come to mind as a result of hearing other testimonies here today,
while I was in the Air Force a number of years ago, in 1963 I
recommended that military people be assigned overseas on the
basis of their knowledge of languages as an incentive to get them
over there, and do away with the ugly American image that so
many of us have over there and our unwillingness to study foreign
languages.
I was given 14 lieutenants, each of which knew different lan-
guages, and there was a period awaiting intelligence training and
none of us could get in because we were awaiting our background
investigations and each lieutenant was assigned different cultures
to study, et cetera, and they conducted courses down in Texas for
every American going abroad to encourage them to study the for-
eign languages and the culture.
I taught with the University of Southern California and we lived
in Korea, and I taught also in the Philippines and Kwajlein and
made an effort to learn a little bit of these languages while I was
in those countries, having previously studied Japanese and Chi-
nese.
I would like to introduce my wife who is vice president of our
company. The opportunities that have come to us as a result of
exposure to these languages is just, well, business opportunities for
example, my wife is managing director of a Japanese company
right now that is going to be bringing 1,000 Japanese students to
the United States every year for 1 year of training to become
acquainted with English, our culture.
These are the people who are going to be coming back and
winning business contracts with us. They are going to be head and
shoulders above us, and we ought to be doing more to insure that
our people have these opportunities to live abroad.
After terminating Brigham Young University as an administra-
tor, I felt so keenly about this problem that I have formed this
Eliason International, formed solely for the purpose of getting indi-
viduals placed with international companies where they could use
the languages.
I think within 2 weeks to a month I could have 1,000 Japanese
Americans, that is, Americans who speak fluent Japanese who
would be willing to be hired and sent somewhere where they could
use the language.
Last year I offered to provide 400 Chinese linguists free of chare
to the United States when we were conducting an expedition in
Peking. Chinese laws would not permit them to go in, and they
want to use their own interpreters and they did not have hotel
space for them, but we have many people within the country who
do speak languages and should have this opportunity to use them.
Ambassador Richardson stated this morning just a little knowl-
edge of the language will open tremendous doors and, I think of my
experience in Peking last year, when just a short phrase in Tagalog
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opened up doors with some Philippines and some business opportu-
nities there.
Just a few words I remembered in Russian created an atmos-
phere where these two Russians, every time they would see me,
they would greet me and we would talk, one incident after another,
just from a small amount of language, and so this would be my
recommendation, that we, overall, I suppose, that we look at our
hiring practices within the United States and that we start hiring
these people and making languages a desirable thing to acquire.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you.
Your business, as I understand it, is basically a personnel place-
ment business; is that correct? And you charge either the company
or the individual for that placement?
Mr. ELIASON. Another professor and I formed the company, and
he is continuing his work there, whereas, I terminated and felt I
had to put my full energy into it, but it was organized really to
correct what I consider to be a big problem.
I felt companies around the United States were not aware we
have such language talent in the country. An ambassador from
Brazil has written to me, and I get letters from around the world.
It is the companies that have to open the doors. I have written
thousands of letters, but very few companies respond.
I formed another corporation where I feel that many individuals
who desire to work abroad and to use their language skills, they
are not prepared, and so we have formed international employ-
ment enhancement seminars, so that we can hopefully sometime
run around the country and conduct seminars and tell people what
opportunities exist, and how to prepare themselves academically
with cultural problems and really how to get the job.
There is an awful lot that can be done, and I hope to eventually
create a company where we will teach young language students
individual exporting laws, assign companies on an importing basis,
exporting just one product to get the feel of how to do it, and after
they have completed the course, they can be assigned to work full-
time with a company and use these skills.
There is so much that can be done that we are not doing.
Mr. SIMON. One of the realities is that if you get to be president
of an American corporation, and you have never had any language
skills, you tend to think the system that produced me has to be
pretty good, and so that it does not seem that important.
? One of the other things that businesses could do that would be
an asset to them, simply on forms, when you fill out an application
for a job, say, do you have knowledge of another language, and you
know, what is your relative skill and so forth. Just a little thing,
but then business would have a pool of people that, if there are
guests from Roumania and go through that list and find someone,
you have turned this into an asset for that company if you find
someone that speaks Roumanian.
Dr. Hayden, one of the arguments that is used against passing
this bill is the argument that says we have a real quality problem,
and before we start producing quantity, we better take care of the
quality problem.
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I have argued in response that that was the argument that was
used against us when we mandated education for the handicapped.
One of the big arguments was, we don't have quality, or we don't
have the numbers of people, let's not mandate.
We found out when we mandated that in fact we improved the
quality in the process, but having said that, I recognize that there
is a quality problem. If tomorrow Dr. Rose Hayden were to be
named Secretary of Education-and in case there is anyone here
from that office, Dr. Bell's job is not in jeopardy as far as I know-
but if Rose Hayden were named Secretary of Education, what
would you be doing at the Federal level to encourage an improve-
ment in quality education, and then I would like to direct that
question to you also.
Ms. HAYDEN. With respect to the original argument that there is
somehow a zero-sum relationship in protecting quality, I would like
to share with you one of my favorite phrases: There are two kinds
of people in the world, those who dichotomize and those who don't.
I don't.
The potential for quality is the issue. The fact is that in many
respects, having geared up an infrastructural system at all levels of
education for language teaching and having watched it erode over
time with the student-centered curriculum of the sixties, the drop-
ping of language requirements in higher education, and the spread
effect down the line, what we really have in terms of the language
profession is like the old car that sits in the driveway. If we don't
start it somehow, if this bill is not a good battery to start it up, it
will never run. That it may need a new fender and a whole lot of
other repairs does not spoil the initial judgment which is to get on
with doing something. That will in a sense push that vehicle again,
and gear it up so that it performs.
The potential for quality foreign language instruction has never
been higher. I think we know more now than we did in the first
blush of Sputnik, in the sense that some very interesting break-
through work is occurring in research on attrition of skills, and on
attainment of actual proficiency in the language of study.
It is not enough that someone becomes proficient. We must know
about how and when and why and where, one loses that proficien-
cy. We know more about proficiency testing than we used to know,
and we are more and more inclined to want to apply it. So my
mission, should I decide to accept it as Secretary of Education,
would be to try to monitor carefully experimental projects and to
take the point of departure, not of institutional need but of individ-
ual progress through the system-almost like the pig through the
python.
Taking this point of departure, one asks questions like these:
What happens to the early learner, the K through 12 student, as
he or she moves through the system? Do they go to a middle school
that teaches French and on to a high school where either no
language is taught, or if it is taught, the student has to start all
over again with the same basic text?
The point of departure would be to have very experimental grant
programs, a good strong advisory relationship with language pro-
fessors who are on top of the field with respect to proficiency
testing, attrition of language skills, and have a good consciousness
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about what happens to the learner as he or she goes through the
system, and then some of the critical problems of the field could be
addressed that effect quality, namely, the provision of more ade-
quate articulation among levels of language instruction, more
access to quality education, reinvigorated emphasis on excellence
in terms of testing, and most important of all, I think, a recogni-
tion that the government would top off worthwhile experiments,
would not step on, but rather be in step with those people who
4 want to do this job well.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you. Doctor?
Mr. ELIASON. I surely subscribe to what Dr. Hayden has stated. I
think that I would encourage the participation in foreign exchange
programs more than perhaps we have been doing, and I would like
to get a number of university professors or presidents, rather,
together, and encourage them to go for broke literally, I suppose, in
some cases by requiring language and matriculation requirements
into the universities. When I say universities, institutions of higher
education.
Mr. SIMON. That is what this bill encourages, nudges colleges and
universities in that direction.
Mr. ELIASON. I support that fully and particularly institutions
that have a limited enrollment. I have been riding Brigham Young
University for 2 years, while I was still employed and after I left
there, encouraging them to put this requirement in. It has been
evaluated by the faculty advisory committee and a similar recom-
mendation made.
I suppose there are some concerns there, but they are limited to
25,000 people and turning away thousands every year who are not
able to get in, discriminating on a 3.332 GPA, instead of 3.331, well,
going up three decimal points.
That is one institution that could be doing something about it.
There are others, of course.
I would call them together and say, look, we have got a language
problem in the country, you can solve it, and if you take care of
this part of the problem, then we think the public schools will start
teaching the kids to get into the institution.
Mr. SIMON. The difficulty now is we are not even communicating
to the schools that we have a language problem and that is one of
the fundamentals.
Ms. HAYDEN. One other comment about how we might look at
the reward structure and incentives for this. If one were truly
? serious about increasing the quality of foreign language instruc-
tion, there should be incentives or rewards for those States that
toughen up their certification and in-service requirements for for-
eign language teachers by linking these to a proficiency base.
There should also be some kind of incentive for the outstanding
teacher and student. Even if each congressional district gave an
outstanding language achievement award to a few students of
major languages and to a few teachers of those languages and
coupled that with a Fulbright or Peace Corps opportunity or what-
ever, it would send very powerful signals to educators that we care
about performance. We are not only starting the old engine up
again, but we want to really fix up this vehicle overall.
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Mr. ELIASON. A national language honors program such as the
National Spelling Bee or something like that with the different
languages would perhaps give some students an incentive to work
a little more diligently in the languages and receive recognition for
testimony.
[The prepared statement of LeGrande Eliason follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF O. LEGRANDE ELIASON, PRESIDENT, ELIASON
INTERNATIONAL
After no response to my "Hello!" I was determined to get an answer from this
crotchety, dour-looking individual, and then asked, "How are you?" He replied in a
gruff manner, "Ya Rossich." I then asked him in Russian, "How are you comrade?
How is your wife? There isn't a cloud in the sky," and other phrases remembered
from my study of Russian some 20 years ago. By the time the elevator had descend-
ed to the first floor we were back-slapping, hand-shaking friends. Just a few words
in a foreign language had paid off again.
Mr. SIMON. Good, we thank you both very, very much for your
1. BACKGROUND
For several years my concerns have centered on the failure of government and
business to hire the large number of people in the United States who speak foreign
languages. My international business was subsequently organized in November 1979
for the purpose of placing with national and international businesses and govern-
ment, professionally-qualified individuals with foreign language skills.
I terminated my employment at Brigham Young University feeling that my full-
time efforts in contacting multinational corporations and government agencies
would result in the placement of these people. After all, those whom I would
represent speak one or more of some 50-70 different languages and most occupation-
al groups are featured. What I felt would result in a landslide of requests for
personnel has become instead a real "selling" job.
I have lived in East Asia for approximately 12 years (Japan, Taiwan, Okinawa,
Korea, Philippines, and on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands) in the capacity of
LDS Missionary, USAF Officer, and USC Professor. I speak Japanese and Chinese
and have formally studied German (2 years), and one year each of Russian, French,
and Spanish. I have also studied a little Korean, Tagalog, and Marshallese.
Business positions currently held include: Chairman and President Eliason Inter-
national and Chairman and President International Employment Enhancement
Seminars. A future goal is to establish an international foreign language and
business center within the next 3-5 years.
II. EXPERIENCE WITH LANGUAGE FAILURES
U.S. Representatives Paul Simon and Leon Panetta have noted many problems
caused by cultural or foreign language shortcomings. A few more include:
A. Former President Harry Truman. President Truman on one occasion addressed
Chiang Kai Shek as Mr. Shek instead of Mr. Chiang.'
B. Symposium in Peking/Beidaiho, PRC.-As a participant at the World Coal/
World Mining Symposium in the People's Republic of China last September, I
learned that only one caucasian among the 300 plus foreign delegates in attendance
from over 30 countries could speak Chinese. That more corporations were not
intelligently represented by persons familiar with the culture and language of the
host country is unthinkable! A few simple phrases spoken by me in various lan-
guages to the delegates resulted in increased social interaction throughout the 10-
day activity and enhanced my business contacts.
C. Tucson elevator.-A greeting to a Chinese businessman in a Tucson, Arizona,
hotel resulted in on-doing communication to the present time (three years later).
LIttle did I realize then that this gentleman was the president of an international
trade group in Taiwan and that he would be of invaluable assistance to me in the
years to come.
D. Planning ahead.-A prominent Japanese businessman in Atlanta, Georgia,
remarked to me last year that he "loves" America and that it hurt him to see the
U.S. in its present economic straits. He expressed his feelings that current business
1 Tharp, Robert N. Incident related to Chinese Students, July 1963.
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problems in the U.S. stem from our failure to plan for the future; that our financial
interests unfortunately center on the "bottom line" each year. His philosophy
reflects the patience which characterizes the people of his country. We might note,
for example, that corporate representatives of one Japanese company have been in
Burma "preparing" for the past 25 years, but have yet to conclude their first sale in
that country!2 One wonders how well they speak Burmese.
E. U.S. Government representatives abroad.-The U.S. Government has failed to
insure that key military commanders and some other government representatives
have assigned to them as consultants, persons knowledgeable in the foreign cultures
and languages. Mr. Robert Tharp, Director of the Chinese Language Program at
Yale University in the late 1950s and 1960s, has long advocated such a policy which
would eliminate some of the "problems" caused by our uniformed representatives in
foreign lands. Better yet would be that key personnel have a strong command of the
foreign languages and understanding of social customs, thereby eliminating the
need for consultants. Something is always lost in translation.3
F. US. Government language training programs.-Strong criticism has been levied
against various government agencies due to their failure to adequately use the
foreign language skills taught to personnel at great expense. The U.S. Government
paid dearly for one year of Chinese language instruction for me at Yale University,
but subsequently failed to allow me to use my language skills in an official Air
Force capacity. Some provisions should be made to insure that language training is
not wasted and that maximum use is made of language skills. The use of individuals
who already possess language skills should be emphasized.'
G. US. Government and business institutions.-Probably one of the greatest con-
tributors to our "language failure" in the U.S. is the failure of government and
business to use the services of individuals who already posses foreign language
skills. Reasons for this neglect may include:
Thoughtlessness or failure by government and business institutions to communi-
cate their needs to universities;
Failure of individuals in strategic positions to recognize the value of foreign
languages (not possessing these skills themselves); and
Failure to plan ahead; and
The fear of some corporate representatives to hire foreign language-qualified
individuals because they fear the loss of their own positions. One corporate manager
verbally expressed to me his fear of losing his job and, contrary to an employment
order requested by his superior, failed to hire two exceptionally well-qualified indi-
viduals.5
H. Language-qualified professionals.-In the United States there are literally
thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of individuals who speak foreign lan-
guages and who possess professional qualifications; yet most are unable to find
employment in which they can use their language skills.6
I. Need for U.S. Language Coordinating Committee.-There appears to be little, if
any, coordination in the United States between foreign language training facilities
and institutions which would use these services. Hiring practices should be reviewed
by government, business, and educational institutions with greater emphasis being
placed on foreign language skills.
J. Double taxation.-The United States is the only industrialized country in the
world which taxes its citizens on income earned abroad after they have been taxed
by the respective foreign governments. This policy adversely affects our competitive
edge, reduces the number of Americans sent abroad, and increases the number of
problems resulting from the use of "foreign" representatives.7
K. Inflation and high costs.-Mr. Walter A. Guyer, Vice President of Internation-
al Harvester, stated in a recent communication to me:
"Today's cost of maintaining an American Foreign Service Employee (AFSE) in
an overseas post has risen to extraordinary levels. As a result, we are currently
reviewing, on a corporate basis, our business strategy with respect to AFSE's and
management of our overseas operations.
"Without a doubt, in the future we will be sharply reducing the number of
managers transferred to overseas assignments. Those assignments which will be
filled with AFSE's, in the future, will most certainly be restricted to a relatively few
key management positions in our large overseas subsidiary companies. The individ-
'Source is unknown.
3 See footnote 1 above.
a Chinese language skills were used unofficially in "People to People" program.
5 These expressions were made in the U.S. and abroad.
6 There are thousands of interested persons in this community alone.
' Parker, Robert. Former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan.
Remarks at USA-ROC Economic Conference in Taiwan in May 1980.
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uals assigned to these positions will most likely be experienced International Har-
vester Company employees. .."8
III. STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF HAVING CITIZENS WELL-VERSED IN
LANGUAGES
A. Need to export and communicate.-Mr. Erland Higgenbotham, Director Gener-
al of Foreign Commercial Service, has expressed concern with the large number of
manufacturers in the United States who fail to export. He expressed his feelings on
one occasion that a significant reason is ignorance of exporting laws.9 Mr. David
Edwards, Director of Liaison of the Joint National Committee for Languages, clearly
explains the necessity of good communication in the statement of purpose of his
organization.' 0
B. Japanese high school student exchange programs.-Whether by government
edict, by business, or by individual perceptiveness, the Japanese are determined to
learn English and American culture. Japanese high school student exchange pro-
grams send many students to the U.S. for academic instruction every year. These
students' English will become polished and their understanding of our culture
enhanced. One can envision how these students will impact business and interna-
tional relations in the years to come.
C. U.S. regional and foreign differences.-Individual traits and mores differ from
region to region in the U.S. Characteristics typifying citizens in one region are not
always readily accepted in another. Failure to adjust one's mannerisms to the local
culture may quickly estrange him from his new community, and such examples
abound. They intensify with the introduction of a "foreigner" into a community. A
case in point: Ardeshir Zahedi, former Defense Minister of Iran and Ambassador to
the U.S., and close associate of the former Shaw of Iran, received his university
education at a western university in the U.S. He and his fellow Iranians alienated
themselves from the community in which they lived because of what was interpret-
ed to be aloofness and arrogance. Their profligate spending at the end of World War
II in this conservative community created a negative undercurrent, especially fol-
lowing Mr. Zahedi's purchase of one of the first automobiles manufactured after the
war, a red Buick convertible. Resentment was vocally expressed by local citizens
because of the apparent "blackmarket" purchase and their inability to purchase a
vehicle. This incident in the life of Mr. Zahedi typifies the behavior of too many
Americans abroad."
D. Language versus technical skills.-The importance of being able to speak
foreign languages is graphically represented by the experience and philosophy of
one U.S. corporation which determined:
"` * * after many years of not-so-successful attempts in training their personnel
in languages, that it would be easier to train one in the technical end of the rubber
business, than to train an expert to speak Spanish and Portuguese ` ` *" 12
E. Japanese or English.-During many conversations with U.S. businessmen, I
have been told that during critical business negotiations Japanese representatives
will switch from speaking English to Japanese. This has frustrated the Americans
who have expressed concern that they were out-negotiated by this maneuver.
F. Japanese secrecy.-Some Japanese companies will not hire Japanese-speaking
Americans, even in the U.S., ostensibly because of their desire to preserve secrecy.
Other employees of Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S. have reported that in one
multi-storied structure American employees are not permitted on the top floors.
IV. H.R. 3231 AND THE IMPACT IT IS EXPECTED TO HAVE ON THE LANGUAGE
SITUATION
A. Participation in foreign language studies.-Among reasons which contribute to
poor participation in foreign language studies in the United States include:
The failure of government and business to emphasize foreign language skills in
their hiring practices; and
The failure of institutions of higher learning to require prior foreign language
studies in matriculation and graduation requirements, or to at least extend admis-
sion preference to individuals who have studied foreign languages.
8 Guyer, Walter A. Letter dated May 8, 1981.
9 Higgenbotham, Erland. Speech at World Trade Association meeting, Feb. 11, 1981.
10 Joint National Committee for Languages. Statement of Purpose, no date.
I I I talked with Mr. Zahedi on a number of occasions and was privy to conversations about
him and his associates.
12 HEW Publication, ISBN-0-87352-079-3. "Careers in Foreign Languages."
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B. Use of foreign language skills.-Passage of H.R. 3231 would enhance the
teaching of foreign languages. Unfortunately, under present government and busi-
ness hiring practices, relatively few of these language-qualified persons would be
hired for positions in which their skills could be used. For example, approximately
one year ago I interviewed four highly-qualified persons for a managerial position in
Tokyo. Each of them had received his MBA (one also had a JD) and each spoke
fluent Japanese (three of them having served as Japanese language instructors!).
These candidates had been interviewed by a number of U.S. corporations and each
had received between 6-10 offers of employment, yet each desired the position in
Japan where he could use his language skills. Financial remuneration played no
part in the decision. Three of the four are now employed with U.S. institutions in
which their language skills lie dormant! Each would immediately accept a position
in which their language skills could be used.
C. International placement.-Since the organization of my placement service my
office has been inundated with telephone calls from throughout the U.S. We have
also received hundreds of resumes from individuals throughout the U.S. and abroad.
A former ambassador to Brazil has sought our assistance within the past few
months. All of this activity has taken place with a minimum of advertising! 13
D. Motivation for foreign language study extant.-In the March 1981 World Press
Review "Editor's Corneis a summery of U.S. Representative Paul Simon's book,
"The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis" (Contin-
uum, New York, $12.95). Mr. Simon quoted some statistics showing that the over-
whelming majority of parents desire that their children study foreign languages in
elementary and secondary schools.14
E. Pragmatic considerations.-Long-range application of foreign language skills
employment expectations present a gloomy picture judging from present hiring
conditions. Parental support exists for language study. Were government and busi-
ness to lend their support by offering hiring preference to foreign language-qualified
persons, language would appear more relevant, more pragmatic. If universities
required prior foreign language study as a matriculation requirement or even gave
matriculation preference to potential students with foreign language study back-
grounds then languages would be offered in the public school system. Expenditure
of federal funds would likely be unnecessary with the financial support provided
local school districts by parents. Federal funds might be better used to augment the
loss of tuition by institutions of higher learning which implement matriculation
policies which require prior foreign language study.
A. Facts.-
1. Any attempt to learn a foreign language greatly enhances one's relationship
with foreigners.
2. Many government agencies and multinational businesses fail to hire individuals
with foreign language skills and understanding of foreign cultures, although such
persons are available.
3. Some corporate representatives in the U.S. and abroad will not hire Americans
with foreign language skills because they fear the loss of their own positions. 15
4. Throughout the U.S. there are thousands or tens of thousands of individuals
who are qualified in foreign languages and who desire employment in which they
can use their language skills.' 6
5. There is a strong need to unify efforts of government, business, and institutions
of higher learning toward enhancing foreign language study in the United States.' 7
6. Double taxation of American expatriots (by American and foreign governments)
has lost a competitive edge in business for American firms.' 8
7. Approximately 7,000 U.S. citizens now return from foreign countries each year,
having served as Mormon missionaries. [Between January 1930 and December 1980,
approximately 96,000 Mormon missionaries have served missions of 2-3 years in
:length in foreign missions of the church (1930s-3,400; 1940s-5,250; 1950s-9,040;
1960s-25,000; 1970s-47,400; and in 1980-6,000).] 19 These persons speak one or
13 See footnote 6 above.
14 92 percent of the population support teaching of foreign languages in junior and senior high
schools, 75 percent would have languages taught in elementary schools, and 84 percent of
parents with children under 17 would encourage children to take a foreign language.
's See footnote 5 above.
' 6 See footnote 6 above.
' See footnote 10 above.
See footnote 7 above.
19 Christensen, Joe, President Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah 84604.
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more of some 30 different foreign languages and most of them will resume their
university education at the sophomore level and they will enter most occupational
areas of employment. Upon completion of their formal education, a large percentage
would welcome an opportunity to return to "their" land, where they also are
acquainted with the culture, for employment.20
8. There are many job positions in the U.S. which would be enhanced by individ-
uals who can speak foreign languages. This will become increasingly evident with
the large contingents of immigrants in the U.S. and those who speak Spanish as
their primary language.21
9. U.S. business methods differ from those practiced in foreign countries. Many
U.S. corporations hire foreign nationals to represent their business interests abroad.
Costly mistakes have resulted in many instances. For example, a conflict of interest
between one's country and the U.S. business may exist. How does the foreign
representative react in such instances?
10. U.S. expatriot managers too often understand neither the foreign language
nor the culture of the country in which they are employed. The natural tendency is
to limit one's associations to the expatriot community.
B. Assumptions.-
1. When business institutions and government give hiring preference in all in-
stances to individuals who have studied foreign languages, and require mandatory
language skills for designated positions, then institutions of higher learning will
provide that language instruction.
2. When institutions of higher learning either require foreign language studies as
a requirement for admittance, or extend admission preference to those who have
studied foreign languages, it follows that elementary and secondary educational
facilities will provide foreign language instruction. (Perhaps federal funding might
better be used to supplement tuition losses by universities as a result of imposing
language study as a matriculation requirement).
3. A demand for foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools
will create a demand for language teachers.
4. A demand for foreign language teachers will enhance the marketability of
foreign language skills acquired by university graduates.
5. A demand by public schools for foreign language teachers will create a need for
additional funding which can be met by district, state, or federal resources.
6. A foreign language matriculation requirement by institutions of higher learn-
ing would enable these institutions to enhance their summer enrollment. Students
who have not prepared themselves to enter institutions by prior language study
could boost summer enrollment at such institutions by participating in intensive
language studies.
7. Even as the increased demand for engineers by industry resulted in increased
numbers of engineers, so the demand for language-qualified professionals will en-
hance the participation in and offerings of foreign languages in public school and
university settings.
C. Planning.-Involvement in a variety of business functions throughout the U.S.
by businesses and institutions of higher learning would enhance the study and
practical use of foreign languages. One idea which may be of interest to some is
being planned for implementation by my corporation within 3-5 years. We plan to
construct a language training and international business center with some of the
following features and offerings:
1. International employment enhancement seminars will be conducted for the
purpose of instructing individuals how to prepare themselves for international
employment. The criteria will include:
International employment opportunities;
How to prepare oneself academically;
What cultural problems exist for the expatriot and his family; and
How to write a resume, interview, dress, get the job.
2. Intensive foreign language instruction (including English) will be provided for
individuals and for groups.
Foreign language instruction will emphasize speaking, reading, and writing as
well as studies of the cultures.
4. Language instruction will be geared to specific needs/level of understanding of
the individual.
5. Courses will be conducted in importing/exporting, and students assigned to
manufacturing firms for internship experience. Thousands of manufacturers do not
20 Personal experience, reports, and hundreds of interviews.
2 I President of Georgetown University in a recent newspaper article in which he is quoted as
saying that by 1990 one of four persons living in the United States would speak Spanish as their
native tongue.
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export because of ignorance of export laws, lack of contacts abroad, foreign language
problems, and for other reasons. Upon completion of the course or university
studies, students can be permanently placed with firms through our placement
service.
(I. Participating foreign businessmen seeking expertise in certain areas will re-
ceive instruction from qualified university and business professionals.
7. All persons employed at the center will be required to speak one or more
foreign languages. This requirement would include secretaries, cooks, gardeners, etc.
13. An on-campus residence will be constructed for individuals and for families.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
It is suggested that a permanent national council be organized, to consist of
representatives from government, business, and institutions of higher learning. This
council would meet frequently in order to assess the foreign language problem in
the U.S. and to determine and make recommendations to the various member
agencies as to how efforts can best be unified. Some suggestions which might be
evaluated by council members include:
1. Government and business entities might give job preference to persons with
foreign language skills and academic or experiential understanding of foreign cul-
tu res.
2. Universities might limit matriculation to individuals who have studied foreign
languages, or give them admission preference.
3. Universities might graduate only those students who have achieved specified
levels of foreign language competency.
4. Students who have either demonstrated or possess scholastic evidence of ac-
quaintance or understanding of foreign cultures might be given additional credit
toward hiring preference.
5. Greater emphasis might be placed on participation by U.S. students in interna-
tional student exchange programs.
6. National foreign language speaking competition might be conducted (similar to
the national spelling bee).
7. U.S. dependents abroad might be encouraged to attend local (second country)
schools in addition to supplemental training in U.S. subjects at home or in the
American community.
8. Americans abroad might be encouraged to use domestic help who have no
knowledge of English. (One quickly enters the thick of a foreign culture with this
type of experience!).
9. Government and business leaders might plan ahead and anticipate foreign
language needs in 10-20 years and hire accordingly.
VII. RECOMMENDATIONS
Since multinational businesses and the U.S. government are experiencing prob-
lems in the international area, with many representatives abroad who are poorly-
qualified or not-qualified in foreign languages, and since this adversely affects U.S.
economic and political interests in the U.S. and abroad, and since this contributes to
the excessive outflow of U.S. capital, it is essential that steps be taken to counteract
this trend.
It is proposed, therefore, that a permanent national council be organized, and that
it consist of government, business, and university leaders. This council would meet
frequently to review and evaluate the foreign language problem in the U.S. and
determine how best the different member agencies could unite their efforts.
It is proposed that U.S. Government and business interests establish policies
wherein hiring preference is given to individuals who have facility with foreign
languages and to those who have lived abroad and are acquainted with other
cultures. It is further proposed that institutions of higher learning establish policies
which either require previous foreign language studies prior to matriculation or
give admission preference to those who have undertaken such studies. It is also
proposed that additional foreign language skills be required for graduation from
such institutions.
This emphasis on foreign languages by government, business, and educational
institutions would enhance the development of such offerings in the public schools
throughout the country. Once government, business, and educational institutions
emphasize language in their various policies and hiring practices, the worth of
foreign language instruction will become apparent and participation in the program
enhanced. Many language-related problems will disappear and serendipitous bene-
fits result.
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Finally, by studying foreign languages we will earn greater respect from our
foreign associates. Although we may speak a language poorly, a simple effort will
pay great dividends in our relationships. An awareness of foreign cultures will
create understanding and lasting friendships. As we Americans show interest in
another's country, language, and culture, we are sensitive to his basic human need
to communicate. These actions reflect personal effort on our part to communicate
rather than to passively place the burden on him. They convey respect.
Mr. SIMON. Our final panel is Dr. Tracy Gray, Director of the
Office of Language and Public Policy for the Center for Applied
Linguistics, and Robert Black, Project Director, Education and the
World View, Council on Learning.
STATEMENT OF TRACY C. GRAY, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF LAN-
GUAGE AND PUBLIC POLICY, CENTER FOR APPLIED LIN-
GUISTICS
Mr. GRAY. My name is Tracy Gray, and I am the Director for the
Office of Language and Public Policy.
I feel like Henry the VIII's sixth wife. Pretty much everything
that I had planned to say has already been said, but I will take this
time to make my comments and make them concise and hopefully
interesting.
Mr. SIMON. We will enter your full statement in the record, and
you know, at any point you want to condense, feel free to do that.
Mr. GRAY. Thank you.
I am honored to be here to address the issue of foreign language
education in our nation's schools. The development of foreign lan-
guage expertise must be seen as a critical component to the eco-
nomic, social, and political policies of this country.
It is encouraging to know that a growing number of Congress-
men have recognized the importance of developing foreign lan-
guage skills commensurate with our needs in this interdependent
world.
We especially applaud the provisions of such legislation as
NDEA title VI, which hopefully will survive the night of the long
knives, which is scheduled to occur this week.
Congressman Simon has eloquently outlined the difficulties faced
by our foreign language students and educators during the past
decades. He has discussed the potential dangers to our national
security of the continuing decline in interest in foreign language
education and detailed the strong feelings of hostility and prejudice
toward the entire concept of foreign language learning.
As you, Mr. Chairman, have so eloquently noted, business and
diplomatic dealings are noted for our insistence on letting the
other party bridge the language gap. No one can deny the position
of English as one of the most widely used languages in the world (if
both native and nonnative speakers are included). Nor can one
ignore its critical link with technology, economic power, and diplo-
macy.
However, a myopic insistence on its exclusive use in internation-
al activities seems both ingnorant and ineffective.
There are numerous studies which indicate that international
business dealings could be enhanced if Americans could speak the
local languages. So why does the business world continue to view
foreign language capabilities as strictly an ancillary skill?
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The answer to this question falls in the category of the proverbi-
al chicken and egg phenomenon. Are there fewer foreign language
students because there are fewer programs or is the reverse true?
The research conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics
would suggest that our few foreign language students are frus-
trated by a teaching profession best by the threat of oblivion.
Attacks continue on the relevance of foreign language learning
as a preparation for life in the real world. In addition, there is the
inadequency of, or general dissatisfaction with, the foreign lan-
guage training provided by schools and universities.
These factors all contribute to frustrated students, disinterested
corporations, elimination of language requirements, and abolition
of programs.
All this points toward some real problems facing our Nation in
the area of developing competence in foreign language skills.
While the ambivalence about studying other language prevails,
we can see rising interest from various sectors of the United States.
This was clearly evident when a small paragraph inadvertently
appeared in Changing times stating that the Foreign Service Insti-
tute had materials to learn a variety of foreign languages-particu-
larly the less popular ones.
Since this notice appeared, FSI has been inundated with requests
from all over the country for all different languages. Thousands of
the requests are from individuals who have lost their first language
or are travelling abroad and want to void the Ugly-American syn-
drome.
With this in mind, let us turn to H.R. 3231 which offers an
opportunity to bring about an important change in foreign lan-
guage study.
I would now like to address four provisions in the bill:
Section 1. The connection between national security and foreign
language expertise cannot be emphasized too strongly. It may be a
cliche, but there is much truth in the statement that "the original
loses in the translation."
We cannot continue to rely on a handful of translators and
interpreters, many of whom are not Americans, to filter informa-
tion during sensitive top-level diplomatic and business negotiations.
You have eloquently detailed numerous examples of American
embarrassment and misinformation that has been conveyed during
diplomatic deals.
The United States has experienced enough humiliating experi-
ences in diplomatic and business dealings to convince us that you
never know when their translators might have a bad day and
misrepresent the facts.
It is at our own peril that we have failed to provide incentives
for students to acquire the necessary skills to serve as translators
and interpreters. This bill would do precisely that.
Section 2. Research evidence supports this provision to fund inno-
vative language programs at the elementary school level. Young
children have an innate ability to learn different languages and we
are one of the few countries that does not develop these skills.
However, a word of caution is necessary. A current study of
elementary school foreign language programs indicates an alarm-
ing pattern: Children often begin foreign language study in pri-
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mary school with great success, only to find that the program ends
abruptly. Why? Because no provision had been made to insure
continuity throughout the school curriculum [Center for Applied
Linguistics, 1981].
Since we already know that language learning is cumulative,
this bill must insure that students need not keep returning to
square one in order to learn a language. All of us who have ever
studied a foreign language understand that wise old adage: "If you
don't use it you lose it. ' Nothing could be more true than with
foreign language learning.
Section 3. We support increased Government assistance for post-
secondary programs to promote the study of a foreign language
beyond the second year. The need for higher stipends is due to the
potential increase in costs of maintaining language programs when
enrollments may be low.
The proposed concept that such a cost differential be included in
the bill recognizes the need for at least 400 contact hours-or 3 to 4
years to acquire a solid level of proficiency. We should be cautious
of the instant 2-week crash courses that are only a quick fix and do
not stick.
In addition, the financial incentive should apply all the more to
the uncommonly taught languages, for which we find very few
highly trained individuals. The fact that there are over a billion
people today whose languages are studied by fewer than 200
Americans should give pause for thought [Starr, 1978].
Section 6. We must emphasize the importance of the bill's provi-
sions to insure that postsecondary programs which qualify for fund-
ing are those that meet at least 5 days each week for a minimum
of 50 minutes. While it is true that very few institutions of higher
education have programs which would apply under this provision,
H.R. 3231 is to bring about important changes and improvements
in foreign language instruction.
One change, if we as a people are serious about learning other
languages, is to support and extend the scope of foreign language
programs. No more interns after the second one.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much.
Our next witness is Robert Black. Pleased to have you with us.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT BLACK, PROJECT DIRECTOR, EDUCA-
TION AND THE WORLD VIEW, COUNCIL ON LEARNING, NEW
ROCHELLE, N.Y.
BLACK. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Mr
.
What I would like to do is to enter my formal statement into the
record.
Mr. SIMON. It will be entered in the record at this point.
[The prepared statement of Robert Black follows:]
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT BLACK, PROJECT DIRECTOR, EDUCATION AND THE
WORLD VIEW, COUNCIL ON LEARNING, NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.
I am Robert Black, Project Director of "Education & the World
View". My resume is attached. I have just completed a major
national assessment of the state of foreign language and inter-
national studies in the American undergraduate curriculum. The
purpose of this project is to help move campuses across the
nation to strengthen and enhance foreign language and international
studies. The published documents resulting from the project are
a principal instrument in this endeavor.
My testimony before the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Edu-
cation is to support the principle of federal support for foreign
language learning by American college students and to suggest
some alternative wording for particular lines of this bill that
will strengthen the bill's ability to achieve what it intends.
There is not any doubt in my mind that the United States' national
security and its economy will be strengthened by increased num-
bers of school and college leavers becoming proficient in a second
or foreign language. I speak not only from personal experience
as a former active duty member of the Armed Forces and as a policy
analyst who gained access to high government officials in other
countries because of my own language abilities but also from
having examined over the past three years the state of interna-
tional education (including language learning) at America's 3,200
two- and four-year undergraduate institutions. In addition I
bring to bear two years of observations gained from in-depth inter-
views with line managers in numerous transnational firms while I
was on The Conference Board's project examining multinational
corporate practices.
The bottom line is that it is a necessary national objective to
establish as a national asset a much greater number o e ucate
Americans that can speak, write, read, and understand a second
or foreign language. Because this is a national need, it is
highly fitting that the Congress of the United States fund in
part formal foreign language study at our schools, colleges,
and universities. This is not an improper or obtrusive function
of the federal government, but one that is sorely needed given
changed global circumstances that exist today. With the world
in such flux, learning a foreign language is a necessary basic
for large numbers of Americans. In its conclusions, our Task
Force on undergraduate international education observed that
"General competency in a second language" was a "necessary requisite
Th ,,..r Vernon Alden, Jnoea H. Billing[,.. Joh Brademea, Winfred L. Godwin, Stephen R. Gravbard, Frer"is Rappel,
Clark Herr, F. David Mathew,, Jene C. Pleiffer. Hayden W. Smith, Freak Stanton. Jerome M. Ziegler,
George W. Bonham, Executive Director
Change Magazine is the oFfici.1 magazine of the C...cil o" Learning
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78
H.R. 3231 Testimony (VI-81) ?2
for the college experience in the 1980s and beyond."
A bill such as H.R.3231 is thus in many ways a welcome piece
of legislation. If the federal government does not assist the
various educational agencies in establishing adequate, proficiency-
based programs in foreign language learning, we will find it very
difficult to achieve the aims of this bill through private means
alone. Additionally, the fact that a federal recognition is given
by means of such support to this important necessity will help
trigger wider support from among other private sources that do
not currently assist in this area.
What I wish to suggest with regard to the particular wording of
this draft of the bill is that it may allow for "more of the
same" with regard to postsecondary language instruction. That
is, it will not achieve the intended aims. Many institutions
will continue to offer the very same drudgery as language courses
that contributed to the demise in language learning that we have
been witnessing over the last decade. Incentives to reestablish
traditional course or semester-hour language requirements will
not create proficient American foreign language users for us.
Incentives that appear to place more emphasis on one year (or
the first year) of language study rather than the second, third,
or fourth will not move us very much closer to the intended goals.
Furthermore, when highly effective proprietary methods exist in
such centers as the Michel Thomas Language Centers (in Southern
California) or the World Trade Institute's Language School (in
New York City), it is not very propitious to recommend by way
of non-discriminating federal support the less effective methods
that have plagued many of our educational institutions.
I believe that these problems can be overcome by substituting
alternative wording at appropriate points in H.R. 3231. In
times of extremely tight budgets, we can ill afford to have
this necessary support sidelined or derailed. I think that
this alternative wording will help in the process of surviving
the gauntlet.
On page 1 within the descriptive title of H.R. 3231, change the
,lines relating to higher education to read:
..and for reimbursement of institutions of higher educa-
tion for part of the costs of providing foreign language
.instruction." / new wording underlined -7
Other changes in alternative wording proffered will move this
type of funding from being purely "per capita" as was originally
intended, although a per capita measure may be used to establish
the level of funding granted.
On page 2 within Sec. 1, add a new subsection (4) between lines
16 and 17 to read:
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16a (4) the educational institutions should ensure in the
process of their foreign language instruction that
students gain an approriate level of general competency
in a second or foreign language."
On page 4 in Sec.2 (b), add a subsection (4) regarding assurances
about evaluations of competency or proficiency between lines 7
and 8:
7 'hpplication; and
7a (4) provides assurances that the local education agency
will provide standard evaluations of pupils' proficiency
at appropriate points in the program, and provide such
evaluations to the Secretary."
On page 4, in Sec.3 (a)(2), change per centum amount on line
19 to read:
19 "that fiscal year exceeds 10 per centum of the total number of"
Many institilions can easily reach the 5% mark. Making the re-
ceipt of federal funds that easy may not move to any real en-
hancement of or strengthening of foreign language studies at
the institutions concerned. To offset this added degree of
requirement, leave the 5% figure stand on page 6, line 13.
On page 4, in Sec.3 (a)(2), lines 23 and 24 change to read:
23 "number of full-time degree candidate students enrolled at
the institution, and
24 (B) the number of part-time degree candidate students en-
rolled at the
25 institution..."
These federal monies should not be allowed to subsidize those
tuition-generating programs that are not aimed at the degree
candidates but at the wider public which could possibly choose
more effective proprietary methods.
On page 5, in Sec.3 (a)(3), add on line 7 to read:
7 "which evaluate the progress and proficiency of students
in such programs."
This legislation must send the signal very strongly that
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80
H.R. 3231 Testimony (VI.81) -4
traditional methods bound by "language & l terature" contexts
and that do not produce true proficiency do not contribute to
the aims of this bill. Those programs in language and litera-
ture worthy of federal support should apply through National
Endowment for the Humanities channels rather than through this
bill which purports to increase outright language learning.
On page 5, Sec. 3 (b)(1)(A)(i), line 18, change amount to read:
18 "(i) $25, multiplied by"
And on page 6, Sec.3 (b)(1)(B)(i), line 1, change amount to read:
1 "(i) $50, multiplied by"
Getting beyond the second year is of critical importance in the
postsecondary setting if language competency is to be maintained.
Other campus motivations and incentives can be used to assist in
doing this, but honing the skills already built by continuing
further study is an important signal to send to the institutions
of higher education across the country.
On page 6, Sec.4 (a)(1),.grants for language requirements at
institutions of higher education will produce far greater re-
sults if proficiency rather than credits are stressed. Change
appropriate lines between 21 and 23 to read:
21 ...which requires a general competency in a foreign language
23 achieved by means of postsecondary study for each gradu--
24 ating student. ...
On page 7, Sec.4 (a)(2), lines 10 and 11, change to read:
9 "...full-
10 time degree candidate students enrolled at the institution,
and (B) the full-time
11 equivalent of the number of part-time degree candidate
students enrolled at the
12 institution, ...
Again, it is bestto subsidize only degree candidates matriculated.
On page 7, Sec. (4)(a), add subsection (3) on assurances about
language proficiency between lines 13 and 14 to read:
13a "(3) Institutions receiving such grants shall assure the
Secretary of the levels of proficiency obtained by its
graduating degree candidates, as determined in accordance
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81
H.R. 3231 Testimony (VI.81) 5
with know proficiency standards and reported in accordance
with procedures presribed by the Secretary."
In this manner, language proficiency rather than classroom time
is stressed. We should be subsidizing the former and not the
latter.
I would leave to the Subcommittee Staff the determination if the
amounts in Sec.7 will meet the liability engendered by this alter-
native wording of substantive sections that I have just offered.
Their demographic knowledge is probably far more accurate than
ours with regard to the specific numbers involved.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to offer this means of
strengthening H.R. 3231 and its intended outcomes.
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Professional
Interests &
Competence
420 W. 15801 SL. / 13031A
New York City, New York I0027
(212)2804818 Cable: FAINACU
(914123-8700 NEWYORK
Government Relations, International Relations (IP, 10, IL, For, Pol), W. European Politics & Policies, European
Communities/Common Market, U.S. Governmental Politics & Policies, Industrial Country Politics & Policies, Policy
Studies, Energy & Environment, Multinational Firms, Business & Society, Military Studies & National Security Af-
fairs. Program Administration & Management.
Education B.S. U.S. Naval Academy 1963 Engineering
Cert. Defense Language Institute 1967 Viet Studies
George Washington University 1969 ADP Systems
American University (SIS) 1969 Intl Relations
M.A. Columbia University (GSA&S) 1974 Political Science
Cert. Institute on Western Europe 1975 European Studies
M.Phil. Columbia University (GSA&S) 1976 Political Science
Experience DIRECTOR of PROGRAMS. Council on Learning, 11176-present (George W. Bonham, Executive Director).
ADJUNCT LECTURER. International Business, Ramapo College, 1160.5/80 (Prof. Anthony Lamamta, Director,
School of Administration & Business).
ADJUNCT LECTURER. International Relations, Lehigh University, 1/79-5179 (Prof. Oles Smolansky, Chair-
man of Department).
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. Executive Program in Business Administration, Executive Programs, Graduate
School of Business. Columbia University. 7/78-10178 (Assoc. Dean Hoke S. Simpson).
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE. Institute on Western Europe, 7/77-present (pit) (Prof. Donald J. Puchala, Director &
Associate Dean, SIA).
PROJECT ASSOCIATE. The Conference Board, 6/76-6/77; CONSULTANT. 7177-7/78 (Prof. J. LaPelombara
& Dr. Stephen Blank).
STAFF ASSOCIATE. Institute on Western Europe, 9/76-6/77; ASSISTANT to DIRECTOR, 6174-8175; CON-
SULTANT. 8/75-8176 (Prof. D. J. Puchala & former Assoc. Dir. Wilfrid Kohl).
READER in POLITICAL ECONOMY. Columbia University, 9/75-5/76 (Prof. Joan E. Spero, former Dep.
Permanent Representative of U.S. to UN).
RAPPORTEUR. University Seminar on the Atlantic Community. Columbia University. 6175-7/76 (Prof. William
T. R. Fox & Annette Baker Fox).
INSTRUCTORILECTURER. Session d'Ete, Centre d'Etudes at de Documentation Europeennes. Universite de
Montreal 1975 (Prof. Gilles Lalonde, Directeur).
ASSISTANT to DIRECTOR & ASSOCIATE DEAN. International Fellows Program, School of International
Affairs, Columbia University, 6/11-8/72; CONSULTANT & P/T ASS'T, 8/72-10/74 (Assoc. Dean David S.
Smith, recent Ambassador to Sweden; Profs. Roger Ililsman & D. J. Puchala).
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT. Seminar-Institute on American Politics & Social Change, Columbia
University (Profs. Alan F. Westin & Gordon M. Adams); Spring Term 1971.
NIGHT SUPERVISOR. Butler Library, Columbia University, 9/69-6/70 (Ass't. Dean Carol I earmont).
INSTRUCTOR. U.S. Marines, 1964-66 (international affairs, government & civil affairs; military service in
regular component, 1959-69-U.S.N. 1959-63, U.S.M.C. 1963-69).
Mr. BLACK. I will make a few remarks about the strength of this
particular statement inasmuch as the statement is more technical
and relates to the wording of the bill and changes.
There is no question about the national necessity of the kind of
support you are proposing in this bill, and it has been confirmed by
the Educational and the World View project results of the survey,
one done by the Educational Testing Service of college students,
and the second one that we did at the Council on learning of
effective foreign language in international studies programs in the
United States.
Some of the testimony we have heard here today addresses-
excuse me-some of the written testimony I have provided address-
es very specific suggestions on wording that would enhance reach-
ing the objectives of your bill.
I would rather take some of that in question, though, rather than
to talk about that at the moment.
I assumed in preparing my statement that you and Members of
Congress would much prefer operating with the sort of Douglas
McGreeger theory, with the assumption in mind which build on
the diversity of an individual's interest rather than trying to inject
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cohesion, using the carrots of you bill by simply rewarding increas-
ing language learning on campuses in more of the same business-
as-usual manners.
I assumed you really wanted to get far beyond that. My state-
ment does suggest that the committee work more with innovative
opportunities rather than the old standards of numbers and re-
quirements.
Taking a prior witness' implied suggestion about admission pref-
erence to those who have proficiency or have studied foreign lan-
guages in secondary school if some how that could be brought into
the wording of the bill, it would enhance what occurs at primary
and second school levels or the job-related suggestions we can infer
such as giving through H.R. 3231 support to institutions that set up
in their placement programs coordination mechanisms to advance
graduates who have competent foreign language proficiency.
Now, it is in this dimension of moving language learning on
campus ahead in this kind of manner that is so critical in what
comes from Federal support.
That is the kind that is being offered in this bill and the kind we
find that legislation already in place and the kind of thing you
have been suggestion through your very long efforts in these en-
deavors.
The results of our project point very strongly in these very
directions. The volume written by Humphrey Tonkin and Jane
Edwards on "The World in the Curriculum," they stress very much
the necessity of communicating with the world, language instruc-
tion on campus, and on how this ought to be integrated into the
mainstream of the college experience.
Mr. SIMON. If I may interrupt the witness just to say our associ-
ation, Council on Learning, made a real contribution through that
'volume.
I read it on the plane.
The basis of my remarks that night turned out to be from that
:book. I thought it was well done.
Mr. BLACK. They stress that not only do you have to integrate it
into the curriculum, the basis of language learning ought to be
from this motivational standpoint that we should understand even
if you can get along on English in many parts of the world, you can
do much better on being able to speak the other person's language.
The volume I was responsible for, the Handbook for Exemplary
International Programs, the task force on the Council surveyed
some 200 across the Nation and wrote up 62 as exemplars, and only
a dozen of those are really strong language learning programs that
we say ought to be emulated across the country.
Granted, there are more than a dozen or so out there but we
'were really talking about plausity of effective programs on campus
that offer the opportunity of obtaining real foreign language profi-
ciency during the undergraduate experience, and that is what the
bill aimed at changing and can in fact help achieve a change in
that direction.
Also, our survey of students that was conducted for us by the
Educational Testing Service which looked at a number of dimen-
sions of global understanding of some 3,000 college students across
the Nation confirmed basically what was stated in the report of the
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President's Commission on Foreign Language International Stud-
ies, that language learning in the United States is scandalous.
The finding of this report stated straight out that only about 5 to
7 percent of the typical American graduate from college can func-
tion adequately in a foreign language, in a language other than the
student's mother tongue.
Referring to some evidence that was given to you by LeGrand
Eliason in the Joint National Committee on Languages, they
talked about an apparent language gap between the growth in
total enrollments and the growth in language enrollments.
There is a much larger gap between total enrollment and this 7
percent proficiency. Only 7 percent ever leave college with an
effective use of a second language.
Regardless of the facts or evidence that we are considering before
us, we really need to find some way of getting schools and colleges
to want to shift to a learning process whereby students gain an
effective proficiency over the course of instruction.
We have to move away from this marking time in a classroom, x
number of credit hours, semester hours, x number of minutes by
the way in which State legislatures require learning processes to
occur, because learning processes to occur, because learning proc-
esses do not occur that way.
The Council on Learning's inquiry into the higher education
learning process in many areas show that there are other sorts of
things that occur that advance the learning process, and the learn-
ing of foreign languages, students' ability to perceive as a student
goes along of gaining a real proficiency is one of the critical keys in
learning a language in such a way that when the student leaves,
the student will retain the language.
I think that in that sense, the bill can help if we look towards
other ways of teaching and learning foreign languages.
You mentioned some of these in your own book, "The Tongue-
Tied American." That is some of the proprietary methods, such as
the "Silent Way" at the World Trade Institute in New York City or
the Michel Thomas Language Centers in southern California.
These kinds of methods provide alternatives to which many
people in this country are turning to in order to learn other lan-
guages effectively.
Quality control in these two methods is very high and so that is
why I use those rather than others.
Who uses them? For example, Chase Manhattan Bank has done
a major contract with the Michel Thomas Centers to give their
executives in their various departments of the bank effective profi-
ciency in more commonly known modern languages.
In a relatively short period of time, depending upon the individ-
ual's own skills, in as few as two weeks, some of these modern
languages can be learned in a way in which they can be used
immediately in a foreign setting.
One vice president who undertook this particular course not too
long ago studied Spanish for 2 weeks and learned it adequately
enough, so that he could go to countries in South America, Peru
and Ecuador, and deal directly with his clients in deliberations.
It did not give him the ability to speak in the same way that a
long period language learning would give the person who has to
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devise contracts and work in such legalistic ways, that type of
command of the language, but it allows him to meet his clients on
terms favorable to Chase Manhattan Bank, rather than having to
rely on interpreters.
? In the business world, many decisions are made based on feeling,
empathy that occurs between two individuals involved in a negotia-
tion, and that may happen anywhere, not necessarily in the negoti-
ating room, but it could happen in a social encounter over lunch or
something of this nature, and language learning is necessary.
Corporations are recognizing this. Unfortunately, they don't have
enough people trained in languages in those positions, so they turn
to these methods. Others that want to speak well also turn to
them. If campus learning of languages could shift in such such a
way to provide real proficiency, then the bill will succeed in reach-
ing its objectives.
One suggestion is to, I would think on campuses where you are
going to find in the future they may turn to these methods in
introductory courses, so you will find instead of having to take four
years, they may in using some of your types of methods, one-half of
the normal semester's course, use that method, give the student a
feeling of having the proficiency, so the student will want to go on
his or her own and learn the language much better and, if you can
get the kind of wording in the bill to help that along, the bill will
achieve its results.
One final comment, I worked on the multinational project there
at the Conference Board, and that is a business research group.
One of the reasons they brought me into the project, my ability in
French and ability to read other languages, because they were
going to be doing research in a number of countries where the
ability of one member of the team to communicate with others was
a critical point in that succeeding.
At some point in the process of that project, we had a meeting
between on the one hand Don Stokes, dean of the Woodrow Wilson
School at Princeton; Harvey Picker, dean of the school of interna-
tional affairs at Columbia University, and with the senior manage-
ment development people of major corporations such as Exxon, one
or two others that were three, the Chase Manhattan people.
The executive D people stated very flat out that they didn't care
whether or not the people they were bringing in had language
learning. This conversation took place in 1976.
They wanted someone that had certain other kinds of functional
skills, and that they would then rely on such proprietary methods
as the World Trade Institute or the Michel Thomas Centers, and
the reason they didn't care about that so much was that they felt
that the products of the nation's colleges and universities from
typical undergraduate course work and some graduate course work
was inadequate, and they didn't want to waste time pointing out
that with their college recruiters and so forth.
If that was the attitude taken with such major corporations at
that time, those attitudes may not have changed very much be-
cause of what typically comes out of the undergraduate language
learning experience, and so my stress to you and members of your
committee is, with this bill, please do not provide something that
will allow more of the same, because we will never get to a point
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where we can increase the numbers of students that enter the
workplace that have language skills.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you, and thank you also for your specific
suggestions on language changes, and I want the staff to give me a
copy of the bill with those insertions so that I can read them.
One of the areas you touch on and Ambassador Richardson
touched on, was the 5 percent where you suggest going to 10
percent. You understand from my perspective my problems. I don't
know how we handle it. It is a more different problem than the
problem faced by Rutgers University or any other school that you
can mention.
Mr. BLACK. My suggestion for the change in the number in the
bill was simply to say, look, if you allow those that are already
doing it to take money from the Federal trough, in this case they
are not going to change. They are going to do what they want to do
with the money rather than what needs to be done with the
money.
By offering them an incentive, if you say, look, if you raise the
number to 10 percent, you can then thereby be eligible to recoup
the costs, and that is why I didn't change the number in the other
part of the bill, so they have 5 percent already, and you only
exclude 5 percent.
For having taken that extra step, they get an extra five percent
in terms of the money they can recoup for having taken the extra
steps to increase the number of enrollments on campus.
I recognize the problem you are talking about and the problem
that community colleges have. It seems to me from what our
project looked at the growth in international studies and foreign
language courses on campus coming at the community college
level, given the amount of changes in this area, that wouldn't be as
harmful to the community college as it sounds, that it might in
fact help things along, because a president of a community college,
Maxwell King down at Brevard in Florida can stand up and tell his
board of trustees, look, we have to put some of our assets into this
area, and it will benefit us. Here we are in Florida, and we can
make great use of expanding our courses.
Ms. GRAY. I think with respect to that question, is it possible
that the community colleges could be written in at the 5 percent
level and raise it to 10 percent for other universities and colleges.
Mr. SIMON. We could do that.
Ms. GRAY. I appreciate the problem at the community college
level having spent several years in California and been familiar
with that whole system, it is very true they would be not able to
match a 10-percent increase.
Mr. SIMON. You mention at the elementary level we are one of
the few countries that does not develop skills.
The statistics are just overwhelming here.
While there may be some disagreement by some researchers on
your statement that young children learn more easily, I think
there is general agreement on that, and we are one of the-actual-
ly one of the few countries that does not require foreign languages
at the elem .ntary level.
Mr. BLa'A. I can give you a very graphic experience on that
aspect. My father was in the military, and we were transferred to
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France. My father decided we would not attend the American
dependent schools but local schools in the community which we
lived outside of Paris.
We were thrown into a French school ranging with kindergarten,
third grade and I guess I was in sixth grade. My youngest brother
in kindergarten learned French in about a month, a month and a
half totally fluent at a kindergarten's level of understanding.
My middle brother learned it, roughly third grade in the United
States, he learned it in, oh, say, 2 months at the most, and it took
me about 3, 31/2 months until I felt at least totally fluent in the
:language, and granted, it is a total emerging method, but here is
no question that younger people, they are less inhibited in this
process, and that if we really want to change things around, we are
going to have to reach down to offering some form of foreign
language instruction in primary and secondary schools, primary
schools especially.
Mr. SIMON. One of the researchers at San Jose University has
the theory you learn at that younger level, because you are doing
things physically, instead of kind of in a sedentary position, and
that may very well be, but the reality is if you are 25 years old,
you are not out going to be doing the same thing you are doing in
first grade or whatever it might be.
You mentioned one other area that we touch on in the bill.
That is the need for higher stipends for less commonly taught
languages. It was interesting to, in visiting the Soviet Union at this
one language institute we visited in Kiev, they mentioned the
languages, and they mention the usual French, Spanish and so
forth, and they added Urdu.
We probably in the entire United States, even 200 million, we
probably don't have 20 or 30 students of Urdu in this whole coun-
try. That is the kind of thing we have to be taking a hard look at.
Mr. BLACK. As you remember, Mr. Chairman, by the midsixties,
when we increased our involvement in Southeast Asia the Defense
Language Institute started implementing a whole range of short
courses to force-feed servicemen en route to the Far East, and they
identified these people by having them take at that time the Army
language aptitude test, and if they scored above approximately a
50-percent mark on whatever that raw score was, they were then
assigned to take a short course en route.
The idea was that these people would then be assigned to billets
which the language was necessary of one sort of another.
The fact is when they got there, the assignment patterns were
totally irrelevant to the fact people had been through that particu-
lar course. I graduated with honors from DLI in that course; and
when I got there, they said you are a lifer, you go to a billet where
you are not going to even have a chance to talk to anybody almost.
The fact is you can train a lot of people in that, but if you don't
put them where they are needed, they are not going to want to
retain the skill and; two, you are going to waste the resource, so
even if you are looking for ways to put more money into the less
commonly taught language, and do it effectively, I still think you
have to consider what is going to happen on the other end.
Mr. SIMON. Any follow through, Dr. Gray?
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Ms. GRAY. Mr. Chairman, having aspired to the position of the
Secretary of the Department of Education, I would like to just take
1 minute to respond to the question that you asked a previous
panel.
In terms of the problems with the present foreign language
programs as we know them, I think that much of the blame does
reside within the foreign language teaching community.
We have really oversold our product in many cases, and we have
promised very quick results in a short period of time.
Mr. SIMON. To see an ad, "Speak German like a diplomat in 2
weeks," just is an affront to everyone.
Ms. GRAY. I think that that is very much the case, and often-
times students enter these programs thinking if they take French
for a semester or quarter, then they will be able to use the lan-
guage, and one of the harsh realities of language learning, particu-
larly for adults, is that it is a long process. It does not have to be
tedious, but it does require a lot of study, and one of the compo-
nents that I think makes this bill so outstanding is the fact that it
would encourage study after the second year which probably would
result in students graduating with a higher level of proficiency.
Mr. SIMON. I thank you both very much.
I might add to Mr. Black's testimony, I went through his book of
illustrative good programs, and I noted with chagrin that the State
of Illinois does not have one, as I recall in there.
Mr. BLACK. The State of Illinois has an education task force that
is working on the problem, and think that that speaks very well for
the State of Illinios. There are many States in the Nation that
need to do this and they are not doing it and the efforts of the
National Cuncil of Foreign Language and International Studies
may help remedy some of that, but even with third party work in
this area, we still are going to need a great deal of Federal support
to turn this around.
I don't know what to suggest other than that. The interest of
individual States, one would think would be adequate to motivate
States to do this. South Carolina is probably one of the larger per
capita concentrations of foreign investments in that State, and it is
moving in that direction.
Even a regional campus like South Carolina at Spartanburg, it
has to insert international dimensions into that commuter college
campus, and it has to increase the amount of language training it
provides, because it is going to increase the job opportunities for
people in that area, but I don't know how many other States are
taking a more enlightened view. I know of a number. Maybe those
are the only ones.
Mr. SIMON. You get the last word.
Ms. GRAY. You should know according to the modern language
Association the University of Illinois in Urbana has one of the best
programs in the country. It has received the Good Housekeeping
seal of approval.
Mr. SIMON. Your book which really highlights schools that, like
Kalamazoo College, I did not know what they were doing until I
read your book which was very, very helpful.
Tomorrow the hearing will begin at 9 a.m., and it will be in 2257
Rayburn.
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We will hear from the Deputy Director from the CIA, Bobby R.
Inman, and Major General Larkin of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, and from people in the academic community and from
other areas and one other witness who maybe of some interst,
Moorhead Kennedy who was one of our hostages in Iran.
We thank all the witnesses, and those of you who have appeared
and shown an interest in this subject which does not generate
tremendous crowds and tremendous surge of interest, but is really
important for the future of this Nation.
The subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:45 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENT
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION,
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:05 a.m., in room
2257, Rayburn Office Building, Hon. Paul Simon (chairman of the
subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Simon, Coleman, Erdahl, and
DeNardis.
Staff present: Nick Penning, staff assistant; Judith Simmons,
clerk; and Betsy Brand, minority legislative associate.
Mr. SIMON. I am going to take the liberty of convening our
subcommittee before my colleagues get here. They should be arriv-
ing shortly. We are on the second day of hearings on the bill that
would encourage-or it is our hope that it would encourage-a look
at this whole question of where we are going in foreign language
study.
We have a series of witnesses today that can help us focus on
that. First we will take as a panel Adm. Bobby Inman, who is the
Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former
head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, if my memory is correct;
Maj. Gen. Richard Larkin, the Deputy Director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency; and Craig Wilson, the Special Assistant to the
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Communications, Command,
Control, and Intelligence.
We are pleased to have you here. And Admiral Inman, we will
start with you, and you may proceed as you wish. Read your
statement or have it entered in the record, and then informally
summarize. However you wish to proceed.
[The prepared statement of Adm. Bobby Inman follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ADM. BOBBY R. INMAN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, good morning, let me begin by
thanking you for giving me this opportunity to express my views on the need for
? strong leadership by the federal government for developing our nation's foreign
language capability. This subject is of great interest to me personally and of particu-
lar relevance to my position as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. For some
time now it has been evident to me that our nation's foreign language capability
has been rapidly deteriorating. One of the most obvious results of this deterioration
is the adverse impact it is having in the Intelligence Community.
The importance of adequate foreign language capability in the Intelligence Com-
munity cannot be overstated. The development of technical intelligence systems in
recent years has been of enormous value to us, but that has also served to increase
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the need to enhance our foreign language ability and area expertise. Affording our
youth the opportunity to learn foreign languages is essential, for our future intelli-
gence officers will come from this cadre.
Foreign language capability within the Intelligence Community can no longer be
limited to just the languages of major threat countries. Military and political
intelligence are no longer the sole interests of the Intelligence Community. Third
World nations now represent an increasing concern to us. Additionally, the econom-
ic, technological, and scientific capabilities of other nations, large and small,
demand our concentrated attention. We must keep abreast of developments in all
areas. And yet with this increase in demand for our expertise has come a decline in
our foreign language capability. Now more than ever we must be able to translate
and assimilate a vast amount of information as fast as possible in order to effective-
ly and correctly analyze it and provide good input to our country's foreign policy
makers.
There are other areas in which the Intelligence Community relies on strong
language capability. Human source collection, through which we gather some of our
most significant intelligence information, is critically dependent on foreign language
ability for developing strong ties with our counterparts in other intelligence services
and with the agents who report to us. The collection of human intelligence is an art.
The success of our officers overseas depends to a very large extent on intangible
psychological and human factors, on feelings of trust and confidence, and on person-
al rapport. Speaking the other person's language plays a critical role in this chemis-
try. Minimum level competence in a foreign language is just not good enough. Our
intelligence officers must be as highly skilled in the language as they are in the
other facets of their jobs.
The Intelligence Community relies heavily on foreign language skills in its exploi-
tation of open source literature. Although the amount of intelligence information
available to us in our own language is enormous, the quantum of published informa-
tion in foreign languages which is unexploited or unexploitable is also great. There
is a vast amount of scientific and technical information published in foreign lan-
guage journals throughout the world which is of substantial value to our under-
standing of progress. The same holds true for the array of foreign language newspa-
pers and media broadcasts. Currently, however, we must often rely on secondary
rather than primary sources in research. Due to manpower restraints and a short-
age of qualified linguists, we contract for a great deal of translation work. Experi-
ence has shown that the value of the intelligence derived from this translation is
sometimes limited because of the accuracy of the translation and its timeliness.
We are obviously not able to contract out all the material we have to read and
assimilate. There is a great deal of information which is so highly classified that we
must depend on in-house expertise. Even if we could contract it out, our intelligence
analysts would still need to be fluent in a foreign language in order for the CIA to
fulfill its mission. It is not sufficient to merely report events. We must understand
the culture and society in which the event takes place. The more subtle changes in
a society are often lost to the individual who cannot converse or read in the
language of the country.
We are particularly dependent on strong language skills in the economic report-
ing sphere. For some important intelligence targets statistical data are rarely pub-
lished in English. In some cases the investment plans of foreign industries are
published in English, but the financial data necessary to gauge the ability of an
industry to carry out the plan is published only in the foreign language. Translation
services, whether federally funded or not, generally cover only highlights of the
economic news. Only by reading the full range of material available does one
discover some of the more detailed information on an industry's operations that is
important to our analysis of a country's economic activities.
I am sure that throughout these hearings you will be deluged by a mass of
statistics on the nation's current foreign language capabilities. Unfortunately, I am
limited in what I can say in open session about the statistical effect declining
foreign language ability has had on our operations. Suffice it to say that we been
impacted severely. Although we have a great many analysts and intelligence offi-
cers who have some foreign ability, many do not have the professional level of
competence needed to conduct their jobs, and the language capability which they do
have is not necessarily in their primary area of expertise. In the Operations area,
we are now losing many of our most experienced people who have had 20 or so
years of service using a second and third language. Replacement of these people has
been made difficult by the fact that many universities and colleges no longer have
foreign language requirements as part of their mandatory curriculum. Moreover, as
a result of the discontinuation of the military draft, we have had fewer non-career
military personnel with language training to draw upon. We need to be able to
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recruit and hire people who already possess capability in a foreign language and not
lose the time required to train them in this skill after they are on board. An
intelligence officer's duties, whether he or she is destined for analytical or clandes-
tine tasks, require a multifaceted training program that involves more than just
language training. Total immersion instruction and in-country training in a lan-
guage are not always feasible. More often than not, due to operational necessity, the
officer must be pulled from training and set on assignment. We simply cannot
afford the burden in terms of time, expense, security, and manpower to continually
devote the bulk of a person's training period to the development of a language skill.
We are especially vulnerable when it comes to the more exotic languages such as
Urdu, Arabic and Farsi. We have seen as steady decline since 1975 in almost all
languages, including the more common Romance languages. Although for many
years we have been concerned with more than proficiency in Chinese and Russian,
our primary intelligence targets are the Communist countries. Now that the prior-
ities in intelligence work have expanded to include much more than this area, we
must be prepared linguistically as well as operationally and analytically for any
development throughout the world, whether, it be political, economic, military,
technological, or scientific. Consequently, we need strong skills in most world lan-
guages. Let me hasten to add that proficiency in a language does not necessarily
mean competence in the myriad of dialects of the language. For example, an
intelligence officer may be skilled in the Arabic spoken in Syria but almost totally
deficient in the tribal dialects of the Gulf.
The Intelligence Community has long recognized the need to improve linguistic
skills. We have frequently turned to outside sources in the academic world and in
other Government programs for translation assistance. We have also implemented
many of our own programs to develop strong language skills in-house. The Intelli-
gence Community has an Ad Hoc Committee on the Linguists problem which acts as
a central point of reference for those elements of the Intelligence Community which
are concerned with the hiring and retention of operational and analytic personnel
requiring a foreign language in their area of expertise. Each of the principal
National Foreign Intelligence Board organizations concerned-CIA, DoD, and
NSA-have specialized requirements and operate under different personnel man-
agement and career development systems, and it is thus impossible to devise any
system which would be applicable to all of the National Foreign Intelligence Board
members requiring language-qualified personnel. The Committee is effective noneth-
less in ensuring that solutions to common problems. The Committee is effective
nonethless in ensuring that solutions to common problems adopted by one organiza-
tion are made know to others and, where possible, adopted by them as well. Much
effort has been given to ensuring that the independent programs of the various
agencies are complementary and not competitive or redundant in nature. Within
CIA itself, we have in the last few years implemented a Language Incentive Pro-
gram whereby personnel are rewarded for achieving a particular level of proficiency
in various foreign languages and rewarded for the maintenance of that skill. In
addition, efforts have been made to allow analysts to rise to higher GS levels
without changing their career tracks to management. This latter program gives
many of our fine language-skilled analyst the opportunity to retain their proficiency
and to continue serving the Intelligence Community in the area in which they are
best qualified. We also try to schedule as many language-qualified people as possible
for overseas travel so that they may have the opportunity to both use their lan-
guage skills and learn more about the countries in which the language is spoken.
Aside from our own programs, the Director and I strongly support the recommen-
dations contained in the report of the President's Commission on Foreign Language
and International Studies issued in November 1979-The Perkins Commission
Report. Regardless of the position one takes on the Commission's findings and
recommendations, the report accurately summarizes the importance foreign lan-
guages play in our ability to correctly assess world events and provide our nation's
leaders with timely, well-researched, and well-analyzed information from which
they can shape our national policy. We also believe that such programs as the
Department of Education's International Education and Foreign Language Studies-
Domestic Program and the Translations Program of the National Endowment for
the Humanities made substantial contributions toward solving our language prob-
lems. The Humanities Endowment Translations Program provides significant sup-
port to the Intelligence Community through translations that contribute to an
understanding of the history and intellectual achievements of other cultures. They
have or are conducting such useful studies as those dealing with Islamic legal
practices, Hindu legal text, and the Bakhtiyari Tribal Confederation of Iran.
Let me close by restating my concern that the foreign language capability of our
country is poor and is getting worse. This nation suffers from the fact that we are a
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country in which a second language is unnecessary to do business on a daily basis
except in certain unique areas. We are losing the large talent bank of second-
generation Americans where another language was spoken at home, and we must
remember that we are one of the few nations in the world which is not a truly
bilingual society. Decisive action should be taken on the Federal level to ensure
improvement in foreign language training in the U.S. so that we can cope with the
problems we will face in future years as the pace of our involvement with the rest
of the world becomes ever more important to our own survival and well being.
STATEMENT OF ADM. BOBBY R. INMAN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR,
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Admiral INMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With your permis-
sion, I will enter the formal statement for the record and informal-
ly discuss its contents. I would observe first my appreciation to you
for the opportunity to testify on my strong concern for the need to
improve the language training in this country.
Out of all misfortune some good sometimes comes, and I do not
think either of us could ever have forecast when we first began
discussing the need for legislation on this topic that we would enjoy
such intense media interest in the need for improved foreign lan-
guage training in this country.
As you know if you have had a chance to look at my statement,
my interest in the subject of foreign language training is long
standing. It was a topic that took up some time in my confirmation
hearings for my present job, and out of that you and I entered into
a conversation from our own separate perspectives, each having
worried for a long period of time about the steadily deteriorating
language training capabilities in this country.
As you know, there have been a number of studies over the years
highlighting this deteriorating condition, probably the latest one of
some stature being that of the Perkins Commission. I am here to
testify today as a concerned citizen on this topic, not to present a
formal administration position pro or con on the legislation. The
administration has not yet had the time to address in depth the
extent of the needs or where one ought to go. Whether they will
ultimately come down in support of your specific bill or other
measures is still not yet certain to me.
But what is certain is that the deteriorating language study
programs of this country are presenting a major hazard to our
national security, and because national security interests underlie
it, sooner or later the Government is going to have to provide, the
Federal Government, is going to have to provide leadership in
helping to solve this problem.
I spent the last 4 years as Director of the National Security
Agency. I was for a year in the job that General Larkin has and,
before that, 2 years as the Director of Naval Intelligence. Through-
out all of those assignments, the importance of foreign language
capabilities has been brought home steadily, first the need for
foreign language capabilities to exploit open source unclassified
information available to us. Much is available which we never get
translated, to sift through the huge volume for its potential use in
educating this country on political and economic areas of concern
to us or technical concerns developed in what are currently nonad-
versarial countries.
In our human intelligence needs it is not just an ability to
understand the language that is important, but rather there must
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be the ability to converse with total fluency, to understand the
nuances of conversation, and to be able to persuade others in their
own language why they should give help to the United States in
understanding events in their own countries or in other areas of
the world where they can provide us assistance.
We are particularly dependent on strong language skills in eco-
nomic reporting. This is an area that has been substantially ne-
glected over the years. As one drew down the total assets of the
intelligence community over a decade at a time when we should
.have been accelerating our coverage of economic intelligence, it
languished. Much of the information that is of vital concern is
available in unclassified materials, investment plans of foreign
industries, financial data of various countries and industries.
'Translation services, whether federally funded or otherwise, gener-
ally only cover the highlights of the economy.
If we are going to assist the industry of this country -that is,
the Federal Government assist the industry of this country-in
being competitive in external markets, we are going to have to
insure that better foreign language capability is available to exploit
the data which is accessible.
The concern is not going to get less. It is going to get higher. We
are privileged at this point to still have in service in the intelli-
gence community many very competent operators who learned
their languages in the 1940's and 1950's. They are reaching retire-
ment age. Some have already gone. Others will be going.
To replace them we can find high-quality employees with no
language skills. The Government then has to invest a year or 2
years to reach minimal stage of capability and, in many cases, up
to 5 years, for the degree of fluency in the languages which are
mandatory. Programs that would help accelerate language training
during secondary and higher education programs will certainly
shorten that time cycle once we hire people and will ultimately
reduce the expense to the Government, money which must now be
spent to provide that language capability after they are hired.
I have no optimism that programs supporting academic study
will meet all our needs. I should underline that for you. We will
clearly still need detailed training programs within the Govern-
ment. We are not likely to find the exotic languages-Urdu, Farsi,
or even Arabic-to the degree that we will need it, coming from
the campuses.
But surely we can do better in producing in this country fluent
Spanish and French linguists, German linguists and Japanese lin-
guists to help us deal with many of the problems that we are going
to face both as a government and in informing and executing
foreign policy by an intelligence community in trying to under-
stand events all over the world.
But also there are clearly going to be major needs in the indus-
trial sector for better language capability. Here I speak as a
layman, not with direct knowledge. But in watching for years, I am
persuaded that one has a far better prospect of being competitive if
you can deal in the language of the person with whom you are
trying to make a sale. We have relied too often in the past in
letting everybody speak English.
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I would suggest to you that industry has ample cause to join in
any program that the Government might undertake to add contri-
butions to better study in the academic world, looking toward a
larger pool of linguistically qualified personnel for use in our over-
seas scramble for markets and sales as well as for helping the
government do its business.
Thank you very much.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much, Admiral.
[The prepared statement of Gen. Richard Larkin follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. RICHARD X. LARKIN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR,
DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to appear as a witness before this
subcommittee, and to present views concerning the need for foreign language train-
ing in the defense intelligence community. I plan to discuss briefly some of the
background affecting the future availability of language-trained personnel for the
defense intelligence community and the importance of foreign languages to defense
intelligence.
Since World War II a number of factors have tended to expand the need for
foreign language knowledge by the intelligence community, a period when U.S.
intelligence organizations themselves became established as national institutions.
During this period, changes have occurred which have enhanced the role languages
can play in information gathering and analysis in support of U.S. national security
objectives. Yet, certain recent developments have made language-trained personnel
more difficult to acquire and their skills more important to maintain.
Several key developments have affected languages as a vital adjunct of defense
intelligence:
A growing number of independent countries, some of which create a need for
additional languages;
A vast growth in the quantity of scientific, technical, economic and political
information and statistics of intelligence value appearing in foreign language
publications;
New technologies which vastly increase data gathering capabilities;
A large postwar immigration to the United States, providing a temporary
supply of readily-available skills which has sharply diminished;
A gradual decline of military foreign language and area programs in both
scope and student population;
The deemphasis of language and area training in universities in favor of
physical science, engineering, business and management programs;
Greater freedeom of international travel, affording new opportunities to learn
about foreign countries and intercultural differences;
A need for an increased number of defense attache personnel accompanied by
a dwindling number of U.S. military deployments and installations abroad;
Greater opportunities for the international exchange of ideas through activi-
ties of international organizations and scientific and cultural conferences.
These factors have affected in one way or another the problem of acquiring
necessary language knowledge in support of U.S. intelligence objectives and the task
of maintaining the necessary skills during the professional career of intelligence
analysts and attaches. Thus, recent trends show that intelligence opportunities
based upon language skills are increasing rapidly, while the availability of lan-
guage-trained professionals has been gradually shrinking. This problem is directly
related to the inability of our educational system to continue to provide the talent
required for understanding foreign cultures and interpreting their behavior, a task
which has been entrusted to the national security community.
Foreign language knowledge provides access to a wide range of intelligence infor-
mation to include reports, documents and periodicals. The availability of these
research materials is critical to the analytical needs of DIA. A number of reports
are regularly translated by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
(FRD) and by such other agencies as the Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) and the Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS).
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However, in addition to such translations, there is a vital requirement for lan-
guage knowledge on the part of many DIA analysts. A recent survey of present
capabilities and future needs in the coming decade indicates that the proportion of
language-trained analysts would increase from a current figure of about one-third to
nearly one-half of an expanded analytical staff. As at present, there will continue to
be a need for personnel in the defense attache system to be trained in the principal
languages of some 83 countries to which they are assigned.
We also appreciate the direct relationship between foreign language knowledge
and the effective pursuit of international studies, as emphasized by provisions of
House Concurrent Resolution 301. With respect to the utility of foreign language
knowledge in defense intelligence, many analysts use foreign language as a tool to
screen publications, scan periodicals, or translate articles related to their work. The
principal value of language knowledge, however, in the view of intelligence research
supervisors and analysts, resides in its contribution to understanding other cultures,
people and their thought processes. This insight enhances the ability of analysts to
snake judgements, explain situations, describe significant trends in foreign countries
and more accurately predict future events. In addition, a recent comprehensive
survey of DIA analytical staff assessed future language and area needs by focusing
upon trends in countries judges by research supervisors and analysts as most likely
to have a bearing upon emerging opportunities, problems and threats to U.S.
security in the coming decade. In general, these trends were identified in countries
that have traditionally been studied by the intelligence community, although cer-
tain potential problems indicate the need for skills in a few additional foreign
languages.
Our study also concluded that DIA intelligence analysis ought to continue to
utilize sources in the prevailing Western languages of former colonial regions,
which comprise most developing countries. This judgement rests upon the fact that
these languages continue to comprise the principal means of communication in
governmental, academic, and commercial institutions of the former colonies. In
addition, it appears that national or, in a few cases, tribal languages will increase in
importance in some areas, and DIA is carefully studying such potential needs to
identify the probable payoffs and costs.
Dia's anticipated needs for language-trained analysts by 1990 reflect increases in
the number of analysts primarily with knowledge of Arabic, French, German,
Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. In addition to such well-known
languages, Dia perceives a need to develop some capabilities in languages of certain
developing countries to include such languages as Afrikaans, Hindi, Swahili, Urdu,
;Pushtu, Malay and Dari. In order to meet most effectively its anticipated needs in
the coming decade, Dia plans to take the following actions:
1. Include appropriate language qualifications among selection criteria for new
analysts and attache personnel.
2. Maintain language knowledge of analysts and attaches through Dia-sponsored
refresher courses.
3. Provide area familiarization and field experience to increase cultural awareness
of Dia supervisors and analysts.
4. Support training in certain languages of the developing countries in areas of
,potential national security concern to the United States.
In conclusion, the availability of language-trained personnel for the defense intel-
ligence community is shrinking while potential information resources around the
globe have rapidly increased, requiring a significant addition of professionals with
foreign language skills. Additional language-trained personnel in defense intelli-
gence will also mean further improvement in the quality of our analysis through
greater insight into foreign cultures.
Moreover, I would like to add that there are important advantages inherent in
expanded language and area capabilities throughout our educational system. I am
referring to the general benefit likely to accrue to the United States as a result of
increased public awareness of problems affecting other nations and cultures. In
addition, such an increase in language and area knowledge would be a significant
factor in developing public understanding and support for such national security
concerns as our foreign economic and military assistance objectives.
STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. RICHARD X. LARKIN, DEPUTY
DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mr. SIMON. General Larkin. Incidentally, Larkin is a good Illinois
name and probably a good name in many other States, too. You
are not from Illinois, by any chance, are you, General?
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General LARKIN. No, sir, I am from Nebraska. It is a Midwestern
name, however.
Mr. SIMON. You are getting close to good territory there, Gener-
al.
[Laughter.]
General LARKIN. I do appreciate the opportunity to appear here
this morning, Mr. Chairman, as a witness. I would like to discuss
briefly some of the background which affects the availability of
language-trained personnel for the defense intelligence community
and the importance that this language tapability is to defense
intelligence.
Since World War II a number of factors have tended to expand
the need for foreign language knowledge by the intelligence com-
munity, the period when intelligence organizations themselves first
became established as national institutions. During this period
changes have occurred to enhance the role languages can play in
information gathering and analysis with regard to United States
national security objectives.
Yet, certain developments have made language-trained personnel
more difficult to acquire and their skills more important to main-
tain.
Some of these key factors are: a growing number of independent
countries, some of which have created a need for additional lan-
guages.
A vast growth in the quantity of scientific, technical, economic
and political information and statistics of intelligence value ap-
pearing in foreign-language publications.
New technologies which vastly increase data gathering capabili-
ties.
A large postwar immigration to the United States which pro-
vided a temporary supply of readily available language skills, but
this has sharply diminished.
A gradual decline of military foreign language and area pro-
grams in both scope and student population.
The deemphasis of language and area training in universities in
favor of physical science, engineering, business and management
programs.
Greater freedom of international travel affording new opportuni-
ties to learn about foreign countries and intercultural differences.
A need for increased number of defense attache personnel accom-
panied by a dwindling number of U.S. military deployments and
installations abroad.
Greater opportunities for the exchange of international ideas
through activities of international organizations and scientific and
cultural conferences.
All of these factors have affected in one way or another the
problem of acquiring necessary language knowledge in support of
U.S. intelligence objectives and have affected the task of maintain-
ing the necessary skills during the professional career of intelli-
gence analysts and attaches. Thus recent trends show that intelli-
gence opportunities based on language skills are increasing rapidly
while the availability of language-trained professionals has been
gradually shrinking. This problem is directly related to the inabil-
ity of our educational system to continue to provide the talent
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required for understanding foreign cultures and interpreting their
behavior, a task which has been entrusted to the national security
community.
Knowledge of a foreign language provides access to a wide range
of intelligence information to include reports, documents, and pe-
riodicals. The availability of these research materials is critical to
the analytical needs of the Defense Intelligence Agency. A number
of reports are regularly translated by the Federal Research Divi-
sion of the Library of Congress and by such other agencies as the
Foreign Broadcast Information Service and the Joint Publications
Research Service.
But in addition to such translations, there is a vital requirement
for language knowledge on the part of many of our DIA analysts. A
recent survey of present capabilities and future needs in the
coming decade indicates the proportion of language-trained ana-
lysts would increase from a current figure of about one-third to
nearly one-half of an expanded analytical staff. As at present,
there will continue to be a need for personnel in the defense
attache system to be trained in the principal languages of some 83
countries to which they will be assigned.
We also appreciate the direct relationship between foreign lan-
guage knowledge and the effective pursuit of international studies,
as emphasized by provisions of House Concurrent Resolution 301.
With respect to the utility of foreign language knowledge in de-
fense intelligence, many analysts use foreign language as a tool to
screen publications, to scan periodicals, or to translate articles
related to their work.
The principal value of language knowledge, however, in the view
of intelligence research supervisors and analysts, resides in its
contribution to understanding other cultures, people, and their
thought processes. This insight enhances the ability of analysts to
make judgments, explain situations, describe significant trends in
foreign countries, and to more accurately predict future events.
In addition, a recent comprehensive survey of our analytical staff
assessed future language and area needs by focusing upon trends
in countries judged by our supervisors and analysts as most likely
to have a bearing upon emerging opportunities, problems, and
threats to the United States' security in the coming decade.
In general, these countries have traditionally been watched by
the intelligence community, although certain potential problems
indicate the need for skills in a few additional foreign languages.
Our study also concluded that the Defense Intelligence Agency
analysis ought to continue to utilize sources in the prevailing West-
ern languages of former colonial regions which comprise most de-
veloping countries. This judgment rests upon the fact that these
languages continue to comprise the principal means of communica-
tion in governmental, academic, and commercial institutions of the
former colonies.
In addition, it appears that national or, in a few cases, tribal,
languages, will increase in importance in some areas, and DIA is
carefully studying such potential needs to identify the probable
payoffs and costs.
DIA's anticipated need, for language-trained analysts by 1990
reflects increases in the number of analysts, primarily with a
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knowledge of Arabic, French, German, Korean, Chinese, Portu-
guese, Russian, and Spanish. In addition to such well-known lan-
guages, we perceive a need to develop some capabilities in lan-
guages of certain developing countries to include Afrikaans, Hindi,
Swahili, Urdu, Pushtu, Malay, and Dari.
In order to most effectively meet its anticipated needs in the
coming decade, our agency plans to take the following actions: to
include appropriate language qualification among selection criteria
for new analysts and attache personnel; to maintain language
knowledge of analysts and attaches through our agency-sponsored
refresher courses; to provide area familiarization and field experi-
ence to increase the cultural awareness of our supervisors and
analysts; and to support training in certain languages of the devel-
oping countries in areas of potential national security concern to
the United States.
In conclusion, the availability of language-trained personnel for
the defense intelligence community is shrinking while potential
information resources around the globe have rapidly increased,
requiring a significant addition of professionals with foreign lan-
guage skills.
Additional language-trained personnel in defense intelligence
will also mean further improvement in the quality of our analysis
through greater insight into foreign cultures.
Moreover, I should like to add that there are important advan-
tages inherent in expanded language and area capabilities through-
out our educational system. I am referring, of course, to the gener-
al benefit likely to accrue to the United States as a result of
increased public awareness of problems affecting other nations and
cultures. Such an increase in language and area knowledge will be
a significant factor in developing public understanding and support
for national security concerns comprised by our foreign, economic,
and military assistance objectives.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much, General. You had two excel-
lent statements.
Now, Mr. Wilson, you have to keep up that fine record.
[The prepared statement of Craig Wilson follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF CRAIG L. WILSON, SPECIAL ASSISTANT FOR INTELLIGENCE
AND C-3 HUMAN RESOURCES, ON BEHALF OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, on behalf of Secretary Weinberger, let
me express my appreciation for this opportunity to talk about the Department of
Defense foreign language program, to stress the significance of this program to
national security and intelligence, and to reflect on Defense needs in the context of
total national requirements and capabilities.
Our prevailing need is for foreign language trained personnel to support the
Defense intelligence mission. This includes linguistic technicians, translators, inter-
rogators, foreign area analysts, attaches, and a family of specialists working in
cryptology and signals intelligence. Many of these people also operate high technol-
ogy equipment of possess unique skills in language related and unrelated disci-
plines. Our requirements are such that our foreign language student loading will
increase in excess of 60 percent in the five year period fiscal 1977 through 1982. We
project continued student load increases at a minimum of five percent each year for
the next 5 years.
To meet this need, the Department operates the largest foreign language program
(or collection of programs) in the Free World. This includes the operation of the
largest single foreign language schoolhouse-the Defense Language Instiltute For-
eign Language Center, Monterey, CA-and a comprehensive collection of refresher,
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maintenance, orientation, and enhancement programs administered in the United
States and overseas. In 1982, we will send almost 5,000 young military men and
women to the Defense Language Institute and the State Department's Foreign
Service Institute for basic, intermediate, and advanced language training. In addi-
tion, civilian and military personnel attend foreign language programs at the Na-
tional Security Agency's Cryptologic School, at Defense and State Department insti-
tutes abroad (such as in Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Tunisia), and at a myriad of
colleges, universities, and foreign language schools at home and in other countries.
Our training efforts are aimed at providing a competent cadre of military and
civilian personnel to fill the approximate 13,060 Defense positions requiring foreign
language capability. Of course, the management of such a program includes human
resource considerations that go far beyond training and education to include man-
power, personnel administration, basing, and budgeting issues. This requires a com-
plex integration of ideas, initiatives, and management actions, some of which take
years to achieve. On the way to continued improvement, we are concentrating on
five serious problems:
1. Fill rates (capabilities vs. requirements).
2. Attrition of trained linguists.
3. Basic skills training.
4. Skills maintenance and enhancement.
5. Program management.
The Department of Defense has requirements in approximately 52 languages and
major dialects. As of December 1980 approximately 78-80 percent of those positions
were filled with trained linguists. For example, our 1980 fill rates for six major
languages were: Russian-85 percent; Chinese-84 percent; German-76 percent;
Spanish-58 percent; and Arabic-73 percent. These rates reflect a fairly constant
staffing capability in these languages for the past four years. This is a quantitative
assessment; qualitatively, of those positions filled, it is estimated that only 50
percent of personnel coming into foreign language billets actually possess the neces-
sary competence level. On-the-job training, work experience, and additional formal
training may enhance the linguist's capability, but this is admittedly difficult in
some positions where exposure to the language is not constant (such as in many
tactical and direct support units). Our fill rate problem may increase as we press on
in the development of the Rapid Deployment Force. Intelligence units to support the
RDF will require an estimated additional 874 military linguist positions for six
major Middle East and African languages and dialects. For these, as well as most all
languages, there is not a trained, recruitable base within the American population.
The Department must train its own and make major efforts to retain personnel who
have been trained. Projected increases in requirements matched against the popula-
tion available for military service remains a serious concern.
Attrition of trained linguists has been a problem. About 80 percent of the Depart-
ment's requirement in foreign languages is for enlisted people; for the past several
years they have left military service at a rate of 70 percent at the end of their first
tour, and in excess of 30 percent at the end of the second enlistment. To combat this
exodus, the Military Departments now offer enlistment bonuses (up to $3,000) and
reenlistment bonuses (up to $12,500). These incentives, plus recent overall increases
in base pay and benefits should go a long way to help solve the attrition problem.
As mentioned before, the Department of Defense operates a substantial foreign
language training enterprise; the thrust of the effort is for basic skills or initial
capability. For 1982, we have budgeted in excess of $30 million for the operation of
the Defense Language Institute and other DLI funded programs. This represents a
100 percent increase over the last five years. Other major programs funded by the
Military Departments, NSA, and DIA represent additional resource commitments to
foreign language training and education. As you know, language is a perishable
skill, and we have had some difficulty maintaining skill levels in units where
language is not practiced on a daily basis. This includes tactical combat units and
reserve forces that are not deployed against an active target until the outbreak of
hostilities. Recent surveys conducted by the Defense Intelligence Agency revealed
an extremely low percentage of reserve intelligence linguists who had confidence in
their qualifications for immediate use if mobilized. This condition also exists in
units stationed within the continental United States and to a lesser degree in units
abroad. Refresher and maintenance training programs, therefore, have become a
key initiative for the Department. These include the development and use of self
study programs, adult continuing education classes, practice on live foreign trans-
missions, and in-country travel. In 1980, in excess of 116,000 servicemen and women
were involved in the study of foreign languages beyond the resident programs under
DLI auspices. Our commitment is to increase these programs to try to make better
use of the resources at hand and to improve capability at the individual level.
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The management of the Defense Foreign Language program is a cooperative
effort of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of the Army, as
executive agent for training, and the other Military Departments and Defense
agencies engaged in intelligence and foreign studies. We also participate with our
colleagues elsewhere in the Intelligence community to assure an open exchange on
problems, ideas, and opportunities of mutual interest. At the end of last year we
established, for the first time, a general officer's steering committee to help guide
the Department's efforts toward improved education and utilization of foreign lan-
guage trained personnel.
In sum, the Department of Defense is moving on several fronts to respond to the
need for foreign linguists. The American population no longer presents us with a
large talent bank of bilingual and multi-lingual people on which to draw to meet
current and future needs, and, therefore, we have been forced to invest heavily in
our own training and educational programs. The problems, the shortfalls, won't be
eliminated overnight. We will continue to seek solutions to our own unique prob-
lems, and to share our experiences as a full and interested partner in all national
level programs.
STATEMENT OF CRAIG L. WILSON, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO
THE DEPUTY UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR COMMU-
NICATIONS, COMMAND, CONTROL, AND INTELLIGENCE, DE-
FENSE DEPARTMENT
Mr. WILSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and other
members of the committee. On behalf of Secretary Weinberger, I
too would like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to
talk about the defense foreign language program, the importance
and significance of that program to national security and intelli-
gence, and to reflect on the needs of the Department of Defense in
the context of total national requirements and capabilities.
Our prevailing need is for foreign-language trained personnel to
support the defense intelligence mission. This includes linguistic
technicians, translators, interrogators, foreign area analysts, atta-
ches, and a family of specialists working in cryptology and signals
intelligence. Many of these people also operate high-technology
equipment or posses unique skills in language and unrelated disci-
plines. Our requirements are such that our foreign-language stu-
dent loading will increase in excess of 60 percent in the 5-year
period fiscal 1977 through fiscal 1982. We project continued student
load increases at a minimum of 5 percent each year for the next 5
years.
To meet this need, the Department operates the largest foreign-
language program, or collection of programs, in the free world.
This includes the operation of the largest single foreign-language
schoolhouse, the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language
Center in Monterey-which I know you visited recently-and also
a comprehensive collection of refresher, maintenance, orientation,
and enhancement programs administered in the United States and
overseas. In 1982 we will send almost 5,000 military men and
women to the Defense Language Institute and the State Depart-
ment's Foreign Service Institute for basic, intermediate, and ad-
vanced language training. In addition, civilian and military person-
nel attend foreign-language programs at the National Security
Agency's Cryptologic School and at Defense and State Department
institutes abroad-such as in Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Tunisia,
and other countries-and at a myriad of other colleges, universi-
ties, and foreign-language schools at home and in other countries.
Our training efforts are aimed at providing a competent cadre of
military and civilian personnel to fill the approximately 13,060
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defense positions requiring foreign-language capability of varying
levels. Of course, the management of such a program includes
human resource considerations that go beyond education and train-
ing, such as manpower, personnel administration, basing, and
budgeting issues. This requires a complex integration of ideas, ini-
tiatives, and management actions, some of which take years to
achieve.
On the way to continued improvement, we are concentrating on
five serious problem areas: First, fill rates; that is, our capabilities
versus our requirements. Second, the attrition of trained linguists.
'Third, basic skills training. Fourth, skills maintenance and en-
hancement. And fifth, program management.
The Department of Defense has requirements in approximately
52 languages and major dialects. As of December 1980 approxi-
mately 78 to 80 percent of those positions were filled with trained
linguists. For example, our 1980 fill rates for six major languages
were: Russian, 85 percent; German, 76 percent; Chinese, 84 percent;
Spanish, 58 percent; and Arabic, 73 percent.
These rates reflect a fairly constant staffing capability in these
languages for the past 4 years. This, however, is a quantitative
assessment. Qualitatively, of those positions filled, it is estimated
that only 50 percent of the personnel coming into foreign-language
billets actually possess the necessary level of competence. On-the-
,job training, work experience, and additional formal training may
enhance the linguist's capability, but this is admittedly difficult in
some positions where exposure to the language is not constant-
such as in many tactical and direct support units. Our fill-rate
problem may increase as we press on in the development of the
Rapid Deployment Force. Intelligence units to support the RDF
will require an estimated additional 874 military linguist positions
for 6 major Middle East and African languages and dialects. For
these, as well as most all languages, there is not a trained recruita-
ble base within the American population. The Department must
train its own and make major efforts to retain personnel who have
been trained. Projected increases in requirements matched against
the population available for military service remains one of our
most serious concerns.
Attrition of trained linguists has always been a problem. About
80 percent of the Department's requirement in foreign languages is
for enlisted people. For the past several years these people have
left military service at a rate of 70 percent at the end of their first
tour and in excess of 30 percent at the end of their second enlist-
ment. To combat this exodus, the military departments are now
offering enlistment bonuses of up to $3,000 and reenlistment bo-
nuses up to $12,500. These incentives, plus recent overall increases
in base pay and benefits should go a long way to help solve the
attrition problem. Admittedly, increased compensation is not the
only route to retention, but it is probably far in front of whatever
else there is.
As mentioned before, the Department of Defense operates a sub-
stantial foreign language training enterprise. The thrust of this
effort is for basic skills or initial capability. For 1982 we have
budgeted in excess of $30 million for the operation of the Defense
Language Institute and other DLI-funded programs. This repre-
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sents a 100-percent increase over the last 5 years in funding. Other
major programs funded by the Military Departments, NSA, and
DIA represent additional resource commitments to foreign-lan-
guage training and education. As you know, language is a perisha-
ble skill, and we have had some difficulty maintaining skill levels
in units where language is not practiced on a daily basis. This
includes tactical combat units and reserve forces that are not de-
ployed against an active target until the outbreak of hostilities.
Recent surveys conducted by the Defense Intelligence Agency re-
vealed an extremely low percentage of reserve intelligence lin-
guists who had confidence in their own qualifications for immedi-
ate use if mobilized. This condition also exists in active units
stationed within the continental United States and, to a lesser
degree, in units abroad.
Refresher and maintenance training programs, therefore, have
become a key initiative for the Department following a heavy
investment in initial training. These include the development and
use of self-study programs, continuing education classes, practice
on live foreign transmissions, and in-country travel. In 1980, in
excess of 116,000 service men and women were involved in the
study of foreign languages beyond the resident programs under
DLI auspices. Our commitment is to increase these programs to try
to make better use of the resources at hand and to improve capabil-
ity at the individual level.
The management of the defense foreign-language program is a
cooperative effort of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the
Department of the Army as executive agent for training, and other
military departments and defense agencies engaged in intelligence
and foreign studies. We also participate with our colleagues else-
where in the intelligence community to assure an open exchange
on problems, ideas, and opportunities of mutual interest. At the
end of last year we established, for the first time, a general officers'
steering committee to help guide the Department's efforts toward
improved education and utilization of foreign language trained per-
sonnel. And I can report that the efforts of that group have been
substantial already.
In sum, the Department of Defense is moving on several fronts to
respond to the need for foreign linguists. The American population
no longer presents us with a large talent bank of bilingual and
multilingual people on which to draw to meet current and future
needs. Therefore, we have been forced to invest heavily in our own
training and educational programs. The problems, the shortfalls,
will not be eliminated overnight. We will continue to seek solutions
to our own unique problems and to share our experiences as a full
and interested partner in all national-level programs.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilson.
Just by way of coincidence, today we are again on the Depart-
ment of Defense authorization bill. We have heard from all three
of you about our needs. And I have an amendment asking the
Department of Defense to study whether or not we should not be
mandating foreign-language study at all the military academies
and R.O.T.C. and report back to Congress within a year.
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My understanding is that my amendment is noncontroversial,
though they do not always turn out that way when you start off
that way.
All three of you have talked about the immediate security prob-
lem you face because of the foreign-language issue. It is also safe to
say that there is a more overriding kind of security interest. I
should not make this statement; let me pose the question: Is it not
true that there is a more overriding kind of security interest in
making sure that we understand one another so that we do not
precipitate some misunderstanding or miscalculation? This would
obviously be true in the case of the Soviet Union. I do not know if
any of you care to comment on that.
Admiral INMAN. Mr. Chairman, in the 1970's or beginning in the
late 1960's, we embarked on a long period of time in which the
prevailing attitude in making decisions on budgets, both in the
executive branch and in the legislative branch on the whole nation-
al security account was aimed at what can we do without and, in
that process, giving up knowledge in any detail about most of the
countries of the world that did not represent an immediate mili-
tary threat to our interests. That is, simply dropping activities and
even dropping requirements to sustain the ability to read, to follow
events in those countries in their own languages, to really under-
stand the full significance of activities.
There is now a much broader recognition as we move into the
1980's that it is not that benign world, that the interests of this
country are impacted heavily in political and economic ways as
well as military ways and are going to be heavily impacted
throughout the decade by competition for raw materials, for re-
sources, for markets, by instability all over the Third World.
The degree to which bright observers with a good strong lan-
guage ability are present in those countries as part of the Foreign
Service, as part of the defense attaches, and who are necessary as
clandestine intelligence with a language ability to understand
events as they begin to settle long in advance of the time that we
have the mobs in the streets and the sudden appeals for help, to
help suppress riots before a friendly government collapses and is
replaced by anarchy.
I have a great worry that we have not, as a country or as a
government, faced up to the need to be looking toward what pres-
ent, what representation, what observation do we need in every
country with which we have any potential interest, as opposed to
what we can do without.
Mr. SIMON. I thank you.
Let me, if I may, Admiral, direct another question. And if in any
of these areas we get into classified information, obviously we are
not in a position to use that here or receive that here.
But let me add I have been impressed by your statements. In
these days where the CIA's headlines are not always the most
favorable, let the record show that there are many of us who are
most impressed by the Deputy Director of the CIA and your pres-
ence here today is an indication of that.
Mr. Wilson, in your statement, I would like to find out whether
this is analogous in the CIA. You say-and these are rather star-
tling statistics-as of December 1980 approximately 78 to 80 per-
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cent of those positions that you require were filled with trained
linguists, and you say this is a "quantitative assessment. Qualita-
tively, if those positions filled, it is estimated that only 50 percent
of personnel coming into foreign-language billets actually possess
the necessary competence level."
Now, would it be fair, Admiral, to say that the CIA faces a
somewhat similar situation?
Admiral INMAN. Both CIA and the National Security Agency,
from my knowledge, face comparable situations, in that there are
substantial numbers of billets in those agencies-and, as you know,
the actual numbers are classified-where one must have a high
order of linguistic skills, not just passive. And it is increasingly
difficult to find people with any rudimentary training in the lan-
guages that you need.
We are still fortunate to be able to find personnel with high
credentials, high quality, with demonstrated language aptitude on
tests. We can hire, but then the Government has to spend an
extended period of time to train them with language capability
after you get them. And it is particularly time to get them to the
level of fluency that is necessary that is worrisome to me as we get
on to dealing with the problems of the decade.
Mr. SIMON. If I may direct this question to all three of you as a
final question. Admiral Inman has called our foreign-language defi-
ciency a major hazard to our national security.
General Larkin, you did not use quite the same words, but you
said, basically, we face very serious problems, and, Mr. Wilson, you
have said the same.
Would it be correct to say that it would be of service to the
national security if we could build a base in our elementary
schools, high schools, and colleges and universities that the mili-
tary could be recruiting from that would be of substantial assist-
ance to the national security?
What I am trying to do is reverse what you suggested, General.
Is that true?
General LARKIN. There is no question, sir, it would be of immea-
surable value to the National Security Agency, in my estimation.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Wilson?
Mr. WILSON. It could accelerate the long leadtime, the training
time required to produce linguists. I mentioned before that 80
percent or more of our linguists are actually enlisted men. The
training time for these people, the whole training time, basic train-
ing time, language training and training in other specialty areas,
could amount to as much as 2 years before the individual is actual-
ly ready for his operational tour.
These people, as I mentioned, leave at a very high rate, and we
must continue to replace that force. I would contend that any
available resource that could lower that training time, and that
could help us increase the number of people against our require-
ments is an obvious help to answering the national security mis-
sion.
Mr. SIMON. Yes, Admiral?
Admiral INMAN. If I might add something.
Mr. SIMON. Yes.
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Admiral INMAN. I think we must always include, when we talk
about our national security concerns, not only the Defense Depart-
ment but also the Central Intelligence Agency and the Foreign
Service and the means by which we communicate with the outside
world.
I see for all of those needs that a broad-based program for
language training in elementary schools has to be of major benefit
to the national security across the board. And there are clearly
also some benefits for industry that are going to come from that.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Coleman.
Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral, I find your testimony quite disturbing. You mentioned
that currently we have to rely upon secondary sources instead of
primary sources for much of our interpretation and research work
because of the limited manpower of qualified linguists in this coun-
try. We contract out a great deal of this work.
You further state that experience has shown that the value of
intelligence derived from translations like this is sometimes limited
because of the accuracy of the translation and its timeliness.
You further go on and say that the most subtle changes in a
society are often lost to the individual who cannot converse or read
in the language of that country. We are especially vulnerable, you
say, when it comes to the more exotic languages of Arabic and
Farsi.
My question is, Is this lack of training and understanding and
ability to speak these languages a factor such that our intelligence
community was not aware as much as it should have been or that
we, as a country, were more surprised than we should have been in
the Iranian revolution and the eventual taking of hostages in Iran?
Admiral INMAN. Mr. Coleman, there are two parts that play on
the problem. One is the decade-long drawdown in manpower in the
intelligence community and in representation abroad. Actually, it
is longer than a decade; it really goes back to 1967, when our
principal interest was in the balance of payments and we began
reducing our presence overseas to reduce the outflow of gold. And
then it got a substantial momentum in the late 1960's, early 1970's,
first as Vietnamization, then in trading off manpower for technol-
ogy, then drawdowns for a failure to predict the October war.
The cumulative effect of all of that-again the actual figures are
classified; I would be pleased, in a closed session, to give you some
specific examples-but the cumulative impact was a drawdown
ranging from a low of about 22 percent of those people dedicated to
analysis in some agencies to as high as a 38-percent reduction in
technical collection manpower.
While that drawdown in manpower was going on, there was a
comparable loss in language skills as the youngsters flowing out of
campuses had less and less language training and as we moved as a
country into the situation where we have less second-generation
people who had learned to speak a language in their home availa-
ble to us.
So there was a compacting: As one drew down that manpower,
increasingly that which you had left focused on the greatest con-
cerns, the principal military adversaries; and for the bulk of the
rest of the world, and particularly for countries which were consid-
84-188 0-81--8
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ered to be friends, a minimal presence to observe the activities
became the rule both in the intelligence community and in some
cases in the Foreign Service.
Out of that you ended up not having people with a language skill
present to follow the conversation in the bazaars or on the campus-
es, in the universities or in the mosques, to understand what was
brewing in the way of a revolt which ought to have been available
for good, bright, linguistically qualified observers to detect long
before it ever reached the state where it was in the streets.
My conclusion is that both the shortage of people, the shortage,
the reductions in people present in countries abroad and the lack
of language skills all contributed to our failure to detect the activi-
ty there. I think it impacted on the slowness with recognizing what
was happening in Central America, where in a great many cases,
lack of representation, lack of language skills, lack of raw report-
ing that ought to have been detected, the efforts to ship arms, build
guerrilla movements, long before it became the problem that it is
now.
Mr. COLEMAN. Well, how can we consider our intelligence-gather-
ing apparatus in this country first class if we do not have this
capability? Do you consider us second class because of this lack of
ability?
Admiral INMAN. In our coverage of our principal adversaries, I
would describe it as a first-class capability in dealing with military
threat, in dealing with warning against a Pearl Harbor kind of
attack. In understanding new weapons systems and understanding
political developments, even economic developments, there would
probably be those who would disagree with me, but I would veer
toward second class in that status, because of reductions in man-
power and skills assigned to collect and report on the rest of the
world. My view is that our capability is far short of what it ought
to be.
But I began with a basic precept: that this country ought to take
the approach of what might we need to know, not what can we do
without, in deciding what representation both from Foreign Service
and from the intelligence-collection capabilities we put in foreign
countries.
Mr. COLEMAN. What you are saying is that of such areas as the
undeveloped countries, the Third World, where we are dependent
for many of our resources that we import into this country, that we
have a second-class language capability; therefore, we have a
second-class intelligence-gathering informational structure underly-
ing that.
And I think that is something that we have to tell this country. I
think it is something that you ought to get out and push, support
this type of legislation, and we will certainly work with whatever
resources we have, because I think it is not an overstatement.
Your last few words were that it is "important to our own
survival and well-being." And it is time this message got out to the
American people.
Let me ask you how long can we operate in this vacuum or in
this timeframe? At what point does it start impeding to the degree
where we cannot even handle what we are doing now as far as our
lack of capability in language training? What timeframe do you
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see? Collapse this down. When do we need to get this done? Give us
a timeframe so that we can go out and tell this to the people and to
the Congress.
Admiral INMAN. Mr. Coleman, the rebuilding process for the
whole intelligence capability is going to take a long time. Just the
time it takes to train linguists is one of the pacing events.
I have a rather pessimistic view of what the 1980s are likely to
be like. I believe we are likely to encounter instability in much of
the Third World, intense economic competition, strains on our
alliances, drawing out of the first two. And I see no sign of any
slackening of the momentum of the Soviets that we have been
watching now at a very steady pace for some 16 years. The time is
now when the rebuilding effort needs to get underway. It is not one
that crash efforts are likely to have a high payoff.
We can do things like take greater advantage with more external
assistance, contracts for capabilities in industry to help us in the
near term in the intelligence community in some of the translation
skills that we need. But those will not help us in getting represen-
tation abroad.
Again, I am treading my way through, since the hearing is in the
unclassified mode, through some very treacherous area for being
specific with you, because the actual details on budget size and
personnel size are classified. There is a very substantial upturn in
both the investment dollars and in people in the budget that you
have in front of you, which is a good shot in the arm, to start with.
But I am more concerned-and really what drew me out in my
conversations with the chairman to volunteer to come testify
before this committee today is-that we need more than just short-
term fixes. We need to embark on a long-term program that we
will have confidence that will carry us through the latter part of
the 1980s and through the 1990s with a ready pool of the kinds of
skills that we need to have, and we are going to need to have, I
believe, an even substantially larger community.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Erdahl.
Mr. ERDARL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to
commend you for your ongoing involvement in this concern over
better language training for the people in this country, whether
they are in the military or civilian Foreign Service or whatnot.
In addition to being on this committee, I serve on the Foreign
Affairs Committee. I think that in nearly every meeting or recep-
tion we are reminded with members of the German Bundestag last
night, they all came in speaking with their eloquent, able English,
and most of us cannot converse with them in their language. So we
have a real deficiency with them in our country.
Mr. Chairman, you may be aware that when I was in the Army
back in the 1950's as an enlisted man, I acquired an MOS as a
linguist. Moreover, I found at that time they were interested in
Korean and Russian and Chinese. But they did not have much use
for my Norwegian, and I ended up as the company supply clerk
instead. [Laughter.]
Mr. ERDAHL. But a couple of questions. You had already men-
tioned the DOD bill. Also, we have the military pay bill, which I
think will probably be on the schedule later this week. I am per-
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suaded that we must not only have linguists, but we must be
willing to compensate our people in the military better.
I say this not to flatter you, but I think, Mr. Chairman, you and I
agree, and maybe some of the others on this panel as well, that
maybe we could transfer some of those billions from the MX mis-
sile project into things like language. Maybe that is not so glamor-
ous. I often think that we as Americans can put men on the Moon,
and yet we do not train mechanics that can adjust the points on
our car. And so I think here in this area, some of these basic things
like understanding other people is so vital.
A couple of questions. What are other countries doing in this
area? We have had some reference to our adversaries and other
countries in the world. But what are other countries doing in a
comparable way in learning not only English but other languages
as well? Would anyone wish to respond to that? General?
General LARKIN. With record to our primary adversary, the
Soviet Union, Mr. Simon who just visited there, probably found out
that they have a very intense, widespread, serious, and expensive
program to train linguists. It takes about 7 years to produce an
attache, for example, in the Soviet Union. They are selected in
secondary school. Individuals with talents are then encouraged to
develop at least two foreign languages.
When they complete the language training, they are fluent in at
least two foreign languages other than their native tongue.
I am not aware of what other countries do.
Admiral INMAN. Mr. Erdahl, I think the record varies greatly
over what other countries are doing. Many of the Third World
countries do not even have an English-language training program
or at least a minimal one, which puts all the more pressure on us
to communicate, to be able to speak in the language.
Of the more advanced countries, and particularly the ones that
are our friends, our allies, but also our economic competitors, have
very heavy language training programs. In a tour as an attache in
Sweden some years ago, my recollection is that by the time a
youngster finished secondary education, they had been required
not only in keeping up their Swedish, if they can find all that
many other people that can converse them, but they have done at
least 8 years of English and had done, if they were going to go the
track toward universities, they had done 4 or 5 years in a third
language.
And that same general approach occurs in many of the other
countries. With our British colleauges, I am afraid that we may
have inherited some of our bad habits from them, with the general
attitude that we have conveyed for years of "Let them speak Eng-
lish," as our general attitude toward other countries.
Mr. SIMON. If my colleague would yield.
Mr. ERDAHL. I would be happy to, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. Two things. One, in the Soviet Union-and our col-
league, Tom Coleman, was with us on this trip-you start language
either in the first grade or fourth grade, depending on where you
live, and starting in the 1990's everyone starts foreign languages in
the first grade.
Second, both General Larkin and Admiral Inman happened to
mention, or did in the course of their testimony, we visited a
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language academy in Kiev, and they mentioned five languages they
were emphasizing, most of them the traditional. One of them was
Urdu, just stood out like that. I would guess-and I stand to be
corrected- probably in the entire United States we do not have 30
students of Urdu.
? So other countries are doing things, and if for no other reasons
than competitive reasons, we ought to be doing it. Thank you.
Mr. ERDAHL. Mr. Chairman, you mentioned, and I think, Admi-
ral, you mentioned also, about our friendly competitors. Think of
? the Japanese and others who come here selling the various things
they sell to us, and they do not expect us to furnish an interpreter;
they speak English. And yet when our businessmen go over there, I
think we are at a disadvantage because we usually have to ask
them for their interpreter.
Another question, and I think you touched on this in the testimo-
ny, any one of you three gentlemen: Where basically do you get our
recruit your linguists? Some obviously you train right from scratch
who have an aptitude for it. Some, I think you mentioned, are
second-generation people who still have a fluency in the language.
Some may be coming out of the few colleges and universities that
teach and emphasize the language.
Can you touch on that a bit? Do you really have to train most of
them basically from scratch?
Admiral INMAN. I will defer to my colleagues on the military
side. My experience in working with civilian linguists in the last
two agencies has been that overwhelmingly now there is a pretty
good supply of romance-language students, except probably not
enough in Spanish. But there is a pretty substantial supply of
applicants with French or Italian capability, substantially more
than we have any need for. But they have already demonstrated
their skill, and you can train them in a second language.
Overwhelmingly, we have to take people, most of them academic
university-level qualifications, a BA degree or higher, we test them
and they show high aptitude to learn languages, and then we
spend the time and the money to train them in a language after we
hire them.
General LARKIN. We have two problems. First, we are attempting
to recruit civilian linguists for analytic purposes and military lin-
guists for attache duties. Our best source still appears to be a
former military man who, while in military service, has been
taught the language and then has become a civilian analyst.
Second, evaluate potential based on high school and college per-
formance. We select those with a high aptitude for learning a
foreign language or improving one they have already learned.
Mr. WILSON. For the large enlisted input in the Department of
Defense, which this year will number close to 4,000 enlisted people
to be trained at the basic level in foreign languages, virtually none
of those people possess any foreign-language skill.
It is true that the intelligence community is getting the recruits
that are scoring the highest on the aptitude tests at the time that
they are screened at the time of initial enlistment. We are getting
in excess of 80 percent of those who are scoring in the top 80th
percentile of the ASVAB, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude
Battery. We are getting the best that there is.
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However, we can observe that the level of tested aptitude for
foreign languages is less than it was a decade ago. We are not
putting anybody in school that does not have an adequate aptitude.
We are not going to try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But
we have people going into entry level language training who pos-
sess no other foreign-language skills, and that is the bulk of the
people that the Department of Defense is training right now.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. Let me just note the presence in the audience here of
Jack Otero. A reference has been made to the Perkins Commission.
Jack is one of those who is very active in the Commission. We
appreciate your being here.
Mr. DeNardis.
Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me apologize to you and members of the committee and our
guests for being late. I have tried to catch up by perusing the
testimony. But I hope I do not cover something that has already
been covered.
Knowledge of a foreign language is indisputably a need for us
militarily and otherwise as a nation. Knowledge of foreign lan-
guage for the purposes that you would present, is it enough? How
limited is mere technical knowledge of the language? What I am
driving at, obviously, is knowledge, broader-based knowledge, about
the Nation, the culture, which may result in nuances of expression
that are important for the work that you do. And do you look at a
more broader-based training for your requirements?
Admiral INMAN. Mr. DeNardis, we do look at that that way, and
you are exactly on target. We have differing levels of need. There
are cases where you need simply someone who can mechanically
translate an unclassified document which is available to you from
an open source.
And the difficulty that grows is if it is something that is very
technical, our much greater worry has been analysts with a fluen-
cy in a language as well as others who can understand the nu-
ances, who can understand the culture of the country and can very
quickly assimilate the real significance, that if you simply read a
technical translation you may miss :a great deal.
I think the classic example is the slowness in recognizing the
threat to our interests of the Islam situation. Much of it was
simply not understanding the fervor that lay behind a lot of the
words in a different language.
General LARKIN. In the defense segment of the intelligence com-
munity, we have a very dramatic need for the understanding that
you have just stated. It does us very little good to have technical
translations without knowing in fact what the man meant when he
wrote the article. We have to know the idioms, we have to know
the axioms, the nuances of the expressions. And you cannot get
that from a mechnical translation. This, in fact, requires the cul-
tural understanding of the language as it is spoken. We could not
survive without a deeper than a technical surface knowledge.
Mr. WILSON. Foreign language training is obviously the first step
toward the acculturation that Admiral Inman and General Larkin
are talking about. In addition to that, however, we need to press on
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in addition to cultural studies with more stress in international
geophysics, economics, and the understanding of foreign technology
and science.
A deliberate effort must be given to these areas at the graduate
study level, in order to meet some of the analytical needs of the
Department of Defense.
Mr. DENARDis. I have always thought that the value of the draft
and, in particular, the way in which ROTC's flourished during that
period-and I am a product of that system-was to produce for
military service, if only in the short run, people who had language
skills and liberal arts training to be able to support in a skillful
way that proficiency and that that was useful to the military if
only for 3, or 4, or 5, years.
I note that the admiral in his testimony on page 4 makes note of
that, makes passing reference to it, anyway. If this has already
been covered, I will look at the record. But I am interested in
language training and liberal arts training to support that at the
service academies. What is the curriculum like at the service acad-
emies?
Admiral INMAN. I think we are probably not the best witnesses
to have on that score. But I would encourage you to pursue that,
even if I end up getting in some hot water with some very distin-
guished military personnel who over the last two decades worried
that we were not producing enough technical skills from the serv-
ice colleges.
I think the criticism was very valid at the time, but again, in
looking at what the 1980's and 1990's look like, at least to me,
'where we are far more likely to have to deal with very complex
situations and instability all over the Third World, that there is
increasingly going to be a premium on some liberal arts training
and certainly language skills in our military.
Mr. WILSON. We can provide that data for your record, what the
service academies are doing right now. We have provided it to the
.President's commission 21/2 years ago, so we can give you an update
on that for the record, if you wish.
Mr. SIMON. If my colleague would yield. As of right now, we have
no requirement in the academies. There is an amendment-I will
]lobby him while I am here-I have an amendment today that asks
the Department of Defense to study the possibility of requiring it
at the academies.
I might also mention, Mr. Wilson, that one of the things you
might want to look at the in the Department of Defense, we have
no such requirement for ROTC, another obvious source for develop-
ing linguists.
I would think, in fact, if you, Mr. Wilson, could take a look at
that question, and maybe within 60 days get back to us and see if
maybe we should not modify our policy on ROTC.
Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Mr. SIMON. We thank all three witnesses for really excellent
testimony here this morning. We are grateful to you. It is not
exactly comforting testimony, but it is testimony we need to hear.
Thank you very much.
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114
Admiral INMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are all greatly
appreciative for all of your interest in this field.
General LARKIN. We certainly are.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you.
Our next witness is Mr. Moorhead Kennedy, who was one of our
hostages in Iran, whose wife became a spokesperson, unofficially
designated, for the hostages.
STATEMENT OF MOORHEAD KENNEDY, FOREIGN SERVICE
OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Kennedy, before you begin your testimony, if you
can describe-I forget what the precise title is-the work you are
doing right now in connection with the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York.
Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am, as you know, retiring from the Foreign Service and begin-
ning to pick up my new function at the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine, executive director of the Cathedral Peace Institute. This is
the brandnew foreign policy institute designed to study and make
clearer to the American people the role of religion in foreign
affairs.
Quite obviously, I reached a conclusion about the importance of
the role of religion, as a captive of a religious revolution. What we
really hope to do through publications, seminars, public speaking,
is to raise the level of consciousness of the American people of the
importance of religion. And by that we include, therefore, foreign
cultures and, by extension, foreign languages.
I think that the concerns of this committee are very close to the
concerns which led us to start this institute, of which I will be the
executive director.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you. We will let you get that commercial in, a
good commercial, before you begin your testimony on the subject at
hand.
We welcome your statement at this point, and then we will toss
some questions at you.
Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I did not prepare a written submission, because I am not here in
an official capacity. I am sort of halfway between my 21-year
career as a Foreign Service officer and my new responsibilities, and
I hope it is understood that I am speaking for myself, my own
observations as a career Foreign Service officer, and the impor-
tance of language training.
Mr. SIMON. That is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. I would like to begin by pointing out I am very
personally keen on foreign languages. I came into the Foreign
Service with French and Arabic. I subsequently picked up, in an
assignment at Athens, quite a bit of Greek. The Foreign Service
Institute trained me in Spanish very well before my assignment as
economic counselor in Chile. And my wife, Louisa Kennedy, has
taken the French course and has spoken French most of her life.
So to us, foreign languages were very much a part of our lives, part
of our dedication to the Foreign Service.
And in addition to all the very important defense considerations,
technical considerations so ably described by the previous witnesses
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and to which I think any Foreign Service officer would certainly
subscribe, part of the role of the Foreign Service is to get into the
life of a foreign country, to get under the skin, as it were, of its
society, to get to know people, not just across a desk, not in a
contact or interviewing situation, not just in the analysis of docu-
ments, but to know them, to have friends with whom you can
converse, because only in that way can you get a real feel for how
that country is reacting to the United States, how it is reacting to
? other forces.
The difference between people who know a country on that basis
and those who know it only, shall we say, impersonally through
documentation, even if they can read the language, is absolutely
fundamental. My personal belief is that the Foreign Service, within
its budgetary limitations, does a pretty good job of training in
foreign languages. Certainly, the Foreign Service Institute is a
superb language training institute.
I went through language review in Arabic. I learned my Greek 2
hours a day after hours, again with the Foreign Service system. I
took the entire course in Spanish, and my wife took the entire
course in French, and it is excellent. I think it is a model. It is as
good probably as any in the world.
But having said that, there are some problems that it encounters
and that the Foreign Service necessarily encounters and which, I
think, your bill very clearly addresses. Both my wife and I noticed,
in taking the Spanish and the French courses, which were basic
courses, that the language aptitude of many of the incoming re-
cruits to the Foreign Service was very low indeed. I noticed that
one of the witnesses mentioned a falling rate of achievement on
the aptitude tests administered within the military establishment.
And this was certainly my own impression for the younger men
and women coming into the Foreign Service.
I think, in part, their English training in their own language was
very deficient. I think we all know, all of us who are parents-I
think that is probably a large part of the committee-that there is
a declining feel and grasp of our own native language. We are not
an articulate language. We do not communicate as well with each
other as we should.
The youngsters these days, when you listen to them speak, you
wonder how any idea is passing from one brain to the other. I do
not think I am exaggerating; I think we all have that feeling.
But I think, in part, it is because we do not emphasize foreign
languages. I noticed that when I went through a language training
program, be it Spanish or Arabic-and I did, I might add, Arabic
under the British, who do have a very good Arabic training pro-
gram, or did, in their school near Beirut-but all of us found that
our English was improving because we were thinking communica-
tively. We were thinking with much greater precision. And this,
quite apart from or in addition to the use of language when you
are dealing with foreigners, is a very important cultural adjunct.
So I think the lack of language skills or aptitude possessed by
these younger officers coming in-and this was not, of course, all of
them, but too many, let us say-was because they had not been
exposed to foreign languages at an early enough age.
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116
There is another problem, too, that was again touched on by the
witnesses. Language training is only part of it. You must practice
it once you get in the field. In the military mode they were talking
about units that were in, shall we say, ready units, but ones which
did not have, for obvious reasons, exposure to the areas where they
were trained to operate in. But in the Foreign Service we often see
the phenomenon repeated in the American business community,
repeated in the American media abroad, our international lawyers
stationed abroad, of Americans who really have very little curiosity
about the countries to which they are assigned, not enough knowl-
edge to get to know the people, even if they have been technically
trained in the language.
They make their friends among the American community. They
sort of draw their linguistic wagons in a circle and within that and
within the comfort of people who speak only English and a few
token foreigners who want to climb over the wagon and come into
the American campground. They lead very, very American lives.
And I think, in part, this is because too many of our countrymen-
I would say increasingly-inarticulate, are also not sufficiently
attuned to foreign cultures via the foreign language route when
they were very young.
You notice our Dutch colleagues, Dutch diplomats, Dutch busi-
nessmen, Italian, German, particularly, are much more prepared to
become part of the furniture, to use a compliment that was paid to
us by a Chilean friend, part of the life of the country, simply
because they have been learning foreign languages all their lives
and because they do not have what Admiral Inman referred to, the
kind of arrogance that others should be expected to know English.
I think, in response also to a question raised about whether our
misfortunes in Tehran had to do with a lack of capacity to under-
stand what was going to happen to us, many of the Embassy in
Tehran spoke very good Farsi on the Foreign Service side. John
Limbert, Mike Metrincko, Ann Swift, among others, and Victor
Thomson, the political counselor, had varying degrees of proficien-
cy. Barry Rosen, on the cultural and press side. Some, almost
bilingual. One had an Iranian wife.
I think for an Embassy that was rather hard to staff, for obvious
reasons, I think we were doing pretty well. Two in the military,
one better than the other, had some foreign language, had Farsi.
And we had foreign language technicians. There was nobody from
the CIA who had any Farsi. I think this was a problem for us, a
very definite problem.
I think, however, that the basic thought I would like to leave
from my own personal experience with this committee is that we
need to be more communicative, we need to be less provincial. And
the best way to do that is, besides increasing the funding of the
FSI, the Foreign Service Institute, besides increasing foreign-lan-
guage training at West Point and at Colorado Springs, I think it
should go right down to the primary school level, because that is
where we are going to get naturally.
That is when you do it best. That is when you grow up with a far
more open view of other societies. And I think that is something
we desperately need.
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That concludes my testimony. I would be very happy to answer
questions.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much, Mr. Kennedy.
First, in relation to the situation in Iran, I have been told-and
? you seemed to indicate that this was not accurate-that 3 of the 52
hostages were fully fluent in Farsi. Is that not correct?
Mr. KENNEDY. That is not correct. Let me be very precise for the
record. John Limbert, whose wife, Parvani, is Iranian, spoke beau-
tiful Farsi, learned originally, I believe, in the Peace Corps and
kept up through academic study.
He was also a very good Arabist, and two of his students in
Arabic, Barry Rosen of the Information Agency, again bilingual,
Victor Thomseth, whose basic language was Thai, had been consul
general in Isfahan and spoke very good Farsi.
Ann Swift-that is, Elizabeth Ann Swift, to give her full name-
was a newcomer; she had just been through training but spoke it
very well.
On the military side, Colonel Charles Scott, who was with the
Defense Liaison Office, spoke pretty good Farsi, quite good. And
Colonel Shafer, who was the defense attache, spoke enough to be
able to do his job.
Now, all the Foreign Service officers I mentioned were on the
political side, or present culture. On the economic side, we had a
very bad deficiency. I was only there temporarily, for a 3-month
assignment, although Arabic was one of my languages.
Mr. SIMON. That was a rather long temporary assignment.
Mr. KENNEDY. It was a very interesting temporary assignment.
[Laughter.]
But it is perfectly true, as the admiral points out, that we need
better economic intelligence. You can function on the economic
side a little more easily without the language because you are
dealing with bankers and others who themselves have to learn
English to function in this world.
On the political side, you have to deal with a much wider swath
in the society. You have to get down to a more grassroots level.
Let me only add as an addition to this, the American people did
not learn about Iran through the Foreign Service, but they learned
about it through the media and particularly the electronic media.
And nobody among the media who were interpreting Iran to the
American public and, therefore, whose judgments had an impor-
tant view, an important impact on how our Nation was reacting,
none of them had any language facility.
Mr. SIMON. So if I follow your statistics correctly, if I am calcu-
lating correctly, 6 of the 52 hostages spoke Farsi, and none of the
media and none of the CIA?
Mr. KENNEDY. Right.
Mr. SIMON. You mentioned the Foreign Service, to use your
words, "does a pretty good job." We had testimony yesterday from
Mr. Higgenbotham, who now heads the cultural attache program
at the Department of Commerce. He was in the Foreign Service 25
years. He said at no point was he encouraged at all to study a
foreign language.
Mr. KENNEDY. I am very glad you raised that question, sir. I
have known him for years. I have a high respect for him. And since
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he has said it, I can say it even more. It is perfectly true, the lack
of incentives in Foreign Service to learn a language is not nearly
good enough. Let me be very specific. If you look at the Foreign
Service efficiency report form, which is what determines your pro-
motion-and may have been changed, but I am not sure it has
been changed in this respect-you will see a very small space given
to communicative abilities. A very small space given to how much
you are getting out and getting to know the people in the country.
In that one document alone you have usually one or two sen-
tences saying, "His ever-improving Spanish" or something. It is
usually pretty flattering, because everybody pats each other on the
back when it comes to something that is not given the highest
importance.
There are no effective financial remunerations given for lan-
guage training. And this is not only for learning it, because taking
a year and a half as a language student, particularly in Tunisia,
which is our Arabic center, can be almost an academic sabbatical.
People volunteer for language training as junior officers.
But it is in keeping it up and it is in being reprocessed. And that
is where we have a real problem. Everybody has to come back to
Washington. It is obviously a very important part of the Foreign
Service officer's career. There is some 6:30-in-the-morning training
at the Foreign Service in the more basic languages, but not, as far
as I can see, in the more difficult ones which are much harder to
retain because their thought processes are very different from the
thought processes that go into the European languages.
So anybody can keep up his French. You only have to read
LeMonde from time to time. But to keep up Arabic is really very
much harder. And there ought to be an obligatory requirement for
officers to pass an examination on a yearly basis, particularly those
in whom 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 dollars-you can get the figures
from FSI-have been spent learning the hard languages. There
ought to be at the same time a financial remuneration for those
who can keep up their languages.
Let me give you one thing that is very disturbing. I came back
from Chile and had a temporary job in Beirut and had some
language refresher. I was told that officers with some seniority who
had enough Arabic to fill the senior jobs were scarce as hen's
teeth-I am quoting a personnel officer. I asked why, when we had
all these numbers of officers who had gotten the 33 professional,
basic professional level.
The answer was that they were simply declining to go back to
refresher. They had reached middle life. They did not want to be
students again. They did not have any career incentive to do it.
They thought they had made it, that language learning was a part
of the time when they were younger and hungrier, in career terms,
and when they had reached a certain point they did not want to
bother with it.
Now, this, I think, is very bad because it is a loss of an invest-
ment. And so the Foreign Service is full of people who will tell you
with a sheepish grin, "Oh, yes, I used to be a good Arabist," and
yet they go out to the Middle East again because it is on their
record, and you discover you get them into a meeting or something,
and it is just gone. They might as well not have had it.
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So I think that an incentive system, both the carrot and the
stick, of the kind I mentioned would be extremely useful to keep up
this kind of language capability.
Mr. SIMON. What I sense you are saying, even the evaluation
sheet that automatically has a place where you check off, is he
keeping or is she keeping up his or her Arabic or whatever the
language skills, some, as you say, both a carrot and a stick ought to
be used.
Mr. Coleman.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Mr. Kennedy for
coming. He had no prepared remarks, but they were some of the
most articulate testimony that I have heard in many days. I agree
with everything you say.
And I have no questions, but a statement: That on behalf of all
the people that I represent, my first opportunity to tell you how
proud we were of how you conducted yourself, and your wife and
how she conducted herself, through the ordeal that you went
through.
Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you very much, Mr. Coleman.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. Erdahl.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would echo those same observations that Mr. Coleman just
made.
One question or observation. You cited several times-I do not
know if you used the word "necessity," I will use it-to train
people in languages at an early age, the primary school level. Can
you elaborate a little bit more on that, because I sensed that is one
of the deficiencies, because if we had trained people at the elemen-
tary and secondary school level, obviously some of them would be
going into the Foreign Service, CIA, military, business, and all
these things. How can we do a better job?
Mr. KENNEDY. I think that children are natural linguists, and
the proof is my son Duncan at age 16 has borrowed an Arabic
textbook to master on his own, because he is conscious of the fact
that up to the age of 4 he spoke Arabic much better than he spoke
English. And this is part of his view of himself.
I am sure it will come back to him. I am sure that way in the
:[BM recesses of his mind there is a capacity there and that this
will come out again.
Now, I think at that age when you are teaching children a
foreign language, you are teaching them to be articulate. You are
teaching them to speak. It does not matter what the language is. I
think our tendency has been the other way. There was an empha-
sis to teach Spanish language to children of Hispanic origin in
Spanish, to make it easier for them. I think that is entirely the
wrong approach.
I think children are challenged by a foreign language. You see
this in bilingual families. My brother has an Italian wife, and my
nephew and niece speak Italian with their mother and English
with their father, and they are perfectly comfortable with the
situation. They like playing the parents off against each other.
[Laughter.]
But I think you could add greatly to the challenge of primary
school education. I think it is as good a program as any. In part,
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because you are developing the base which many years later will
be the intelligence clerks and Foreign Service officers and, let us
say, oil company executives, but also because you are making chil-
dren more communicative. You are making them better-educated
people. You are making better Americans. This should be the basis
for it.
Mr. ERDAHL. I think that is a very perceptive observation that
we need to hear. I have thought that, too. How do people learn
very difficult languages: Arabic, Finnish, Chinese? Obviously, there
are millions of people who do it from childhood.
In our own family we have a little girl who is now 4 years old.
And when we moved here a couple of years ago, we had a Vietnam-
ese family across the street. Their little girl could speak no Eng-
lish, and it was obvious in a period of months she learned to speak
English from our little girl, never getting the languages confused,
always talking in Vietnamese to her mother and talking English to
us. And yet, in this whole process, our little daughter never
learned one word of Vietnamese. It was kind of a one-way street.
Mr. KENNEDY. There is the incentive question. Your daughter did
not need to know Vietnamese, but it is very clear to little Moi that
she needed to have English.
Mr. ERDAHL. We tried to get her to say some words, "What is
this?" A chair or something, in Vietnamese. But she would never
respond.
Mr. KENNEDY. This was her secret.
Mr. ERDAHL. Maybe so. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SIMON. We thank you again. I would really again echo Tom
Coleman's sentiments. We are proud of you and your colleagues
and your wife, and we extend to them our greetings.
Mr. KENNEDY. I will certainly extend her your greetings. It has
been a great honor to be here.
I wish you all success with the bill. I think it is terribly impor-
tant.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you for adding to it here.
Our next witnesses will be a panel: Dr. Dale Lange, of the
University of Minnesota, director of graduate studies; Dr. David
Edwards, from the Joint National Committee for Languages; and
Dr. Eugene Timpe, who happens to be from Southern Illinois Uni-
versity.
It is a pleasure to welcome you here. And we thank all three of
you for your interests and you leadership.
We will call upon the past president of the American Council on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages, first of all. And Dr. Edwards is
representing Dr. Alatis, who cannot be here. But all three of you
have been extremely helpful along the way. It is not simply your
testimony here today. Let me express my appreciation for that.
[The prepared testimony of Dale Lange follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF DALE L. LANGE, IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT, 1981,
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Mr. Chairman and other members of the subcommittee, I wish to take this
opportunity to thank you for inviting testimony on H.R. 3231 from the American
especially proud, Languages Chairman, to know tat I two R pre
Council on the for 1981. I lam of
President -
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sentatives from my home state of Minnesota, Mr. Erdahl and Mr. Oberstar, have co-
sponsored the bill with you.
The testimony that I intend to offer is organized around four points: (1) Experi-
ence with our language failures, (2) The strategic and economic importance of
having citizens well-versed in languages, (3) Reactions to the bill with some sugges-
tions, and (4) The impact of the bill on the language situation.
EXPERIENCE WITH LANGUAGE FAILURES
Having been in Germany as a student and in France as a director of a University
of Minnesota program for teachers of French as well as an exchange professor at a
French university, I have seen a wide spectrum of Americans function very poorly
? in a language other than English:
(1) A U.S. Consul at the Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany, who spoke little or no
German, who had to have a German-speaking bilingual secretary translate German
documents in order that he would be able to understand them. In such a case, a
Consul can lose control over communication with the host country.
(2) Hundreds of examples of U.S. Military in Germany who made no effort to
learn German, but who lived and mixed with Germans. Such lack of language
capability in these situations has caused innumerable misunderstandings of a cul-
tural nature between German and American service personnel and their families.
Without a language capability, the misunderstandings continue, having no means
for resolution. While my experience cannot speak for communication in military
operations in the NATO countries, I assume that problems in that case could be
quite serious since most service personnel cannot communicate in everyday situa-
tions. That this situation should exist after thirty-five years is astounding!
(3) The many tourists, who cannot negotiate their way in a post office, hotel, or
restaurant, who shout at the person behind the counter, thinking that a loud voice
in English will help the situation. The arrogant assumption in these situations is
that, no matter where one goes outside the U.S.A., everybody speaks English;
therefore we, as Americans, do not need to know languages other than English.
(4) Some of the teachers of French and German I have known who, in spite of
degrees in language, cannot communicate. Many of these people teach on the basis
of a college minor and have never been outside the U.S.; many have been embar-
rassed even to try to communicate in the language they teach because they lack
sufficient proficiency.
(5) And finally my own failure-the embarrassment of not knowing Spanish when
i1 arrived in Spain. Speaking two languages other than English, neither of them
Spanish, I realized the psychological and cultural disadvantage I was at in trying to
deal with Spanish people. I had no tools to deal with the situation; it was as though
l: were naked.
THE STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF HAVING CITIZENS WELL-VERSED IN
LANGUAGES
Mr. Chairman, it is not within my expertise to comment extensively on the
strategic and economic implications of the capacity of American citizens to use
languages other than English. Other witnesses have direct competence in those
areas and have already testified in that regard. However, as a citizen who is
concerned about our image abroad, I feel that I have the right to continue to ask
about the capacity of U.S. government officials to use languages other than English.
Without quoting facts and figures, it is now clear that the failure of U.S. govern-
ment policy in Southeast Asia was partially a result of being ill-prepared to under-
stand either the languages or the people and the cultures of the Indo-Chinese
peninsula. It also appears that our problems in Iran can be traced, again in part, to
lack of capacity in Farsi. In recent months I have written to several Congressmen as
well as to the President about the ability of American officials who are dealing with
our escalating commitment in El Salvador. I have directly asked what Foreign
Service Institute Oral Interview Proficiency ratings the Ambassador and his Depu-
ties have. The responses I have received from Congressmen indicate that I have
posed a good question; the President's office ignored the question in a recent
response. We cannot afford to place Foreign Service Officers or Staff who do not
know the language of the people with whom they are dealing on line in either
sensitive or non-sensitive areas of the world.
In business, it would be interesting to sort out the effects on the balance of
payments of those U.S. firms in international business which sell their products in
the language of the buyer against those who sell their products to the buyer in
English. If this sorting could be done and my assumptions are correct, the results
may be similar to the current Japanese and American economic situations. Lan-
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122
guage is an important tool in selling goods and services; we have learned that lesson
in selling in English in the U.S.; why can we not transfer this knowledge to foreign
trade?
The importance of communication in a language other than English in the devel-
opment of our strategic, diplomatic, and economic interest is self-evident to most of
us. Yet we continue to force others to speak to us in English. As with our new
national economic, policy, we need to take the hard way out, forcing us to use the
languages of others. Can we not risk the gamble?
REACTIONS TO THE BILL AND SOME SUGGESTIONS
Mr. Chairman, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages is
proud to have contributed its ideas to H.R. 3231, especially in Section 2. We are
enthusiastic to see model programs and a variety of alternative approaches for
children from five through seventeen in the language of the bill. We would recom-
mend that specific language be added to Section 2, article a) which recognizes grants
for model programs in school districts which currently do not have language pro-
grams. Line 21 of page 2 of the bill speaks to the "improvement and expansion" of
foreign language study but does not mention the commencement of model programs
where they do not now exist. I mention this need because many smaller school
districts in this country do not have foreign language programs. An innovative
approach for the teaching of German using an itinerant teacher and electronic
media, closed-circuit TV, is being experimented with by a consortium of seven
schools without any language program in rural Minnesota. Model programs for
these schools need to be developed and tested for possible use and adaptation in
other rural contexts in this country. It is this kind of start-up model and others not
yet developed which need support because they show that quality education, which
includes the study of languages other than English, is possible in small and rural
American public schools.
ACTFL is also supportive of Sections 3 and 4 of this bill, Mr. Chairman, in that
they give support for foreign language study in higher education. But we are
concerned about several features:
(1) The concept of model programs is not carried through in higher education.
There is no less need to deal with model programs at this level than in the
elementary and secondary schools. IHEs are experimenting with different forms of
intensive language instruction from a two hour a day, five days a week program
during the academic year to three to six hours a day, five days a week, five to ten
week programs during the summer. Beginning courses at this level may also concen-
trate on one or a combination of language activities, such as the development of
listening and reading comprehension (minimizing speaking and writing), the devel-
opment of oral communication, and/or the development of written communication.
These aproaches to success in different contexts. language 1 nguage of this hportion iof the bill could be evaluation
as specific as that of the elementary and secondary portion in relation to the
development and testing of model programs.
(2) In these two sections. OHEs are not specifically required to guarantee suffi-
cient funds to ensure that the program be carried out as in the application as
elementary and secondary schools in Section 3.(b)(3). Such a requirement for IHEs
would suggests that the costs of an application are in part borne by the IHE and the
Federal Government in consort and not solely by the Federal Government. This
statement is in full recognition of the language of Section 3.(a)(1), lines 9 and 10,
to reimburse such institutions for part of the costs of providing foreign lan-
guage instruction " We are suggesting that while it is possible to make it clear
in regulations to administer this bill when finally passed that the monies to be
appropriated under this act are to be used for foreign language instruction only in
IHEs, we would be much more comfortable if the language of the bill were much
more specific in that regard.
(3) None of the provisions of the IHE portion of the bill deals with a most
important aspect of the foreign language classroom, the preparation of teachers. In
order that the models be tested and that their evaluation be disseminated, we
recommend that a portion of the funds appropriated be set aside for college/
university language department, schools of education, state education agencies and
LEAs to work together for the preparation of inservice teachers. This cooperation
could also take place as part of the state education agency application of Section
2.(a). Specifically, we would recommended an appropriation of 1 percent of the total
cost for the bill for the preparation of teachers in public elementary and secondary
schools who would become familiar with different teaching/ learning models while at
the same time they are given an opportunity to improve their use of language. A
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similar amount (1 percent of the total cost of the bill) should also be made availabe
for the preparation of college and university teachers.
(4) We are especially concerned, Mr. Chairman, about the ratio of funding for
elementary/secondary to that of higher education which this bill provides. We think
it is severely lopsided. The population of language students in public elementary
and secondary schools is at least equal to that of the colleges and universities, we
would suggest at 50/50 split in appropriations with formulas changed to reflect this
equality. There is no question in our mind, Mr. Chairman, that as much importance
be given language instruction in elementary and secondary schools as in the col-
leges. In addition, research in language learning indicates that there may be less
efficiency in learning with young adults than with young children and adolescents.
In this regard, the funding of the proposed legislation does not reflect the reality of
the classroom. We know that the author and the supporters of this legislation will
wish to correct this inequity.
(5) The effect of the funding level recommended for Section 4 would give strong
encouragement to two year language requirements in secondary schools. While that
encouragement may be necessary and even appropriate, it is hoped that it not force
college and university "standards" for amounts learned onto the secondary schools
where such standards do not wholly fit. There needs to be an understanding at both
the secondary and college/ university levels of what students can learn of another
language in the amount of time available for learning.
What is needed to resolve this problem is the examination of the kind of language
proficiency that can be obtained from the various model programs. From that
examination, reasonable minimal expectations of proficiency in oral and written
communication would be established for each alternative. Colleges and universities
would then know what to expect from the different types of programs and could
then plan to place students where they most appropriately belong.
It is my assumption that statements establishing minimal proficiencies and proce-
dures used by the Foreign Sevice Institute and other government agency language
schools. It would appear that the oral interview procedure, though useful within the
government, needs modification for use outside the government to help develop
standards as well as the means to evalute those standards. Assistance is needed to
produce the statements and studies to evaluate the oral interview procedure against
a revised set of proficiency statements as they are used at different points in the
learning system: at the end of secondary schools, after both one and two years of
college language learning, for teachers prior to certification or hiring as teaching
assistants, and to evaluate language proficiency at the graduate school level. The
definition of minimal proficiencies will help the profession ensure that efficient
language learning is taking place. This act could help not only in developing an
awareness of the different language learning models, but also how they relate to
proficiency standards if monies were devoted to such development.
THE IMPACT OF THE BILL
Mr. Chairman, these recommendations are made with the hope that they will
only refine the effort that you have and continue to make on behal-f of foreign
language education in the United States. It is you effort and this bill which give
support and encouragement to the resolution of our seeming incapacity as a nation
to deal with languages other than English. Although we are a polyglot country, a
tradition of ignoring the fact that languages other than English are used both
within and without our borders. This legislation should begin the long road to
recovery by preparing a wide range of Americans to communicate with others in
their languages.
STATEMENT OF DALE LANGE, DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUD-
IES, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AND IMMEDIATE PAST
PRESIDENT, AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOR-
EIGN LANGUAGES
Mr. LANGE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to read part of my
statement, if I might.
Mr. SIMON. You proceed as you wish.
Mr. LANGE. I would like to have the whole thing in the record
and then read part of it.
Mr. Chairman, and other members of the subcommittee, I wish
to take this opportunity to thank you for inviting testimony on
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H.R. 3231 from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages, which I represent as immediate past president for 1981.
I am especially proud, Mr. Chairman, to note that two Repre-
sentatives from my home State of Minnesota, Mr. Erdahl and Mr.
Oberstar, have cosponsored the bill with you.
Mr. Chairman, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages is proud to have contributed its ideas to H.R. 3231,
especially within section 2 of the bill. We are enthusiastic to see
model programs and a variety of alternative approaches for chil-
dren from ages 5 through 17 in the language of the bill.
We would recommend that specific languages be added to section
2, article (a), which recognizes grants for model programs--
Mr. SIMON. If I may interrupt you, where are you in your state-
ment?
Mr. LANGE. I am on page 4 and 5.
We would recommend that specific language be added to section
2, article (a), which recognizes grants for model programs in school
districts which currently do not have language programs. Line 21
of page 2 of the bill speaks to the "improvement and expansion" of
foreign language study but does not mention the commencement of
model programs where they do not now exist.
I mention this need because many smaller school districts in this
country do not have foreign language programs. An innovative
approach for the teaching of German using an itinerant teacher
and electronic media, closed-circuit television, is being experiment-
ed with by a consortium of seven schools without any language
program in rural Minnesota.
Model programs for these schools need to be developed and
tested for possible use and adaptation in other rural contexts in
this country. It is this kind of startup model and others not yet
developed which need support because they show that quality edu-
cation which includes the study of languages other than English is
possible in small and rural American public schools.
ACTFL is also supportive of sections 3 and 4 of this bill, Mr.
Chairman, in that they give support for foreign language study in
higher education. But we are concerned about several other fea-
tures:
One, the concept of model programs is not carried through in
higher education. There is no less need to deal with model pro-
grams at this level than in the elementary and secondary schools.
IHE's are experimenting with different forms of intensive language
instruction from the 2-hour-a-day, 5-day-a-week program during the
academic year to 3 to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 5 to 10 weeks
during the summer.
Beginning courses at this level may also concentrate on one or a
combination of language activities, such as the developing of listen-
ing and reading comprehension, minimizing speaking and writing,
the development of oral communication, and/or the development of
written communication.
These approaches to language learning need both planning for
and evaluation of success in different contexts. The language of
this portion of the bill could be made as specific as that of the
elementary and secondary portion in relation to the development
and testing of model programs.
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Two, in these two sections, IHE's are not specifically required to
guarantee sufficient funds to insure that the program be carried
out as in the application as elementary and secondary schools in
section 3(b)(3) of the bill. Such a requirement for IHE's would
suggest that the costs of an application are, in part, borne by the
IHE and the Federal Government in consort and not soley by the
Federal Government.
This statement is in full recognition of the language of section 3,
lines 9 and 10 of part (a)(1): "to reimburse such institutions for part
of the costs of providing foreign language instruction."
We are suggesting that while it is possible to make it clear in
regulations to administer this bill when finally passed, that the
moneys appropriated under this act are to be used for foreign
language instruction only in IHE's, we would be much more com-
fortable if the language of the bill were much more specific in that
regard.
Three, none of the provisions of the IHE portion of the bill deals
with the most important aspect of the foreign language classroom,
the preparation of teachers. In order that the models be tested and
that their evaluation be disseminated, we recommend that a por-
tion of the funds appropriated be set aside for college/ university
language department, schools of education, State education agen-
cies, and LEA's to work together for the preparation of in-service
teachers.
This cooperation could also take place as part of the application
of section 2(a). Specifically, we would recommend an appropriation
of 1 percent of the total cost of the bill for the preparation of
teachers in public elementary and secondary schools who would
become familiar with different teaching/learning models while at
the same time they are given an opportunity to improve and con-
tinue their improvement of the use of language.
A similar amount, 1 percent of the total cost of the bill, should
also be made available for the preparation of college and university
teachers.
Four, we are especially concerned, Mr. Chairman, about the ratio
of funding for elementary/secondary to that of higher education,
which this bill provides. We think it is severely lopsided. Since the
population of language students in public elementary and second-
ary schools is at least equal to that of the colleges and universities,
we would suggest a 50-50 split in appropriations, with formulas
changed to reflect this equality.
There is no question in our minds, Mr. Chairman, that as much
importance be given language instruction in elementary and sec-
ondary schools as in the colleges.
In addition, research in language learning indicates that there
may be less efficiency in learning with young adults than with
young children and adolescents. In this regard, the funding of the
proposed legislation does not reflect the reality of the classroom.
We know that the authors and the supporters of this legislation
will wish to correct this inequity.
Five, the effect of the funding level recommended for section 4
would give strong encouragement to 2-year language requirements
in secondary schools. While that encouragement may be necessary
and even appropriate, it is hoped that it will not force college and
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university standards for amounts learned onto the secondary
schools where such standards do not wholly fit. There needs to be
an understanding at both the secondary and college/university
levels of what students can learn of another language in the
amount of time available for learning.
What is needed to resolve this problem is the examination of the
kind of language proficiency that can be obtained from the various
model language programs. From that examination, reasonable
minimal expectations of proficiency in oral and written communi-
cation would be established for each alternative. Colleges and uni-
versities would then know what to expect from the different types
of programs and could then plan to place students where they most
appropriately belong.
It is my assumption that statements establishing minimal profi-
ciencies and procedures used by the Foreign Service Institute and
other Government agency language schools. It would appear that
the oral interview procedure, though useful within the Govern-
ment, needs modification for use outside the Government to help
develop standards as well as the means to evaluate those stand-
ards.
Assistance is needed to produce the statements and studies to
evaluate the oral interview procedure against a revised set of profi-
ciency statements as they are used at the different points in the
learning system: at the end of the secondary school; after both 1
and 2 years of college language learning; for teachers prior to
certification or hiring as teaching assistants; and to evaluate lan-
guage proficiency at the graduate school level.
The definition of minimal proficiencies will help the profession
insure that efficient language learning is taking place. This act
could help not only in developing an awareness of the different
language learning models, but also how they relate to proficiency
standards, if moneys were devoted to such development.
Mr. Chairman, these recommendations are made with the hope
that they will only refine the effort that you have made and
continue to make on behalf of foreign language education in the
United States. It is your effort in this bill which gives support and
encouragement to the resolution of our seeming incapacity as a
nation to deal with languages other than English.
Although we are a polyglot country, a tradition of ignoring the
fact that languages other than English are used both within and
without our borders does exist. This legislation should begin the
long road to recovery by preparing a wide range of Americans to
communicate with others in their languages.
Mr. SIMON. Thank you very much.
I will save my constituent till last here.
Dr. Edwards, you are next.
[The prepared statement of James E. Alatis follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT PRESENTED BY JAMES E. ALATIS, PRESIDENT, JOINT NATION-
AL COMMITTEE FOR LANGUAGES; DEAN, SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES & LINGUISTICS,
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY; AND EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, TEACHERS OF ENGLISH TO
SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee, for this opportuni-
ty for the Joint National Committee for Languages to appear before you to offer our
comments on and endorsement of H.R. 3231 enhancing the role of foreign languages
in our national security and economic growth. The Joint National Committee for
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Languages is an organization that represents twelve of the major language associ-
ations with a combined membership of 65,000 to 70,000 language professionals with
expertise in all areas of the foreign language field, as well as English as a second
language and bilingual education. The JNCL wishes to take this opportunity to
express our sincere concern that legislation of this type is necessary and to state
again our fundamental belief in foreign language study as essential to the political,
econcomic and intellectual security of our nation. We feel H.R. 3231 is vital and
important legislation and would urge its passage for the following reasons:
(1) It will encourage foreign language study at the elementary and secondary
levels by rewarding innovative programs and creative teaching.
(2) It will enhance both the number and quality of students at postsecondary
institutions, from whose numbers will necessarily come those leaders and experts
with the vision and skill to reverse our nation's worrisome slide toward ineptness in
international statecraft and disadvantage in foreign trade.
(3) It will provide encouragement for students and educational institutions to
develop the expertise and skills needed for the American business community to
increase exports and continue to be competitive in the international marketplace.
(4) It will assist our national security by making available to the military, intelli-
gence and diplomatic communities a pool of individuals from which they can draw
by adding substantially to the dangerously scarce numbers of graduates with the
necessary comprehension of other cultures.
The legislation addresses squarely a pressing issue which continues to occupy a
central place in JNCL's concerns, namely, the declining enrollments in foreign
language classes at all educational levels, and the disappearance of foreign language
requirements for graduation in post-secondary institutions. At present only fifteen
percent of all United States high school students are enrolled in the study of a
foreign language. That figure itself is probably misleadingly optimistic, since only
three percent of these students pursue a foreign language beyond the second year of
study. Only eight percent of the colleges of this country require a foreign language
for admission.
There are, however, some very positive trends in public policy toward language
education. Section 2 of H.R. 3231 in particular would complement and support these
countervailing indications of a revival of foreign language study. This revival, slight
and fragile though it may be, is partially the result of the fine work done by the
Perkins Commission, with its clear definition of the major problems which beset
foreign language and international studies in the U.S., together with an initial
appraisal of possible solutions to those problems. The revival is also partially the
result of major changes made in curriculum by leading language educators, who are
using new teaching techniques, developing a new clientele and reaching out to other
disciplines. The "model programs" approach of the proposed legislation is a badly
needed public endorsement of continuing innovation and creativity of this type.
One additional positive trend is that a clear majority of people in this country
advocate and recognize the value of greater foreign language study even in the face
of declining enrollments. A recent national survey, conducted by the University of
Michigan's Institute for Survey Research and the Center for Applied Linguistics,
discovered that attitudes of Americans are surprisingly positive toward the study of
foreign languages. Seventy-five percent of the respondents indicated that they feel
foreign language should be offered in the elementary schools of this country. More
than ninety-three percent of the survey respondents felt that foreign language
should be offered in the junior and senior high schools of the United States. In
response to the question, "Are you encouraging your children to study a foreign
language in school?" eighty-four percent of the parents with children age sixteen or
younger indicated that they are doing or have done so. Of this same group, seventy-
three percent indicate that they expect their children someday to have the opportu-
nity to use a foreign language outside the classroom. This would certainly indicate
that there is considerable popular support for increased foreign language study and
tacit recognition that the world is becoming more interdependent.
With the Perkins Commission Report and legislation such as House Concurrent
Resolution 301, JNCL member organizations have noted a growing awareness
among Americans of the importance of foreign language and international educa-
tion. H.R. 3231 is a logical extension of the concern expressed by Congress and a
thoughtful approach to rectifying the "scandalous" situation in foreign language
study that recently has been brought forcefully to the national attention. By
making grants available to states for model programs at the local level, H.R. 3231
locates responsibility for these programs in those agencies with the best chance to
develop programs which are truly effective. In addition, awareness of the need for
foreign language study is heightened at the levels which are crucial to the develop-
ment of broad-based support. In Sections 3 and 4 of this legislation, institutions of
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128
higher education are encouraged to address and remedy a major deficiency in our
national knowledge, and to train the language professionals necessary to sustain our
national security and economic growth. Since only about nine percent of the stu-
dents in institutions of higher education enroll in foreign language study each year,
the JNCL regards the five percent "trigger mechanism" in Section 3 as valuable in
indicating some institutional commitment to foreign languages. We concur in the
Perkins Commission Report that "schools, colleges and universities should reinstate
foreign language requirements," and we are pleased that Section 4 encourages such
requirements. It is a noteworthy trend that in recent years a number of leading
postsecondry institutions, such as Georgetown, Harvard, Berkley and Stanford, have
reinstituted language requirements. On the other hand, JNCL is aware that require-
ments may be a two-edged sword the many colleges and universities are hesitant to
adopt. Ideally, students should come to the study of foreign languages with an
interest and a desire for the subject. The best way to develop this is through
meaningful foreign language experiences at the elementary and secondary level and
relevant courses at the postsecondary level. In this regard, perhaps a more equitable
distribution of funds among Sections 2, 3 and 4 would promote interest ant demon-
strate value while stil encouraging requirements.
The JNCL endorses warmly the provisions for additional funding in the less
commonly taught languages, and would suggest, moreover, that such a provision
should also include those languages determined by the Secretary of Education to be
vital to our national security.
Concerning the per capita figures this bill provides, one large university estimates
that it cost $125 per student per quarter to expand their language programs to
implement language requirements. This would be, of course, much higher for small
colleges and the less commonly taught languages, in light of this, the grants pro-
vided here could be by no means excessive and in fact, they would be barely
adequate to encourage increased foreign language study and to somewhat defer the
costs of new language programs. Perhaps as important as the necessary economic
incentive these grants offer, they also provide evidence of a commitment to over-
coming a national embarrassment which threatens our security and economic com-
petitiveness.
By improving language and cultural understanding, H.R. 3231 is an important
step toward strengthening our security in this multilingual world. In a politically,
economically, and socially interdependent world, the United States can ill-afford the
luxury of cultural parochialism and linguistic imperialism. We are closely linked in
many ways-through trade and business, communication systems transportation,
international organizations, monetary systems, and new technology that greatly
accelerates the need to communicate effectively with other nations. According to the
Secretary of Education, Dr. Terrell Bell, "Never in the history of the world has
there been one nation with such a variety of ethnic and language backgrounds as
the United States." But despite this, Secretary Bell contends, we have countenanced
the development of a huge gap in our foreign language training, which leaves us in
"linguistic famine." It is essential to our national security and our economic well-
being that we understand the cultures and actions of our international allies and
competitors; such an understanding is most improbable if we cannot communicate
with them nor appreciate their respective languages and cultures.
In recent years, the United States' share of the world export market has declined
from fifteen to twelve percent. Perhaps more than any other sector, business must
be cognizant and sensitive to the realities of economic interdependence and transna-
tional interaction. The inability to communicate in other languages and to under-
stand other cultures has already cost, and unless rectified, will continue to cost, a
great deal of money in missed investment opportunities, poor marketing strategies,
inappropriate advertising and needless mistakes in economic planning and forecast-
ing. A very specific example was cited by Japan's Minister for External Economic
Affairs, Saburo Okita, during his recent visit to the United States. He suggested
that American businesses were excluded from consideration for a $90 million dollar
contract from Nippon Telephone and Telegraphy because they were unwilling or
unable to provide documentation in Japanese. He went on to say that it would have
been a relatively simple chore to translate the necessary documents from English to
Japanese were American business willing to pay for it. I would submit that even if
they were willing to employ such expertise and even if they recognized the need for
it, with only one-tenth of one percent of our college students studying Japanese, it is
indeed a limited resource.
Some recognition of the problem has begun to surface within the American
business community. For example, in a 1974-75 survey conducted by the Olympus
Research Corporation, 1,380 import/export firms responding listed more than 60,000
jobs for which they either desired or required language skills. According to Senator
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Adlai E. Stevenson III, "American businessmen, especially small businessmen, are
unfamiliar with foreign customs and languages, unaware of foreign market opportu-
nities, and ill-equipped to deal with the bureaucratic requirements of licensing,
insurance, financing and shipping arrangements." It is apparent that if America is
to compete with other nations for world markets, among the requirements its
business leaders will have to meet is the ability to communicate with foreign
counterparts. As the ability to speak the languages of our customers and clients
becomes a necessity for survival in a competitive global economy, our schools must
be training individuals with the language skills prerequisite to success in interna-
tional markets.
In national defense, the U.S. also suffers the consequences of a language gap. The
contributions of foreign language competence to the nation's military capability-in
command, intelligence, operations, logistics, survival skills, and community rela-
tions are vital to our nation's security. The acquisition and processing of tactical
intelligence depends on the language skill of our intelligence personnel dealing with
indigenous populations. Without language facility, intelligence specialists are se-
verely limited in the short term and are incapable of developing accurate longer-
term analysis based on an understanding of the culture which the language con-
veys. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iran, as well as numerous other lesser crises, are
all obvious examples of how the foreign policy of the United States suffered severe
setbacks due in significant part to this inability to acquire and interpret raw
intelligence.
H.R. 3231 is crucial in achieving an awareness of the need for foreign language
study. National leadership in the last decades of this century must encourage an
educational policy which acknowledges these international needs, and elects to deal
with them as national priorities. Foreign language training and the study of inter-
national affairs, although long considered basic educational priorities, have not
received adequate financial support or recognition as an essential component of
school curricula. In many respects, we now pay the price politically and economical-
ly. Our nation must possess the skills to speak foreign languages and understand
foreign cultures. Only with these skills can we hope to conduct effective foreign
policy, expand international trade and ensure the integrity of our national defense.
Finally, with specific reference to the present structure of H.R. 3231, the JNCL
would offer a few friendly and, we hope, constructive suggestions regarding ways in
which this legislation might be strengthened.
First, it might be useful to have the Secretary of Education identify those lan-
guages that are necessary to our national security, as well as, the less commonly
taught languages for additional funding under Section 3.
Second, H.R. 3231 should include a provision either in Section 1 or Section 5,
which would prohibit institutions from channeling funds, which are not allotted to
foreign language studies, away from these programs as a result of funding acquired
under the provisions of this bill.
Third, in order to promote interest in foreign language study early and to demon-
strate the value and utility of such study, a larger proportion of the funds author-
ized in this legislation should be allocated to Sections 2 and 3, perhaps on the order
of (1) $15,000,000, (2) $25,000,000 and (3) $40,000,000.
Finally, the JNCL recognizes and is concerned about the need for proficiency
requirements. However, we recognize that the definition of these requirements is
not and should not be within the scope of federal legislation, but rather might
better be left to the profession and the institutions themselves.
Thank you for this opportunity to offer our comments on this much needed and
vitally important legislation. I would be pleased to try to answer any questions you
might have.
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TABLE 1
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ENROLLMENTS, 1977-1978
PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS1
LANGUAGE
REGISTRATIONS
GRADES 7-8
GRADES 9-12
TWO-YEAR
COLLEGES
FOUR-YEAR
COLLEGES
GRADUATE
Spanish
2,376,065
367,993
1,631,375
94,130
274,181
8,386
French
1,332,137
230,024
855,998
35,894
203,405
6,816
German
515,284
49,276
330,637
17,661
112,944
4,766
Italian
91,792
12,947
45,518
5,622
26,771
934
Russian
38,667
2,094
8,789
1,511
24,891
1,382
Latin
189,573
13,388
151,782
22,965
1,009
429
Ancient
Greek
25,965
0
122
1,255
19,284
5,304
'Data adapted from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages,
Survey of Foreign Language Enrollments in Public Secondary Schools, Fall
1978 (Washington,D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1980).
2Data adapted from Richard I. Bred, Survey of Foreign Language Course
Registrations in U.S. Colleges and Universities, Fall 1977 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1978).
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O
o m
o o
o m
'O Cl O
1O O N
'-I O m O
N ~O r-I
.1 'O b 'O
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-d 0 M: r a)
m r
Q) 10 tP H w 0 w
~4 .0 a)
W Id Q) 0 0 0 3:
o = = ~3 -1 Z 01 a~ W E~ 0
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136
TABLE 7
Akkadian
Amharic
Arabic
Aramaic
Armenian
Balinese
Bambara
Basque
Bengali
Berber
Breton
Bulgarian
Burmese
Cajun French
Cambodian
Cantonese
Catalan
Celtic
Cherokee
Chinese
Choctaw
Chuvash
Coptic
Czech
Dakota
Danish
Digueno
Dutch
Egyptian, Modern
Egyptian, Ancient
Elamite
Esperanto
Estonian
Finnish
Gaelic, Scottish
Georgian
Greek, Modern
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi-Urdu
Hittite
Hopi
Hungarian
Ibo
FALL 1977 COURSE REGISTRATIONS IN THE
LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Registra- Registra-
tions tions Z Change
1974 1977 1974-1977
168 159
8 8
2,034 3,070
371 365
121 161
1
2 7
118 6
27 7
3 3
6
4 5
4 2
26
4 6
46 97
10
21
15 62
10,616 9,809
14 26
3
11 11
337 176
37 95
183 214
11
456 540
64 37
56
134
9
4
533
46
555
22,371
381
5
64
2
42
2
156
6
3
693
67
875
19,356
355
7
1
109
7
+50.9
- 1.6
+33.1
-47.8
+16.9
+18.4
+57.7
-13.5
- 6.8
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TABLE 7
Icelandic
Icelandic, Old
Ilokano
Indonesian
Inupic
Iranian, Ancient
Irish, Modern
Irish, Old
Japanese
Javanese
Korean
Koyakon
Ladino
Lakota
Laotian
Latvian
Lingala
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malay-Indonesian
Marathi
Mayan, Yucatec
Mongolian
Mongolian, Classical
Nahuatl
Navajo
Nepali
Norwegian
Oj ibway
Pali
Papago
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Prakrit
Provencal
Punjabi
Quechua
Romanian
Samoan
Sanskrit
Serbo-Croatian
Sinhalese
Sioux
Slavic, Old Church
Slovak
Slovenian
Sotho
Sumerian
1
10,721
2
87 163
6
2 1
6 15
4 8
2 37
1
10 11
4 6
4
3 10
5
1
589 455
24 8
1,557 1,520
95 69
3 . 6
15 27
382 . 599
1,123 .1,156
5,073 4,954
1
31
33 29
31 130
98
402 338
242 241
6 1
21 25
258 244
14 29
22 1
1
6 23
+56.5
+ 2.9
- 2.3
-15.9
- 0.4
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Registra- Registra-
tions tions 1 Change
1974 1977 1974-1977
11 12
24 24
58 71
121 127
36 30
3
60 16
7
9,604
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TABLE 7
Registra- Registra-
tions tions % Change
1974 1977 1974-1977
Swahili 1,694 2,225 +31.3
Swedish 1,396 1,534 + 9.9
Syriac 21 25
Tagalog 325 255 -21.5
Tamil 3 26
Telugu 5 12
Thai 71 83
Tibetan 61 66
Tlingit 15 17
Turkic, Middle 8 8
Turkic, Uigur - 5
Turkish 156 176 +12
Twi 20 4
Ugaritic 49 44
Ukrainian 117 133 +13.7
Uralic 3 4
Urdu 44 26
Uzbek - 5
Vietnamese 29 20
Welsh 7 3
Wolof 1 20
Xhosa 5 4
Yiddish 1,079 1,144 + 6.0
Yoruba 87 37
Yupic 24 15
Zulu 7 16
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STATEMENT OF J. DAVID EDWARDS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
JOINT NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR LANGUAGES, GEORGE-
TOWN UNIVERSITY
Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would just
like to summarize our statement.
Mr. SIMON. Your statement will be entered in the record, and we
would appreciate your summary of it.
Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to
appear before you on behalf of the Joint National Committee for
Languages to offer our comments and an endorsement of H.R.
3231, the National Security and Economic Growth and Foreign
Language Improvement Act.
The Joint National Committee for Languages is an organization
that represents 12 of the major language associations, with a com-
bined membership of 65,000 to 70,000 language professionals with
expertise in all areas of the foreign language field, as well as
English as the second language of bilingual education.
The JNCL wishes to take this opportunity to express our sincere
concern that legislation of this type is necessary and to state again
our fundamental belief in foreign language study as essential to
the political, economic, and intellectual security of our nation.
We have attached to our statement a number of figures and
tables which illustrate the exact extent to which language enroll-
ments have dwindled in the past two decades and the degree to
which we have allowed a foreign-language training gap to develop
in this country. The second page illustrates that somewhat. These
areas reflect a-and I quote-scandalous situation.
There are some indications, however, that while the numbers
remain dismally low, there recently has been a very fragile revival
of interest in foreign language study. And I would stress how
fragile that revival is. This revival has been, in part, the result of
national attention for which you, Mr. Chairman, deserve much
credit; and it has been, in part, the result of changes by the
language profession in using new teaching techniques, developing
new clientele, and reaching out to other disciplines.
It is also heartening that many of the leading postsecondary
institutions have reinstituted foreign language requirements. JNCL
views this legislation as necessary to bolster the apparent tenuous
and slight revival of foreign language study through rewarding
innovation and creativity, in section 2, through noting the impor-
tance of the less commonly taught languages in section 3, and by
recognizing the need to reinstate foreign language requirements in
section 4.
We are also convinced that without national support and legisla-
tion of this type, the fragile revival will simply not materialize. In
addition the need for increased activity by the educational commu-
nity, as we heard in testimony yesterday, business must be cogni-
zant and sensitive to the realities of economic interdependence in
transnational interaction.
In recent years, the United States share of the world export
market has suffered a 20-percent decrease. The inability to commu-
nicate in other languages and to understand other cultures has
already cost--
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Mr. SIMON. May I interrupt you for just a moment? My apolo-
gies, but I have just gotten a note. I am going to have to rush over
to the floor in the cause we believe in here. I am going to turn the
chair over to my colleague from Minnesota. And for these wit-
nesses and the others, let me assure you, I am going to be reading
over all of this testimony carefully.
I did jot down some notes, some questions that I would like to
direct, as well as comments. So that what we will do is to keep the
record open. I will be sending-we can follow through on this,
Nick-I will be sending some questions to all of you. And if you can
get responses back fairly promptly so that we can get those in the
record, that would be appreciated.
My apologies for ducking out on you. And I thank you for being
here on this really vital area.
Mr. Erdahl.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, while you were still here, I was going to mention,
because I think it is such a good text for all these people concerned
about language to be aware of, there is a book entitled "The
Tongue-Tied American," available at the bookstore. [Laughter.]
Mr. Simon has authored a very fine book, I think, that touches
on this. Is that mentioned anyplace?
Mr. SIMON. No, it is not. But I thank you.
Let me just make a couple of comments, briefly, Dale, on your
comments, because this may be touched upon by some others, and
some of the suggestions-and I have asked the staff to incorporate,
to list the specific recommendations that all of them make. Some of
the suggestions I purposely did not make, because we decided we
had to target, and how do you target minimal funds to maximum
benefit?
For example, I agree I would just love to take a heck of a lot of
money and put it into our elementary schools. By targeting the
higher education area primarily, we thought we would hit, in fact,
both secondary and colleges. And I hope that we can come back
another year or two with another bill that is going to move on to
that next step.
I purposely left the money that could be used in whatever way
they want to. If they want to build a new dormitory with the
money, a college or university can do that. It is an incentive. It
seems to me a little more of an incentive than if they have to use
the money only for foreign languages.
Both of you touch on this whole proficiency area, and that is one
we have not come to grips with in the bill. Any ideas on how we
can effectively come to grips with that, I would appreciate it.
I am sorry, but I am going to have to go.
Mr. ERDAHL [presiding]. Why do you not just proceed, then, sir?
You may proceed, please.
Mr. EDWARDS. I believe I was saying the inability to communi-
cate in other languages and understand other cultures has already
cost us-and unless rectified, will continue to cost us-a great deal
of money in missed investment opportunities for marketing strate-
gies, inappropriate advertising, and needless mistakes in economic
planning and forecasting.
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One very recent example was cited by Japan's minister for exter-
nal economic affairs when he was recently in this country. He had
suggested that American businesses were excluded from considera-
tion for a $90 million contract let by Nippon Telephone and Tele-
graph, the first time they had let such a contract, because they
were unwilling or unable to provide documentation in Japanese.
He went on to say it would have been a relatively simple chore
to translate the necessary documents from English to Japanese
were American business willing to pay for it.
I would submit that even if they did recognize the need for such
expertise, or rather particularly, if they recognized the need for
this expertise and were willing to pay for it, with only one-tenth of
1 percent of our college students studying Japanese, it is one of our
most precious resources.
It is apparent that if America is to compete with other nations in
world markets, among the requirements its business leaders will
have to meet is the ability to communicate with foreign counter-
parts. We have already heard, I think very tellingly, this morning
in the testimony our needs in national defense. And the United
States also suffers the consequences of gaps in this area, and I will
not retread that ground.
In a politically, economically, and socially interdependent world,
the United States can ill afford the luxury of cultural parochialism
and linguistic imperialism. H.R. 3231 is crucial in achieving an
awareness of the need for foreign language study and in rectifying
a dangerous national deficiency. Only with these skills can we hope
to conduct effective foreign policy and expand international trade
and insure the integrity of our national defense.
Finally, I would just note a few of the specific recommendations
we would make with regard to this, two in particular: One is that
we would agree with Dr. Lange that perhaps more money should
be distributed in sections 2 and 3 to encourage innovative programs
and so on. The other is that the bill should include a provision
either in section 1 or in section 5 which would prohibit institutions
from channeling funds which are now allotted to foreign language
studies away from these programs as a result of funding acquired
in the provisions of this bill, the supplement rather than supplant
provision.
I thank you very much for this opportunity to offer our com-
ments on this important and vitally needed legislation. Thank you.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you very much.
You heard, as I did, that the bells were ringing, which means we
have a vote on the floor. I am going to go over there and make that
vote quickly and come back. So we will just take a brief recess.
Then we will get on to Dr. Timpe's presentation at that time.
I regret that this happens, but I will hurry back. Maybe if one of
my colleagues comes back before, they can resume the meeting.
Thank you very much.
[Brief recess.]
Mr. ERDAHL. I think we were just ready to hear from Dr. Timpe.
We are glad to have you with us. And, again, you may summa-
rize your statement as you wish, or proceed in any way which is
most comfortable with you.
[The prepared statement of Eugene Timpe follows:]
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF EUGENE F. TIMPE, CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES & LITERATURES, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, CARBONDALE, ILL.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity
to speak. As chairman of a department of foreign languages and literatures at a
fairly large public university in the midwest, I believe it appropriate that I make an
attempt to speak for at least part of the foreign language teaching profession, and I
am gratified to learn that opinions such as mine and those whom I represent can be
taken into account in your decision on H.R. 3231.
The first subject I am to address is that of our failures in language. "Proof" of
such failures is usually based on anecdotes and examples, and these give rise to
impressions. Actual statistics are, to the best of my knowledge, non-existent. From
one point of view, the notion of language failures applies to American travellers
who, after remaining within the protective network of foreign travel industry pro-
fessionals and some highly-educated natives, return home with the curious notion
that English is spoken everywhere. I submit that anyone who makes such a
statement is a living example of language failure. It applies, also, to the American
military, sequestered on its bases abroad, and to monolingual Foreign Service per-
sonnel. I can well imagine educational and agricultural missions which do not
"connect," guest professors whose lectures do not reach any students except those
who understand English, and American students who cling together when abroad
because the need to communicate cannot otherwise be met. Occasionally the gap
can be bridged by the use of an acquired language which is both foreign and
common to both parties-like the time an American friend visiting me in Vienna
was able to talk to some Viennese people in French. While that wasn't a great
triumph, it was at least a small victory. And, to be sure, almost any foreign
language is a great deal better than none. Well, God help us and our oft-cited
national interests if our military can't communicate precisely with our own allies,
and our diplomats are reduced to dealing with everyone, even would-be Russian
defectors in Pakistan in the English language.
The situation in business is just as serious, if not so very dramatic, and it works
in both directions. America is becoming a travel bargain for people from other
affluent countries. Such tourism needs to be encouraged. This means that travel and
recreational industries will have to have some multilingual personnel. The necessry
training for personnel in this and other international industries cannot be immedi-
ately accomplished upon demand. Acquisition of a foreign language is an extended
process, during which acquired knowledge is gradually converted into a skill which
is slow and uncertain, and from that, through long practice, to an immediately
accessible and reliable skill. The analogy to learning to play the piano is useful to a
certain extent. Between that point when everything must be laboriously learned
and that point where the hands and fingers play without constant and painfully
conscious instructions from the brain there is a separation of considerable distance
in time and effort. In learning the piano, the process is usually more successful if
begun in childhood, and after having studied piano for a few years, one can learn to
play another instrument more quickly. The analogy holds for foreign language
learning. The language learned early greatly accelerates the acquisition of the
language learned later. If, in other words, we decide it is in the best interests of
American industry or military or diplomacy to upgrade foreign language training, it
is long-range planning which encompasses public education from childhood through
the university, and not a quick fix, that will do the trick.
The selling and servicing of American equipment abroad is an area of economic
importance, the development of which is largely dependent upon our ability to deal
in the language of the customer. Top management in American business is begin-
ning to recognize this. During this past year my department has had a number of
inquiries from regional business firms which would like to hire graduates who have
competency in Japanese and who seek careers in business. The need is there, not
only in Japanese, but in other languages. The question used to be, "Does anyone in
the world of business realize that they need foreign languages?" but now it is
changing to, "What can we do to help business meet this newly-recognized need?"
There is much to be done, indeed, but it will require long-range planning if the
international needs of America, its business needs included, are to be met.
This is why the bill under consideration is particularly efficacious. It does not
limit itself to just adult learners. It begins at that point which is most crucial.
Certainly, a successful early experience in foreign language establishes learning
skills which not only make subsequent language acquisition easier, but also creates
a positive emotional attitude towards such study. But there are side benefits also.
From studies that have been made during the past decade, it appears that early
study of a foreign language expands cognitive skills, enhances conceptualization,
and improves verbal fluency in the native language of the learner. Some studies
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also show that divergent or creative thinking is strengthened. It is during the
students' formative years that our decisive battles will be fought, for students who
initiate foreign languages before or during adolescence are the ones who study them
during their college years. Precious few of those who come to college without any
previous foreign language study ever voluntarily begin such study at that level.
For high school students the additional, readily apparent benefits of foreign
language study are quite specific: simply, foreign language students get higher
scores on achievement tests and college entrance examinations. It has for some time
been suspected that one of the reasons for the recent decline in SAT and ACT scores
has been that foreign languages have been studied a great deal less over the past
decade than heretofore. Hypothesizing that the decline in foreign language study in
high schools could be one of the causes for steadily dropping college entrance exam
scores, I did a study with the help of the computer at my own university. Basically,
what I did was to use the ACT test scores to see how students who had studied
foreign languages scored in comparison to those who had not. At the beginning of
the ACT test there is a "Student Profile Section" wherein students answer a
number of questions. One set of questions asked them the number of half years they
had studied Spanish, French, German, and "other." A total of 7,460 students were
in this category. As would be expected, their ACT scores were high, and the more
foreign language they had studied, the higher the scores got.
But, that wasn't the end of the trail. A very important question was left unan-
swered. Were these high scores the result of foreign language study or were they
the result of the fact that this was a brighter group of students than the normal? It
is generally agreed that superior students are more likely to take foreign languages.
I was able to separate the students, however, into two groups-the obviously
brighter students and those who were not. This separation was done with the help
of three questions from the profile section. One asked for their class standing,
another for their grade point average, and the third for a description of the level of
their program of studies-vocational, college preparatory, or whatever. Assuming
that those who were in a college preparatory program, who were in the top quarter
of their class, and who had an A or B grade point average were the brighter
students, I was able to identify a group of 1,726. Those at the other end of the
spectrum constituted a group of 1,538. The next step was to look at the ACT test
scores for each of these groups. As expected, scores in English were benefited by
foreign language study in both cases, and as anticipated, the more study undertak-
en, the more benefit. But there was one very big surprise, one which I think is
significant. It was that the students from the lower group received the greater
benefits. While the top group improved its English and Composite scores by 2.2 and
1.2 respectively, from four years of foreign language study, the bottom group im-
proved its English and Composite scores by 4.6 and 3.5 under the same conditions.
In other words, the lower group gained more than twice as much from foreign
language study as the upper group. To me, this says that reinculcation of foreign
language study can help to upgrade our whole educational system, and that such
upgrading works not only for the chosen few, as it always has, but even more so for
the great majority that is not especially talented.
The situation at the college level is somewhat different. Languages are not stud-
ied so much because they help students to cross mental frontiers, nor because they
enhance their academic potential, nor because they pave the way for subsequent
languages, nor because they improve admittance test scores. They are regarded
principally as a career or profession-supporting tool, but only for a very few disci-
plines. For the most part, they are shunned. Previous foreign language study is
rarely an entrance requirement for a college, and study while at college is seldom
imposed as an overall graduation requirement for all students. Usually, it is the
separate departments or colleges within a university, e.g., a College of Science,
which makes foreign language study a graduation requirement. For the majority of
American students in Higher Education, however, a foreign language is required
neither for admission nor for graduation.
This is one of the problems which H.R. 3231 addresses. While at the same time it
encourages new programs for students from five to seventeen, it also provides
specific encouragement to colleges and universities. The proposal described in Sec-
tion 2 is of great importance because it primes the pump. I would like to see the
proposed funding for this section increased. Sections 3 and 4 will both send a clear
message to colleges and universities that the federal government is supportive of
foreign languages, and also give tangible assistance to those institutions which do
not let foreign languages wither away during these times when there is such
intense competition for funds.
I might venture some expectations regarding the effects of the bill in its present
form. First of all, institutions of higher education would be most likely to take
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advantage of such legislation if they already had five-unit foreign language courses,
or had close to 5% of their students enrolled in such courses, or offered less-
commonly taught languages, or already had a two-year graduation requirement.
Those which do not have one or more of such vantage points might be slow to
change. Adding courses in uncommonly-taught languages offers relatively few obsta-
cles, but promoting the usual three- or four-unit courses to five-unit courses, or
installing a two-year graduation requirement are other matters. These mean either
increasing the number of hours required for graduation, reducing elective courses,
or reducing other university, college, or department graduation requirements. Prog-
ress in this direction is likely to be slow, especially since it must be made by
establishing rights-of-way through territories which are jealously guarded by other
units. I can imagine, also, that since the bill does not specifically require five hours
of classroom instruction each week, some attempts will be made to count language
laboratory time as part of the total. I wonder, too, how "individualized instruction"
(Teacher-Assisted, Mastery-Based, Self-Paced) could qualify. Possibly the work "in-
struction" under 6(B) will need definition so that it can include or exclude directed
conversational practice, help-sessions, language laboratory work, testing, and com-
puter-directed practice. Possibly, also, the minimum required total number of hours
or weeks of instruction should be mentioned.
To summarize, I see Section 2 as being extremely important; Section 3 should
work out well, especially for large institutions; and Section 4 is likely to be most
helpful to institutions which dedicate themselves to the traditional letters, arts, and
sciences, institutions in which a uniform foreign language graduation requirement
would find ready acceptance.
It is an excellent package as it stands, but I believe that our purposes would be
even better served if funding for Section 2 were to be increased. College and
universities would still benefit, if less directly, through the training and retraining
of elementary and secondary school teachers, which would lead to increased univer-
sity foreign langage enrollments. In any event, the end result of the entire enter-
prise would be an extensive array of positive results, some of which are apparent
and others of which are not. I can imagine no other government-sponsored under-
taking in which so much could be accomplished at so little cost.
STATEMENT OF EUGENE TIMPE, CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF
FOREIGN LANGUAGES, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
Mr. TIMPE. Thank you.
Mr. ERDAHL. It will all be included in the record.
Mr. TIMPE. I think I will just give parts of the statement now, in
the interest of moving this thing along. It is quite possible there
will be another vote, I understand.
Mr. Erdahl, thank you for this opportunity to speak. The first
subject I am to address is that of our failures in language. Proof of
such failures is usually based on anecdotes and examples, and
these proofs give rise to impressions. Actual statistics are, to the
best of my knowledge, nonexistent. From one point of view, the
notion of language failures applies to American travelers who,
after remaining within the protective network of foreign travel
industry professionals and some highly educated natives, return
home with the curious notion that English is spoken everywhere.
I submit that anyone who makes such a statement is a living
example of language failure. Well, God help us and our oft-cited
national interests if our military cannot communicate precisely
with our own allies and our diplomats are reduced to dealing with
everyone, even would-be Russian defectors in Pakistan, in the Eng-
lish language.
I will not stay on the subject of national defense, but I would like
to skip on to business. And that is a matter that is just as serious,
if not so dramatic, as the matter of national defense.
The business issue works in both directions. America is becoming
a travel bargain for people from other affluent countries. Such
tourism needs to be encouraged. This means that travel and recre-
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ational industries will have to have some multilingual personnel,
the necessary training for personnel, and this and other interna-
tional industries cannot be immediately accomplished upon
demand. Acquisition of a foreign language is an extended process
during which acquired knowledge is gradually converted into a
skill which is slow and uncertain at first, and then through long
practice becomes immediately accessible and more reliable.
The analogy to learning to play the piano is useful to a certain
extent. Between that point when everything must be laboriously
learned and that point when the hands and fingers play without
constant and painfully conscious instructions from the brain, there
is a separation of considerable distance in time and effort. In
learning the piano, the process is usually more successful if begun
in childhood. And after having studied piano for a few years, one
can learn to play another instrument more quickly.
The analogy holds for foreign language learning. The language
learned early greatly accelerates the acquisition of the language
learned later. If, in other words, we decide it is in the best interests
of American industry or military or diplomacy to upgrade foreign
language training, it is long-range planning which encompasses
public education from childhood through the university and not a
quick fix that will do the trick.
The selling and servicing of American equipment abroad is an
area of economic importance, the development of which is largely
dependent upon our ability to deal in the language of the customer.
Top management in American business is beginning to recognize
this.
During this past year, my department has had a number of
inquiries from regional business firms which would like to hire
graduates who have competency in Japanese and who seek careers
in business. The need is there, not only in Japanese but in other
languages.
The question used to be, "Does anyone in the world of business
realize that they need foreign languages?" But now it is changing
to, "What can we do to help business meet this newly recognized
need?"
There is much to be done, indeed, but it will require, as Admiral
Inman said, long-range planning if the international needs of
America, its business needs included, are to be met. This is why the
bill under consideration is particularly efficacious. It does not limit
itself to just adult learners. It begins at that point which is most
crucial. Certainly, a successful early experience in foreign language
establishes learning skills that not only make subsequent language
acquisition easier, but also creates a positive emotional attitude
toward such study.
I wish to emphasize the creation of the positive emotional atti-
tude. Studies have been done which show that the chief factor in
foreign-language acquisition is motivation, or incentive. This moti-
vation or incentive can be engendered most effectively at an early
age. However, there are side benefits. Other studies that I have
consulted, those which have been made during the past decade,
show that early study of foreign language expands cognitive skills
in children, enhances conceptualization, and improves verbal fluen-
cy in the native language of the learner.
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Some studies also show the divergent or creative thinking is
strengthened. It is during the students' formative years that our
decisive battles will be fought for students who initiate foreign
languages before or during adolescence are the ones who study
them during their college years. Precious few of those who come to
college without any previous foreign-language study ever voluntar-
ily begin their study at the college level.
For high school students, the additional readily apparent benefits
of foreign-language study are quite specific: Simply, foreign-lan-
guage students get higher scores on achievement tests and college
entrance examinations. It has for some time been suspected that
one of the reasons for the recent decline in SAT and ACT scores
has been that foreign languages have been studied a great deal less
over the past decade than heretofore. Hypothesizing that the de-
cline in foreign-language study in high schools could be one of the
causes for steadily dropping college entrance exam scores, I did a
study with the help of the computer at my own university.
Basically, what I did was to use the ACT test scores to see how
students who had studied foreign languages scored in comparison
to those who had not. At the beginning of the ACT test there is a
student-profile section wherein students answer a number of ques-
tions. One set of questions asks them the number of half-years they
had studied Spanish, French, German, and other. A total of 7,460
students were in this category; that is, they answered affirmatively
that they had studied a foreign language. As was expected, their
ACT scores were high, and the more foreign language they studied,
the higher their scores got.
There is a good deal more to say about this, though. At first,
observers were inclined to say, "Yes, but you are talking only
about the smarter students, the brighter students who typically
study foreign languages." So I broke the 7,460 students down into
two categories: those who were obviously the brighter students, and
those who were obviously not. I was able to do this by additional
questions in the profile section which asked such things as, "Are
you in the top or bottom half of your class? Would you say your
grade average is A, B, C, or D? Do you have an intention of going
on to the university or trade school or terminating your education
after high school?"
Taking those who said, "Yes, I am going on to the university. I
am an A student, and I am in the top half or third of my class," I
am calling them the top category and then taking the others at the
far end of the spectrum and calling them the bottom category. I
reran all the data, and I discovered to my amazement that those in
the bottom part of the category who had studied foreign languages
profited even more from them than those in the top category.
The situation at the college level is somewhat different. Lan-
guages are not studied so much because they help students to cross
mental frontiers as they do in elementary school nor because they
enhance their academic potential nor because they pave the way
for subsequent languages nor because they improve admittance
score tests or test scores.
They are regarded principally as a career or profession-support-
ing tool, but only for a very few disciplines. For the most part, they
are shunned. Previous foreign-language study is rarely an entrance
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requirement for a college, and study while at college is seldom
imposed as an overall graduation requirement for all students.
Usually, it is the separate departments or colleges within a univer-
sity-for example, a college of science-which makes foreign-lan-
guage study a graduation requirement. For the majority of Ameri-
can students in higher education, however, a foreign language is
required neither for admission nor for graduation.
I might venture some expectations regarding the effects of H.R.
3231 in its present form. First of all, institutions of higher educa-
tion will be most likely to take advantage of such legislation if they
already had five-unit foreign language courses or had close to 5
percent of their students enrolled in such courses or offered less
commonly taught languages or already had a 2-year graduation
requirement.
Those which do not have one or more of such vantage points
might be slow to change. Adding courses in uncommonly taught
languages offers relatively few obstacles, but promoting the usual
three- or four-unit courses to five-unit courses or installing a 2-year
graduation requirement are other matters. These mean either in-
creasing the number of hours required for graduation, reducing
elective courses, or reducing other university, college, or depart-
ment graduation requirements.
Progress in this direction is likely to be slow, especially since it
must be made by establishing rights-of-way through territories
which are jealously guarded by other units. I can imagine also that
since the bill does not specifically require 5 hours of classroom
instruction each week, such attempts will be made to count lan-
guage laboratory time as part of the total.
I wonder, too, how individualized instruction could qualify. Possi-
bly, the word "instruction" under 6(b) will need definition so that it
can include or exclude directed conversational practice, help ses-
sions, language laboratory work, testing, and computer-directed
practice. Possibly, also, the minimum required total number of
hours or weeks of instruction should be mentioned, too.
To summarize, I see section 2 as being extremely important. I
agree with my colleagues on this completely. Section 3 should work
out well, especially for large institutions. And section 4 is likely to
be most helpful to institutions which dedicate themselves to the
traditional letters, arts, and sciences, institutions in which a uni-
form foreign-language requirement would easily find acceptance.
It is an excellent package as it stands, but I believe that our
purpose would be even better served if funding for section 2 were
to be increased. Colleges and universities would still benefit, if less
directly, through the training and retraining of elementary and
secondary teachers, which would lead to increased university for-
eign-language enrollments.
This is, I believe, an important point. The problem at the univer-
sity level, from a very narrow point of view, is that the cycle has
been broken, that university requirements for foreign languages
have been dropped. This means that the high schools are not
training students in foreign languages so that they can be admitted
to the universities. This means that the high schools do not need
high school teachers of foreign languages, which means, in turn,
that the universities do not need to train any more teachers.
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That is a cycle that has been interrupted. It has been broken,
and it could be, in a sense, reestablished, not by directly demand-
ing entrance requirements so much for the university but demand-
ing foreign-language teaching at the elementary level. This would
provide more training and retraining of elementary and secondary
school teacher requirements for the university itself.
In any event, the end result of the entire enterprise, I think, as it
presently stands, H.R. 3231 should be an impressive array of posi-
tive results, some of which are immediately apparent and some of ?
which are not.
I can imagine no other Government-sponsored undertaking in
which so much could be accomplished for a mere $80 million.
Thank you very much for your attention. And thank you for this
opportunity to say my piece.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you very much for presenting your testimo-
ny to me and, obviously, for the record, for my colleagues.
A couple of things stand out as I listened to your testimony here.
It seems like what you said, all three of you, complement what we
heard from the military people, the CIA people, a need for early
training, a need for education and languages in business and mili-
tary and government seems to be a coordinated possibility.
Also, I appreciate the specificity of your comments as they relate
to the bill before us. I think that has been most helpful. As we
consider things, maybe we should reinforce things. Maybe we
should modify things a bit we might need to defend on the floor,
because even though, as you said, $80 million in a budget of $640
billion is a very small percentage, it is still a lot of money in
Illinois and Minnesota, places where we come from. So we are
trying to get the best value for what we spend of the taxpayer's
money, and take priorities.
Do any of you have comments you would like to share with us
now that might have arisen from what your colleagues on the
panel said? I am just asking, Dr. Lange, or any of you who have
listened to each other, if you have any observations or comments
you would like to leave with me on the record.
Mr. EDWARD. If I may, I would just like to underscore what was
said about the requirements section, which is section 4 of the bill.
It is a two-edged sword. That is not to say we do not need the
requirements.
But I would very much concur with what my colleagues just said
of the need to do creative, innovative programs coming from the
lower levels up. I think we really need to excite people about
language learning, and in that regard I see section 2 in many
respects the strongest part of the act.
Mr. ERDAHL. All right. I want to thank each and every one of
you for your well-thought-out and excellent testimony.
And we will move to-I do not know if it is the next panel or
next group. I think we will have you come up as a panel. And I
certainly want to thank all of you for being with us today.
We can go off the record a bit.
[Discussion off the record.]
Mr. ERDAHL. Those who are here as a panel, I have the list the
chairman gave me: Bernie Freitag, vice president of the National
Education Association; Dorothy Shields, director of education for
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the AFL-CIO; Dr. Charles Neff, president of Associated Colleges of
the Midwest.
I wish to formally welcome all of you here. And even though it
:maybe is not listed, I guess, as a panel, I think we could proceed
that way. I trust you all are comfortable with that format.
We will go down the list as Mr. Simon gave it to me and ask,
first of all, for Mr. Bernie Freitag. And again, as was mentioned to
the other participants in our hearing today, your testimony will be
? included in the record. You can proceed in any way that you are
most comfortable, summarize it or proceed as you wish.
Go ahead, Mr. Freitag.
[The prepared statement of Bernie Freitag follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF BERNIE FREITAG, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am Bernie Freitag, Vice
President of the National Education Association, the largest professional organiza-
tion of education employees in the United States. NEA is very pleased to be here
today to testify in general support of H.R. 3231, with the exception of one part
which we will discuss more fully later. We commend the sponsors for their commit-
ment to increasing the study and learning of foreign languages in the nation's
schools and colleges.
Subcommittee Members might be interested in knowing that I am, by training,
experience, and regular employment, a teacher of foregin language. I teach second-
ary school German at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where I
have also served as coordinator of the foreign language department for about fifteen
years. Prior to that, I taught for three years in private Catholic high schools in
Maryland and Pennsylvaina. I myself received much of my professional training as
a teacher of language through such federally sponsored programs as the National
Defense Education Act (NDEA) and received a Fulbright-Hays teaching grant. As
you might imagine, I have some strong feelings about the subject under discussion
today.
Certain facts that I have learned through experience underlie my testimony.
The important point is to start students on a foreign language-any language-at
as early an age as is possible. Much of the work in acquiring a first foreign language
has to do with the process of foreign language learning. Once the process is learned,
the skills are transferrable to other languages.
As we've moved toward more choices in our public high schools, foreign language
and mathematics are the only subjects remaining which require sequential learn-
ing-language and math depend not only on the learning of a lesson but also its
retention as a student progresses through three or four years of the subject.
In learning a foreign language many students become aware for the first time of
the importance of their own language and grammar and of its richness. This is
especially true when they confront concepts which cannot be translated and idioms
which are meaningless when transliterated.
NEA's ploicy statements on foreign language study occur in two items adopted by
the Representative Assembly, the organization's highest decision-making body. Reso-
lution B-4, Foreign Language Education, reads in part: "The Association supports
the maintenance of current programs and the encouragement and development of
foreign language instruction and international studies programs."
In additions, NEA's tripartite definition of national security includes as one
component ". . . the education ... of all citizens." Copies of the full text of both of
these statements are attached to this testimony.
In preparing this testimony, we have concentrated on several areas which
demand foreign language proficiency: the national defense and foreign policy, inter-
national trade and business needs, and the shrinking and interdependent world we
face as we approach the 21st century. We have also reviewed carefully, in addition
to the professional literature, "Strength Through Wisdom: A Critique of U.S. Capa-
bility,"' "More Competence in Foreign Languages Needed by Federal Personnel
' President's Commission on Foreign Language and Area Studies; "Strength Through Wisdom:
A Critique of U.S. Capability" (Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, Stock No.
017-080-02065-3, November 1979).
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Working Overseas," 2 and Representative Simon's "The Tongue-Tied American: Con-
fronting the Foreign Language Crisis." 3 All of these books are alarming in their
indictment of our national neglect of foreign language study, and in their entirety
warrant your careful consideration as you also consider H.R. 3231.
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: THEIR FUNCTION AND IMPORTANCE
To set the tone of this testimony, I'd like to quote one of your distinguished
colleagues in the other body, Senator Hayakawa: "(W)hen we concern ourselves
with how people talk, we are not worrying about the elegance of their pronunciation
or the correctness of their grammar. Basica1l7 we are concerned with the adequacy
of their language as a `map' of the `territory of experience being talked about ...
Words . . . are more than descriptions of the territory of human experience; they
are evaluations. How we think and evaluate is inextricably bound up with how we
talk." 4
Thus language is not just words; language is words with meaning in a mutually
understood context, or culture. Another eminent linguist, Nelson Brooks, has said:
"Language is the most typical, the most representative, and the most central
element in any culture. Language and culture are not separable; it is better to see
the special characteristics of a language as cultural entities and to recognize that
language enters into the learning and use of nearly all other cultural elements. The
detailed facts of culture cannot properly be evaluated in isolation but must be seen
as integrated parts of the total way of life in which they appear." [Emphasis
added.) 5
Americans' failure to realize that language and culture are a single, total entity
accounts for most if not all of our unfortunately deserved reputation as "ugly
Americans" who believe the solution is to "let 'em learn English."
An illustration of the need for cultural understanding-or at the very least
tolerance-is provided by our television sets in the perennially popular program
M*A*S*H. An ongoing subtle message is the need to view with some sympathy the
culture of the LIP's-the local indigenous personnel, in Army-ese-with whom the
characters come into contact. The sympathetic characters have a sense of this need
and an openness to learn more about that culture: Hawkeye at one point falls in
love with a Korean noblewoman and participates with her in a traditional funeral;
BJ "adopts" a local family and runs into their resistance to regular ingestion of
sulfa during a pneumonia threat; Radar learns to speak some Korean; Col. Potter
gives up his beloved horse to a former colonel of the Korean cavalry so that the old
man may die with dignity in full military regalia; the medical staff permits a witch
doctor to "exorcise" the evil spirits which an old Korean believes are impeding his
recovery. The more insular characters, on the other hand-first Frank Burns, then
Charles Emerson Winchester as ugly Americans-regularly denigrate the ways and
language of the Koreans.
As the President's Commission sees it:
"Americans' incompetence in foreign languages is nothing short of scandalous,
and it is becoming worse. Historically, to be sure, America's continental position
between vast oceans was a basis for linguistic as well as political isolation, but
rocketry as well as communications satellites render such a moat mentality obsolete
* * *
"Our vital interests are impaired by the fatuous notion that our competence in
other languages is irrelevant. Indeed, it is precisely because of this nation's respon-
sibilities and opportunities as a major power and as a symbol of ideals to which
many of the world's people aspire that foreign languages, as a key to unlock the
mysteries of other customs and cultures, can no longer be viewed as an educational
or civil luxury."6
That this blindness on our part to the critical need for dealing with others who
share our planet but not our way of life cripples us in the conduct of our defense/
foreign policy and of our business is not well enough understood by those who make
and implement education policy. It is not surprising, therefore, that our attention to
2 Comptroller General of the United States; "More Competency in Foreign Languages Needed
by Federal Personnel Working Overseas" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office,
ID-80-31, April 15, 1980).
3 Paul Simon; "The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis" (New
York: Continuum, 1980).
4S. I. Hyakawa. ed.; "The Use and Misuse of Language" (Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett
Publications, Inc., 1962); pp. vii-viii.
',Nelson Brooks; "Language and Language Learning" (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World,
1960, 1964); p. 85.
6 President's Commission; op. cit.; pp. 5-6.
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foreign language study had declined seriously since the peak attained following the
launching of Sputnik in 1957.
NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY
The federal government is the largest single U.S. employer of language-skilled
personnel. In fiscal year 1979 the federal language-skilled work force, both overseas
and U.S.-based, totalled something more than 30,000.7
The defense and foreign policy communities require broad education in foreign
languages. Some examples are:
Military personnel stationed abroad interacting with, getting to know, the local
residents who represent the culture-and, in the process, enlightening them on
American thoughts and ways;
Diplomats at all levels stationed abroad and charged with maintaining lines of
communication with people who are more or less, depending on geopolitical factors,
amicable toward the United States government; and
Citizens abroad who are viewed not as military or diplimatic but are working in
various ways to help the people of the host country on a more individual level, such
as the Peace Corps, the Agency for International Development (AID), the Foreign
Agricultural Services (FAS), and the International Communications Agency (ICA).
These Americans are truly the front line in national security/ foreign policy,
because they are the people who are demonstrating on a one-on-one basis that
Americans are not evil, are not inherently bellicose, and are genuine contributors to
the global community. Generally, however, these ambassadors of the American way
of life have limited, if any, proficiency in foreign languages. The President's Com-
mission pronounced itself "alarmed" at the ". . . serious deterioration in this coun-
try's language and research capacity, at a time when an increasingly hazardous
international military, political and economic environment is making unprecedent
demands on America's resources, intellectual capacity and public sensitivity . .
(T)he United States requires far more reliable capacities to communicate with its
allies, analyze the behavior of potential adversaries, and earn the trust and the
sympathies of the uncommitted.' 8
Yet AID procedures, for example, designate a far greater percentage of positions
as requiring language proficiency in the so-called "world" languages-i.e., Spanish,
French-than in the "hard" (or more rare) languages such as Arabic and Persian.
Worldwide, 92 percent of all AID positions requiring language require Spanish,
French, or Portuguese; the other eight percent are spread among Indonesian, Thai,
Eastern Arabic, Persian, Nepali, Swahili, and Urdu.9
As Representative Simon points out: ". . . (O)nly twenty-six federal positions are
now designated as requiring Mandarin Chinese. For the most powerful nation on
earth virtually to ignore the language spoken by more people on the face of the
earth than any other, simply defies belief. spoken
Federal policy for requiring language skills of its employees who will be serving
abroad seems to depend more on the likelihood that the recruit has already mas-
tered-or at least been exposed to-a foreign language upon entering government
service than on any consideration of the language needs that an individual will
encounter when placed in a host country. Moreover, since no federal agency is
required by law or policy "to designate any staff position . . . as requiring language
proficiency," " virtually no support positions are so designated.
The President's Commission estimates that one of every eight American manufac-
turing jobs, and one of every three farm acres, are somehow involved in internation-
al trade, and that 20,000 American firms are in the export business. 12 According to a
1974-75survey of the 6,000 businesses operating overseas, the 23 percent, or roughly
1,500, which responded cited 60,000 jobs which required competency in a language
in addition to English. "Assuming that the remaining 77 percent of the firms would
at least double that number, at least 120,000 jobs among major U.S. business firms
require a foreign language. Most estimates place that figure substantially higher." "
The President's Commission further estimates American overseas investment at
$300 billion and foreign investment here at $245 billion, with nearly 50 percent of
' Comptroller General; op. cit.; p. ii.
' President's Commission; op. cit.; pp. 1-2.
' Comptroller General; op. cit; p. 52.
lo Simon; op cit.; p. 187.
"Comptroller General; op. cit.; p. 54.
"President't Commission; op. cit.; p. 125.
"Simon; op. cit.; p. 166.
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the earnings of the thirteen largest banks in America coming from overseas. The
Commission concludes: "(E)ach $1 billion of exported manufactured goods creates at
least 30,000 jobs in the U.S. (thus proving) our growing economic interdependence
with the rest of the world." 14
Those numbers are big business and big dollars by anyone's standards.
And where are those nongovernmental Americans who live and work overseas?
Surely they are not all in the world capitals-Tokyo, Paris, London, Bonn, Rome-
where an exclusively English-speaking American can get by because of the host
natives' tolerance and skill in English. Many are in the oil fields of the Middle East
or Venezuela; others are searching for mineral resources in African and other
developing nations; some are medically and/or spiritually servicing remote tribes in
Asia or South America; still others are scattered around the globe in places I
probably never heard of and contending with languages the names of which may be
new to us. Clearly, these Americans have need of substantial cultural understand-
ing and tolerance, some basic grounding in linguistics, and probably a lot of luck.
I am not suggesting that the American public education system should make
course offerings which would meet the needs of anyone who might someday be
working among native speakers of some of the more exotic of the world's languages.
As a learner and a teacher of foreign language, though, I believe that the strength-
ening and expansion of foreign language programs in our elementary and secondary
schools and our postsecondary institutions require immediate and urgent atten-
tion-from all levels of government and from the private sector-if we are to be
competitive as a nation in the world of the 21st century.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY: THE STATE OF THE ART
Attached for the Subcommittee's information is an article, "The Akron Story,"
describing an elementary school foreign language program that's working.
Particularly valuable in researching this section of the testimony were Repre-
sentative Simon's Chapters 5 and 6. "The Bad News from Our Elementary and High
Schools" and "Colleges and Universities-A Mixed Picture."
The study of modern foreign language was immensely spurred by the climate of
fear of technological and linguistic insufficiency that followed the Soviet move into
space in 1957. As so often happens in the political give and take of our democracy, it
is only after some external stimulus forces itself into our collective consciousness
that we as a nation respond by doing precisely what the "experts" had been
recommending for years. Thus it was that Sputnik led directly to Congressional
enactment of NDEA, which encouraged study in, among other subjects, foreign
languages.
The 1960's were boom years for foreign language. Teacher training for foreign
languages was federally subsidized to a great degree; foreign language enrollment in
the secondary schools and postsecondary institutions was high. In the mid-60's, for
example, 24 percent of secondary students studied foreign language; 34 percent of
postsecondary institutions had admission standards requiring foreign language.
These figures today are drastically reduced: 15 percent and eight percent respective-
ly. 1s
Public secondary school enrollments in foreign languages declined by 15 percent
from 1968 to 1974. In 1968, 27.1 percent of the total public secondary school enrol-
ment were studying foreign language; by 1974, only 19.2 percent were enrolled in
foreign language.16
NEA estimates that for school year 1980-81 some 3.5 percent of, or 77,000 public
elementary and secondary teachers spent the major part of the school day teaching
foreign language.17 Cumulative estimates show that, beginning with 1960 at three
percent, the percentage of foreign language teachers rose, gradually but steadily,
peaking in 1969 at 5.6 percent; since then a decline has set in and continues.18
Thus there are currently fewer than one foreign language teacher for each 500
students enrolled in the public schools. Obviously, we are not concentrating much
on the systematic encouragement of the study of foreign language and, by defini-
tion, different cultures.
Nor are we emphasizing foreign language at the postsecondary level. "(F)ewer
than 10 percent of all college students are required to have a record of having
-President's Commission; op. cit.; p. 125.
15 Ibid.; p.7.
16 Thomas H. Geno, ed.; "Our Profession: Present Status and Future Directions;" Northeast
Conference Reports (Middlebury, Vermont: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages, Inc., 1980); p. 19.
17 National Education Association; "Teacher Opinion Poll" (Washington, D.C.; 1980).
18 National Education Association; "Teacher Opinion Poll" (Washington, D.C.; 1960-1980).
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studied a language or having a competence in one in order to get into a college, and
fewer than one-fifth of all college students . . . ever receive any foreign language
instruction." 19
Between 1968 and 1977, the percentage of higher education enrollments in the
five most taught foreign languages (French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish)
declined by 21.2 percent; the percent of college students enrolled in these language
programs dropped from 15 percent in 1968 to 8.2 percent in 1977. Worse yet, despite
national security needs, higher education students enrolled in Russian fell 20.1
percent between 1968 and 1974, and declined another 14.6 percent between 1974 and
1977.20
And scope of foreign language study is not the whole problem. While very few
0 postsecondary students are receiving any instruction in foreign language, most of
those who do are concentrating in Spanish, French, or German, to the virtual
exclusion of Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and the more exotic languages.21 More-
over, too many of the foreign language courses offered in postsecondary institutions
are taugth for only three hours per week, when most experts agree that such
instruction should have a minimum of five hours per week. We are hardly prepar-
ing students for the world they will face.
H.R. 3231
H.R. 3231 is one of the first serious efforts in years to deal comprehensively with
the problem of our national language ignorance. It is a simple, straightforward,
relatively inexpensive bill. Perhaps one of its most attractive features is that, by
making funds avilable to state education agencies for foreign language programs
designed and implemented at the local level and directly to postsecondary institu-
tions, it automatically refutes the charge that foreign language instruction is a
"frill" that can and should be sacrificed during times of fiscal austerity.
In general, NEA supports H.R. 3231. We do, however, have one major objection:
Sec. 2(b)(2) requires that programs at the local level to made available to all
children in a school district whether or not they are enrolled in public school in
that district. In a political climate that is engendering controversy over forms of aid
to nonpublic school students and that is generating substantial Congressional and
public support for tuition tax credits, such a provision is unacceptable to NEA.
Our only other substantive comment on H.R. 3231 relates to Sec. 3, which we feel
may reflect an unintentional oversight. By consistently using the term "institution
of higher education," which generally is interpreted to mean four-year colleges and
universities, we wonder if the bill is not precluding from receiving its benefits the
various two-year postsecondary institutions. Since Representative Simon devotes
considerable attention in his book to the potential of community and junior col-
leges,22 we doubt seriously that it was the sponsors' intent to exclude these vital
postsecondary educational institutions. We respectfully suggest that perfecting lan-
guage may be in order.
Once again, we commend the sponsors and this Subcommittee for your attention
to the pressing need for foreign language education, and we stand ready to help
assure enactment of this important legislation. Thank you.
B-4. FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
The National Education Association believes that foreign language instruction is
an important part of the total educational process and an integral part of interna-
tional studies.
The Association supports the maintenance of current programs and the encour-
agement and development of foreign language instruction and international studies
programs.
The Association recognizes the need for teacher training programs for foreign
language teachers, and supports teacher exchange programs.
National security.-The security of our nation is enhanced by the pursuit of peace
through multilateral strategic arms limitation; by an adequate defense built on
military strength; and by the education, strength, and health of all citizens. The
three factors in national security should be adequately reflected in the national
budget.
19 Simon; op cit.; p. 119.
20 Geno; op. cit.; pp. 21-22.
21 Simon; op. cit.; p. 119.
22 Ibid.; pp. 108-110
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(By Eileen Silva Kindig, Free-Lance Writer, Medina, Ohio)
For more than 20 years, the Akron, Ohio, school district has required that every
child in its elementary schools be exposed to French, Spanish, or German. All sixth
grade students therefore receive foreign language instruction for 20 minutes a day.
Akron's elementary language program is designed more to prepare students for
systematic study than to provide that study. Its aim is to get children to accept
another means of verbal communication and to want to find out more. Its success is
solid. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages cited the Akron
program as one of 50 outstanding language programs in the nation.
The Council had several reasons for its choice, says Sandra Hammond, Project
Coordinator of the Survey of Successful Secondary School Foreign Language Pro-
grams. Two criteria of success were high enrollment and extensive course offerings.
In addition, Ms. Hammond explains, "Akron's compulsory sixth grade program was
one of the main reasons for its selection. During the late 60's and early 70's, there
were many elementary foreign language programs throughout the country, but with
the budget cuts of the last five years, most of them have been eliminated. Akron is
unique in that it emphasizes language as a necessity rather than a frill."
The coordination of the Akron program is important, Ms. Hammond points out.
"In areas which show a high rate of attrition, you often find that a program lacks
sequential coordination."
National recognition is gratifying, but the consensus among Akron's language
teachers seems to be that the real proof of their program's success lies in the junior
high foreign language enrollment figures. While elective language classes across the
country are losing students, Akron's secondary level classes are attracting more
than ever. Roughly two-thirds of all Akron seventh graders choose to continue
studying a foreign language.
Former French and Spanish teacher John Durden directs Akron's foreign lan-
guage program. He considers that although compulsory early exposure is vitally
important, it isn't enough ' to inspire children to want to learn more. School guid-
ance counselors can help by encouraging students to pursue language study. And
basic to success are motivated teachers and a program that allows each child to
experience success at his or her own level of competence.
Akron has both. Language teachers stay open to new ideas by listening to guest
speakers-such foreign language experts as Lorraine Strasheim of Indiana Universi-
ty, Edward Allen of Ohio State University, and Fred Jenks of Florida State Univer-
sitry.
"The underlying theme of every speaker," Durden reports, "has been the impor-
tance of individualization. In the past, languages have had the reputation of appeal-
ing only to the elite. Today we're trying to reach inner city kids too, and to do this
we can t afford to have classes that are too rigidly structured."
Speakers have emphasized another trend in language teaching also. In the early
sixties, the curriculum was based primarily on understanding and speaking. Now
teachers stress writing and reading as well in order to give students a tangible hold
on the language. Classes commonly cover less material than before but do it using
all four phases of learning.
Akron's dozen elementary foreign language teachers work hard to maintain the
level of the program. French teacher Frank Dworkin has been part of the elemen-
tary language program since its adoption by the school board in 1961. Like the other
teachers in the program, she travels each day to three or four schools throughout
the city to meet with her classes.
"I tell my children this is the way it is in France. The teacher comes to the class
rather than the class coming to the teacher," she says cheerfully.
Mrs. Dworkin believes that language classes should be an enjoyable cultural
experience. "My purpose isn't to be an entertainer, of course, but it's really advanta-
geous for the children to see how people live and talk in another country. Besides,
when I use puppets and songs with students, they get involved with the subject.
"When I can, I also like to integrate what we do in French class with what's
happening in the students' other classes. Once for language arts they dressed up as
storybook characters, and I had them introduce their characters in French during
my class."
Mrs. Dworkin has made consistent use of the Student Letter Exchange in Waseca,
Minnesota, to provide her students in French during my class."
Mrs. Dworkin has made consistent use of the Student Letter Exchange in Waseca,
Minnesota, to provide her students with French pen pals. Because of the high cost
of postage and the acquisition price of 50 cents per name, however, she's recently
been forced to limit participation. Rather than give everyone a name, she requires
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each student in her nine classes to write a sample letter. One the basis of these
samples, she selects one boy and one girl from each class to write to a pen pal in
France. Every letter that is shared opens cultural doors.
The Amity Program at Akron's Buchtel University High School is a resource that
Akron's language teachers value highly. This magnet program attracts academic
achievers from all over the city. Buchtel students spend three periods a day in study
of world cultures, languages, and literatures.
Exchange students from abroad attend classes at Buchtel. The school's students
have access to a computer-based introductory and remedial language program, as
well as to facilities on the University of Akron campus.
The Amity Program benefits all of Akron's foreign language teachers in two
ways: It attracts attention to some of the special advantages Akron offers secondary
language students, and it provides foreign guests who can add immensely to elemen-
tary language classes.
Given so much dedication and activity, does the elementary language program
give its students anything beyond the interest and motivation that are its avowed
aims? "I think that good pronunciation is one 'extra,'" Fran Dworkin says. "When
you get kids before they go into junior high, they're less inhibited than they are
later."
Program director John Durden couldn't agree more. "One of the biggest advan-
tages to starting children out early with a second language is that their pronuncia-
tion is so much better," he says. "As a matter of fact, psychologists at McGill
University in Canada have observed that adults learn foreign languages faster than
children because they bring with them all their past learning experiences, but
children have better pronunciation and always will."
Learning a foreign language on the elementary level also seems to make children
more aware of language in general and perhaps even help them improve their skills
in English. According to Robert J. Di Pietro of the University of Delaware, the
study of foreign languages does indeed help children learn to read better in English.
Studying foreign language programs in Virginia Di Pietro found that the reading of
children in grades one through six at Key Elementary School in Arlington improved
markedly after the children took a 14-week experimental language program. Using
lesson plans which dovetailed with the course work being taught in regular math
and social studies classes, instructors taught their classes in Spanish, Korean, or
Vietnamese. They also gave students a look at the culture, history, and art of the
specific country they happened to be studying.
Yet another "extra" evident in the Akron elementary program is the positive
attitude toward learning that language teachers like Mabel Brown can inspire. Ms.
Brown, a Spanish teacher with considerable elementary experience, spends half of
her day instructing inner-city children. Observers of Ms. Brown's classes typically
note the sense of harmony between teacher and class and the obvious enjoyment of
both: When the class period ends, groans of dismay fill the room.
"I don't think learning a language should be drudgery," Ms. Brown says. "I'm
enthusiastic, and the students pick up on it. Even with my last class of the day I
don't let down-it's the first time those kids have seen me all day. I praise the
children a lot, too, and they really respond to that. When they make mistakes, I
don't dwell on it. I just correct them and go on."
Language learning in Akron is in fact far from being all work. Teachers use
games, puppets, songs, foreign foods, flash cards, and any other aspects of foreign
culture available to them to stimulate interest. Students who might otherwise reject
language study are enjoying it instead-and looking forward to more.
Enthusiastic parents are a bonus in any educational program, and Akron seems
to have plenty of them.
"The parents like what we're doing a whole lot," says Fran Dworkin. "Those who
move into our school system from other areas are delighted that their children have
such an opportunity."
"One of the main reasons Akron has been able to keep an elementary program
going is parental support," John Durden agrees. "The parents got the whole thing
started 21 years ago. The PTA hired a French teacher, and the parents paid the
entire cost.
"School levies always pass in Akron, and as a result our schools are debt-free and
we have the funds to keep on with this. Also, we try to listen to input from parents
because we've found that it pays off in student interest. For example, in one school
where we were teaching German, the parents came and requested that we switch to
Spanish. When we did, enrollment on the secondary level increased."
Research indicates that parents' response nationwide is just as positive as that
which Akron educators have experienced firsthand. A survey conducted at the
University of Michigan for the President's Commission on Foreign Language and
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International Studies revealed that of the respondents who were parents, an over-
whelming number wanted their chidren to study a foreign language. More than
three-fourths felt strongly that elementary schools should offer such study.
Akron is one school system that has responded to parents' demand for foreign
language teaching. Akron students, in turn, have responded to their parents' and
teachers' enthusiasm. When parents, teachers, and students agree that foreign
language learning is basic, they can make it so.
STATEMENT OF BERNIE FREITAG, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Mr. FREITAG. Sehr geehrter Herr Vorsitzender and verehrte
Mitglieder dieses Ausschusses, ich heisse Bernie Freitag, bin vize-
praesident der NEA (National Education Association), die groesste
Organisation von professoren, Erziehern and Schularbeitern inden
Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika.
Wir freuen uns, dass wir die Einladung bekommen haben, unsere
allgemeine Unterstuetzung von H.R. 3231 heute zum Ausdruck zu
bringen. Es gibt zwar eine Bestimmung von H.R. 3231, womit wir
Schwierigkeiten haetten, aber dazu werden wir etwas spaeter Stel-
lung nehmen.
Zunaechst moechten wir die Foerderer von H.R. 3231 fuer ihren
Beistand zu diesem Vorschlag loben, weil sie sich dafuer eisetzen,
dass in den Schulen and Universitaeten der USA, die Gelegenheit
eine Fremdsprache zu studieren and zu beherrschen, immer mehr
die Regel wird.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you. [Laughter.]
Very good. Go ahead.
Mr. FREITAG. Members of the committee might be interested in
knowing that I am, by training, experience, and regular employ-
ment, a teacher of foreign language. I teach secondary school
German at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Pa., where I
have also served as coordinator of the foreign language department
for about 15 years. Prior to that, I taught for 3 years in private
Catholic high schools in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
I myself received much of my professional training as a teacher
of language through such federally sponsored programs as the
National Defense Education Act, and received the Fulbright-Hayes
teaching grant.
I would like to add, parenthetically, that I am a cofounder and
the national vice president of the United German American Com-
mittee of the United States and also have been on the national
board of directors of Schwaben International. Both of those organi-
zations are nonprofit organizations that strongly support language
learning, foreign language newspapers and radio, and also people-
to-people contact on a nonprofit basis.
As you might imagine, as one educated in a liberal arts program,
I have some strong feelings about the subject under discussion
today. Certain facts I have learned through experience underly my
testimony.
First of all, the important point is to start students on a foreign
language, any language, at as early an age as possible. Much of the
work in acquiring a first foreign language has to do with the
process of foreign language learning. Once the process is learned,
the skills are transferable to other languages.
Second, as we have moved toward more choices in our public
high schools, foreign language and mathematics are the only sub-
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jects remaining which require sequential learning. Language and
math depend not only on the learning of a lesson but also on its
retention as a student progresses through 3 or 4 years of the
subject.
In learning a foreign language, many students become aware for
the first time of the importance of their own language and gram-
mar and of its richness. This is especially true when they confront
concepts which cannot be translated in idioms which are meaning-
less when transliterated.
NEA's policy statements on foreign language occur in two items
adopted by the representative assembly, the organization's highest
decisionmaking body. Resolution B-4, foreign language education,
reads, in part.
The association supports the maintenance of current programs and the encourage-
ment and development of foreign language instruction and international studies
programs.
In addition, NEA's tripartite definition of "national security"
includes as one component "the education of all citizens."
Copies of the full text of both of these statements are attached to
this testimony. And, Mr. Erdahl, I would like to skip over to page 9
of my testimony just to highlight that portion but, of course, know
that all of the testimony will be in the record.
Mr. ERDAHL. Surely.
Mr. FREITAG. Concerning the state of the art, we have attached
for the subcommittee's information an article, "The Akron Story,"
describing an elementary school foreign language program that is
working, particularly valuable in researching this section of the
testimony were Representative Simon's chapters 5 and 6, "The Bad
News from our Elementary and High Schools" and "Colleges and
Universities: A Mixed Picture."
A study of modern foreign language was immensely spurred by
the climate of fear of technological and linguistic insufficiency that
followed the Soviet move into space in 1957. As so often happens in
the political give-and-take of our democracy, it is only after some
external stimulus forces itself into our collective consciousness that
we as a nation respond by doing precisely what the experts had
been recommending for years.
Thus it was that Sputnik led directly to congressional enactment
of NDEA, which encouraged study in, among other things, foreign
languages. The 1960's were boom years for foreign languages.
Teacher training for foreign languages was federally subsidized to
a great degree. Foreign language enrollment in the secondary
schools and postsecondary institutions was high. In the mid-1960's,
for example, 24 percent of secondary students studied foreign lan-
guage; 34 percent of postsecondary institutions had admission
standards requiring foreign language. These figures today are dras-
tically reduced: 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Public secondary school enrollments in foreign languages de-
clined by 15 percent from 1968 to 1974. In 1968, 27.1 percent of the
total public secondary school enrollment were studying foreign
language. By 1974, only 19.2 percent were enrolled in foreign lan-
guage.
NEA estimates that for school year 1980-81, some 3.5 percent of,
or 77,000, public elementary and secondary teachers spent the
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major part of the schoolday teaching foreign language. Cumulative
estimates show that beginning with 1960, at 3 percent, the percent-
age of foreign language teachers rose gradually but steadily, peak-
ing in 1969 at 5.6 percent.
Since then, a decline has set in, and continues. Thus, there are
currently fewer than one foreign-language teacher for each 500
students enrolled in the public schools. Obviously, we are not con-
centrating much on the systematic encouragement of the study of
foreign language and, by definition, different cultures, nor are we
emphasizing foreign language at the postsecondary level: "Fewer
than 10 percent of all college students are required to have a
record of having studied a language or having a competence in one
in order to get into a college, and fewer than one-fifth of all college
students ever receive any foreign-language instruction."
Between 1968 and 1977 the percentage of higher education en-
rollments in the five most-taught foreign languages, which are
French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, declined by 21.2
percent. The percent of college students enrolled in these language
programs dropped from 15 percent in 1968 to 8.2 percent in 1977.
Worse yet, despite national security needs, higher education stu-
dents enrolled in Russian fell 20.1 percent between 1968 and 1974,
and declined another 14.6 percent between 1974 and 1977.
And scope of foreign language studies not the whole problem.
While very few postsecondary students are receiving any instruc-
tion in foreign language, most of those who do are concentrating in
Spanish, French, or German, to the virtual exclusion of Russian,
Japanese, Chinese, and the more exotic languages.
Moreover, too many of the foreign language courses offered in
postsecondary institutions are taught for only 3 hours per week,
when most experts agree that such instruction should have a mini-
mum of 5 hours per week. We are hardly preparing students for
the world they will face.
H.R. 3231 is one of the first serious efforts in years to deal
comprehensively with the problem of our national language igno-
rance. It is a simple, straightforward, relatively inexpensive bill.
Perhaps one of its most attractive features is that by making funds
available to State educational agencies for foreign-language pro-
grams designed and implemented at the local level and directly to
postsecondary institutions, it automatically refutes the charge that
foreign-language instruction is a frill that can and should be sacri-
ficed during times of fiscal austerity.
In general, NEA supports H.R. 3231. We do, however, have one
major objection: Section 2(b)(2) requires that programs at the local
level be made available to all children in a school district whether
or not they are enrolled in public school in that district. In a
political climate, that is engendering controversy over forms of aid
to nonpublic school students, and that is generating substantial
congressional and public support for tuition tax credits. Such a
provision is unacceptable to NEA.
Our only other substantive comment on H.R. 3231 relates to
section 3, which we feel may reflect an unintentional oversight. By
consistently using the term "institutions of higher education,"
which generally is interpreted to mean 4-year colleges and univer-
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sities, we wonder if the bill is not precluding from receiving its
benefits the various 2-year postsecondary institutions.
Since Representative Simon devotes considerable attention in his
book to the potential of community and junior colleges, we doubt
seriously that it was the sponsor's intent to exclude these vital
postsecondary educational institutions. We respectfully suggest
that perfecting language may be in order.
Once again, we commend the sponsors and this subcommittee for
your attention to the pressing need for foreign-language education.
And we stand ready to help assure enactment of this important
legislation. Thank you.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you very much.
Again, I am going to have to run over for a vote. And if it is OK
with the other participants, if you are willing to wait and maybe
forego lunch, at least at this time, I will try to get back as soon as
possible. Could you do that?
Thank you very much.
[Brief recess.]
Mr. ERDAHL. I apologize for the interruption.
The next on our list is Dorothy Shields, director of education for
[?AFT -CIO.
Mrs. Shields, thank you. And please proceed.
[The prepared statement of Dorothy Shields follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DOROTHY SHIELDS, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCA-
TION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR & CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZA-
TIONS
I am pleased to testify today on behalf of the AFL-CIO in support of H.R. 3231.
The bill provides grants for foreign language programs to improve foreign language
study for elementary and secondary school programs and provides per capita grants
to reimburse institutions of higher learning for part of the costs of providing foreign
language instruction. The AFL-CIO is on record in support of increasing federal
assistance for foreign language study.
In December 1979, the AFL-CIO at its convention, approved a resolution fully
supporting the recommendations of the President's Commission on Foreign Lan-
guages and International Studies. A copy of the resolution is attached to our
testimony. The AFL-CIO supports H.R. 3231 as a means of implementing many of
t:he recommendations of the Commission's report.
We have also been active on the national level, through participation in the
President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, in the
development of recommendations to improve foreign language study programs, and
the National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies which grew
out of the Commission report.
The American labor movement has been active in international labor and labor-
political organizations for a century. The labor movement is intrinsically bound up
in common interests shared with workers and unions the world over. The aspira-
tions of workers everywhere enjoy a common denominator, freedom to collectively
better their lives. Communication at the international level has, therefore, always
been important to the American labor movement. In the 1960's the AFL-CIO began
an extensive program of international assistance to fledgling democratic labor move-
ments in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Given the unique characteristics of our
society, recruitment from the American rank-and-file of persons with considerable
trade union experience who also spoke a second language owing to familiar back-
ground, was sometimes possible. In other cases, American trade unionists were
trained in second languages in order to carry out their roles as instructors abroad.
In the eighth decade of the twentieth century, the concept of a global village has
become reality. Modern systems of communication via satellite, have made all of the
world's inhabitants intimate neighbors. Language has become even more important
to all of us as a result of the revolution in communications and travel. The sad fact
remains that language training in the public school system of our country lags far
behind that of all the other industrialized market economies of our world. Usually,
Americans, whether in diplomatic service or industry abroad, continue to be the
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worst examples of monocultural representatives who speak English, a woefully
inadequate tool in today's mulit-cultural world.
The old prevailing argument of fortress America, with monolithic culture, self-
sustaining economy and the "highest standard of living in the world," has long been
a myth. Today's world, characterized at the highest level by the Common Market
and a plethora of international institutions that run the gamut from the United
Nations and its specialized agencies to the OECD, requires the participation of
world citizens, who can communicate clearly with one another. The baisc factor of
that communication is language training. We should start at the elementary level
and equip those of our society who will be called upon to perform at the internation-
al level with language expertise far greater than is provided by today's relatively
ineffective crash courses in language training. The U.S. education system cannot
afford to trail behind the rest of the industrialized world in this vital concept.
In April 1978, President Jimmy Carter established, through Executive Order No.
12054, the President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies.
The Commission was empowered to recommend means for directing public attention
to the importance of foreign language and international studies for the improve-
ment of communications and understanding with other nations in an increasingly
interdependent world. It also was asked to assess the need in the United States for
foreign language and area specialists, ways in which foreign language and interna-
tional studies contribute to meeting these needs, and the job market for individuals
with these skills.
In addition, the Commission made recommendations concerning desirable levels
and kinds of support for foreign language area studies that should be provided by
the public and private sectors as well as to review existing legislation and suggest
needed changes to carry out the Commission's recommendations.
Jack F. Otero, Executive-Vice Chairman, represented the AFL-CIO on the Presi-
dent's Commission and several other labor representatives contributed to the work
of the Commission, its findings and recommendations.
The Commission noted in its report a significant decline in the study of foreign
languages and international issues in the nation's schools and colleges and it recom-
mended that greater emphasis should be placed on the study of these subjects. The
report indicated that the Commission members were "profoundly alarmed" by the
serious deterioration in this country's language and research capacity, at a time
when an increasingly hazardous international military, political and economic envi-
ronment is making unprecendented demands on America's resources, intellectual
capacity and public sensitivity.
"The problem extends from our elementary schools, where instruction in foreign
languages and cultures has virtually disappeared, to the threatened imminent loss
of some of the world's leading centers for advanced training and research on foreign
areas. Such specific educational neglect, moreover, is reflected in public uncertainty
about the relationship between American interests and goals and those of other
peoples and other cultures. Nothing less is at issue than the nation's security."
("Strength Through Wisdom: A Critique of U.S. Capability," Report To The Presi-
dent From the President's Commission On Foreign Language and International
Studies-November 1979)
America's incompetence in foreign languages, the report declared, is nothing
short of scandalous and it is becoming worse. The members of the Commission
believed that our lack of foreign language competence diminished our capabilities in
diplomacy, in foreign trade and in citizen comprehension of the world in which we
live and compete.
It is disturbing to read that, as of 1979:
Only 15 percent of American high school students studied foreign language-
down from 24 percent in 1965.
Only one out of 20 public high school students studied French, German or Russian
beyond the second year. (Four years is considered a minimum prerequisite for
useable language competence.)
Only 8 percent of American colleges and universities required a foreign language
for admission, compared with 34 percent in 1966.
It was estimated that there were 10,000 English-speaking Japanese business rep-
resentatives on assignment in the United States. There were fewer than 900 Ameri-
can counterparts in Japan-and only a handful of those had a working knowledge
of Japanese.
The foreign affairs agencies of the U.S. government were deeply concerned that
declining foreign language enrollments in our schools and colleges would lower the
quality of new recruits for their services and increase language training costs,
already at a level of $100 million in 1978.
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In order to remedy some of these national deficiencies, the Commission recom-
mended that the Department of Education should provide incentive funding to
schools and post-secondary institutions for foreign language teaching. It also urged
schools, colleges and universities to reinstate foreign language requirements. New
Department of Education funded programs were recommended to encourage foreign
language studies in the schools.
H.R. 3231 would effect principal recommendations of the Commission by establish-
ing a system of competitive grants to states for funding model foreign language
programs in local school districts. In addition, grants would be given to colleges and
universities that require foreign language study for graduation as well as grants to
institutions for higher education based on their foreign language class enrollments.
In a world of increasing interdependence and an ever present need for greater
international cooperation, this measure represents an important step toward ex-
panding communication among people.
We urge legislative enactment of H.R. 3231.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Whereas, In April 1978, through Executive Order No. 12054, President Jimmy
Carter established the President's Commission on Foreign Language and Interna-
tional Studies, and
Whereas, Such Commission was empowered to:
(1) Recommend means for directing public attention to the importance of foreign
language and international studies for the improvement of communications and
understanding with other nations in an increasingly interdependent world;
(2) Assess the need in the United States for foreign language and area specialists
ways, in which foreign language and international studies contribute to meeting
these needs, and the job market for individuals with these skills.
(3) Recommend what foreign language area studies programs are appropriate at
all academic levels and recommend desirable levels and kinds of support for each
that should be provided by the public and private sectors.
(4) Review existing legislative authorities and make recommendations for changes
needed to carry out most effectively the commission's recommendations.
Whereas, A representative of organized labor named as a member of the commis-
sion and several other distinguished labor leaders contributed greatly to the work of
this commission, its findings and recommendations, and
Whereas, Such recommendations, if implemented by the executive and legislative
branches would place the United States in full compliance with the Final Act of the
Conference on Security and Cooperation (better known as the Helsinki Agreement,
which commits the participating countries to "encourage the study of foreign lan-
guages and civilizations as an important means of expanding communication among
peoples-for the strengthening of international cooperation,' and
Whereas, Such recommendations are in the national interest given increasing
world interdependence and the concomitant need for greater international coopera-
tion. Therefore, be it
Resolved, That the AFL-CIO goes on record supporting the findings and recom-
mendations of the Presidential Commission on Foreign Language and International
Studies, and be it further
Resolved, That the AFL-CIO calls on the President and Congress to exert leader-
ship in the legislative enactment of such finding and recommendations, and be it
further
Resolved, That the AFL-CIO pledges full cooperation and support in actively
promoting the passage of such legislation.
STATEMENT OF DOROTHY SHIELDS, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR & CON-
GRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Ms. SHIELDS. I am pleased to testify today on behalf of the AFL-
CIO in support of H.R. 3231. The AFL-CIO is on record in support
of increasing Federal assistance for foreign language study. In
December 1979 the AFL-CIO at its convention approved a resolu-
tion fully supporting the recommendations of the President's Com-
mission on Foreign Languages and International Studies. A copy of
the resolution is attached to our testimony.
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The AFL-CIO supports H.R. 3231 as a means of implementing
many of the recommendations of the Commission's report. We have
also been active on the national level, through participation in the
President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International
Studies, in the development of recommendations to improve foreign
language study programs, and the National Council on Foreign
Language and International Studies, which grew out of the Com-
mission report.
The American labor movement has been active in the interna-
tional labor and labor political organizations for a century. The
labor movement is intrinsically bound up in common interests
shared with workers and unions the world over. The aspirations of
workers everywhere enjoy a common denominator: freedom to col-
lectively better their lives. Communication at the international
level has, therefore, always been important to the American labor
movement.
In the 1960's the AFL-CIO began an intensive program of inter-
national assistance to fledgling democratic labor movements in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Given the unique characteristics
of our society, recruitment from the American rank and file of
persons with considerable trade union experience who also spoke a
second language, owing to familiar background, was sometimes
possible. In other cases, American trade unionists were trained in
second language in order to carry out their role as instructors
abroad.
In the eighth decade of the 20th century the concept of a global
village has become reality. Modern systems of communication via
satellite have made all of the world's inhabitants intimate neigh-
bors. Language has become even more important to all of us as a
result of the revolution in communications and travel. The sad fact
remains that language training in the public school system of our
country lags far behind that of all the other industrialized market
economies of the world. Usually, Americans, whether in diplomatic
service or industry abroad, continue to be the worst examples of
monocultural representatives who speak English, a woefully inad-
equate tool in today's multicultural world.
The old, prevailing argument of fortress America with monolith-
ic culuture, self-sustaining economy, and the "highest standard of
living in the world," has long been a myth. Today's world, charac-
terized at the highest level by the Common Market and a plethora
of international institutions that run the gamut from the United
Nations and its specialized agencies to the OECD, requires the
participation of world citizens who can communicate clearly with
one another.
The basic factor of that communication is language training. We
should start early at the elementary level and equip those of our
society who will be called upon to perform at the international
level with language expertise far greater than is provided by
today's relatively ineffective crash courses in language training.
The U.S. education system cannot afford to trail behind the rest of
the industrialized world in this vital concept.
In April 1978 President Jimmy Carter established, through Ex-
ecutive Order No. 12054, the President's Commission on Foreign
Languages and International Studies. Jack F. Otero, executive vice
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chairman, represented the AFL-CIO on the President's Commis-
sion, and several other labor representatives contributed to the
work of the Commission, its findings and recommendations.
The Commission noted in its report a significant decline in the
study of foreign languages and international issues in the Nation's
schools and colleges and recommended that greater emphasis
should be placed on the study of these subjects. I quote from the
Commission report:
The problem extends from our elementary schools, where instruction in foreign
languages and cultures has virtually disappeared to the threatened imminent loss of
some of the world's leading centers for advanced training and research on foreign
areas. Such specific educational neglect, moreover, is reflected in public uncertainty
about the relationship between American interests and goals and those of other
peoples and cultures. Nothing less is at issue than the nation's security.
America's incompetence in foreign language, the report declared,
is nothing short of scandalous and is becoming worse. The mem-
bers of the Commission believed that our lack of foreign language
competence diminished our capabilities in diplomacy in foreign
trade, and in citizen comprehension of the world in which we live
and compete.
It is disturbing to read that as of 1979 only 15 percent of Ameri-
can high school students studied foreign language, down from 24
percent in 1965. Only 1 out of 20 public high school students
studied French, German, or Russian beyond the second year. Only
8 percent of American colleges and universities required a foreign
language for admission, compared with 34 percent in 1966.
It was estimated that there were 10,000 English-speaking Japa-
nese business representatives on assignment in the United States.
There were fewer than 900 American counterparts in Japan, and
only a handful of those had a working knowledge of Japanese.
The foreign affairs agencies of the U.S. Government were deeply
concerned that declining foreign language enrollments in our
schools and colleges would lower the quality of new recruits for
their services and increase language training costs, already at a
level of $100 million in 1978.
H.R. 3231 would effect principal recommendations of the Com-
mission by establishing a system of competitive grants for funding
model foreign language programs in local school districts.
In addition, grants would be given to colleges and universities
that require foreign language study for graduation, as well as
grants to institutions for higher education based on their foreign
language class enrollments.
In a world of increasing interdependence and an ever-present
need for greater international cooperation, the AFL-CIO believes
this measure represents an important step toward expanding com-
munication among people. We urge enactment.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you very much.
I understand, Mr. Neff, that you are feeling a bit under the
weather, and it has been an ordeal waiting for this moment. So,
again, you can just summarize briefly, if you wish, and your state-
ment will be entered in the record.
I note with approval that you are from the Associated Colleges of
the Midwest. Once upon a time I went to St. Olaf"s College. As I
look at Cornell, Grinnell, Knox, Lawrence, McAlester, Monmouth,
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Ripon, I competed on all those campuses when I was on the track
team, once upon a time.
It is good to have you with us.
[The prepared testimony of Charles Neff follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF CHARLES B. NEFF, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATED COLLEGES OF
THE MIDWEST, AND ON BEHALF OF THE GREAT LAKES COLLEGES ASSOCIATION
Mr. Simon and other committee members, I am happy to be here with you today
to testify on the hearings relating to H.R. 3231, 97th Congress, First Session. I am
Charles Neff, President of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a consortium of
thirteen liberal arts colleges located primarily in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minne-
sota and Wisconsin, with an additional college in Colorado. With the permission of
its leadership, I am also speaking on behalf of the Great Lakes Colleges Association,
a similar consortium of twelve liberal arts colleges located in the states of Ohio,
Michigan and Indiana. Collectively these twenty-five liberal arts colleges have a
student enrollment of approximatley 40,000 and a teaching staff of about 3,000
faculty. A list of the member institutions is attached to this testimony.
What perhaps makes our colleges different from others which may testify before
you today is that during a period when many institutions were deemphasizing
foreign language or allowing foreign language requirements to lapse, most of our
institutions have continued to maintain strong foreign language programs. For
instance, out of the twenty-five institutions, twelve already have a foreign language
graduation requirement consisting either of courses or of attainment of a designated
level of competence as demonstrated by testing. You, Mr. Chairman, have stated
that only eight percent of the institutions in the United States require foreign
language for graduation. The figure in our two associations is 48 percent, perhaps
not high enough but nevertheless considerably above the national average. Further-
more, we estimate that about 60 percent of all students complete at least two years
of a foreign language, an estimate which probably is conservative.
I cite these figures initially to inform you that in the Associated Colleges of the
Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association, we already have an atmosphere
quite favorable to the teaching of foreign languages. Furthermore, foreign language
instruction is bolstered by very strong overseas programs. Jointly, the Associated
Colleges of the Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association operate programs
in Hong Kong, Japan, India, Costa Rica, Colombia, England, Italy, Yugoslavia and
Africa. Additionally, our member colleges offer their own study abroad programs at
107 different sites. Consequently, the student at one of the Associated Colleges or
Great Lakes Colleges campuses has the double opportunity of being able to study a
foreign language and also to employ the use of that language in overseas study
during the course of his or her undergraduate years.
With that much by way of background, let me say that the twenty-five colleges on
whose behalf I speak recognize the sorry state of language instruction nationally, as
cited by you, Mr. Chairman, in "the Tongue-Tied American" and by the President's
Commission of Foreign Language and International Studies. We enthusiastically
endorse the spirit of your proposed legislation. We fully believe in the importance of
foreign language instruction both as an integral part of a liberalizing education and
as a valuable asset for our nation's security and economy. We believe that the
federal government has in the past made significant contributions to foreign lan-
guage instruction, most particularly through the National Defense Education Act
and through the Department of Education's support for foreign area and language
programs. We recognize, however, along with others, that support for these pro-
grams has gradually eroded as funding has not kept pace with inflation. We believe
that those programs should be well supported, particularly for such instruction in
undergraduate education, but additionally we are concerned that there be support
for language instruction in the elementary and secondary schools.
I will not comment further on the portion of the bill which deals with elementary
and secondary education except to say that we welcome its intent and that we know
full well that our instruction at the undergraduate level is immeasurably more
effective when students enter college with good foreign language preparation.
My prinicpal comments will be limited to those sections which deal with foreign
language instruction at the undergraduate level. In principle we think that the dual
approach of providing subsidization for colleges which have achieved more than a
five percent enrollment in foreign languages and for those that have adopted a
foreign language requirement for graduation, is a good first step. We do have a few
suggestions, however, which we think would eventually strengthen both the intent
and the effect of the proposed legislation.
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One, we find that there is an inherent difficulty in counting students enrolled in
foreign language programs. For most institutions, I believe it would be difficult to
follow individual student enrollments. Furthermore, many students, particularly
those enrolled in foreign language majors, tend to take more than one language
course at a time. Would it not be better to base the legislation on course enrollment,
a figure which is much more readily available to most institutions? Thus, any
institution with student enrollments in foreign language courses which exceeded
five percent of total course enrollments would be eligible for the support outlined
under the bill.
Two, there also is a general issue of quantity versus quality in foreign language
enrollments. For the most part, students completing the second year of a foreign
language are not yet fully proficient in that language. One of the unintended
consequences of H.R. 3231 may be to encourage colleges and universities to increase
enrollments in the first and second year in order to obtain additional federal
support. Course enrollments at that level could be increased without in any way
strengthening third and fourth year enrollments. In my opinion, the more students
who complete the third and fourth year, the more likely it is that there will be a
larger population within the United States capable of controlling foreign languages.
Because it is the ability of people to effectively use languages that is the desired
outcome of the legislation, I would suggest that in calculating the five percent
enrollment in foreign languages, enrollments in the third and fourth year be count-
ed as one and a half times that of the first and second year. Thus, although foreign
language enrollments might not total five percent in a given institution, the addi-
tional value given to the third and fourth year programs could bring it up to that
five percent level. We submit that a wise policy would reward institutions more for
providing the third and fouth year instruction.
Three, on the whole the legislation will reward those institutions which are
already offering foreign language instruction, but it will not do very much (except
by encouraging a two-year foreign language requirement) to attract students into
foreign languages. The proposed rewards are more institutionally than student
directed. Consequently, I think that over the long run additional steps will be
necessary if foreign language enrollments are to be encouraged. One such step
would be a modest student scholarship program which would encourage students to
take less-commonly taught languages. A second step would be a program of direct
institutional support at the undergraduate level for initiating programs in less-
commonly taught languages. And a third, one which I would particularly support,
would be a program of regional language centers jointly staffed by a consortium or
an association of institutions. In the case of our colleges it is likely, given their size,
that each college individually can support at most one less-commonly taught lan-
guage and for smaller colleges, even that would be difficult. If, however, the colleges
could band together to offer summer and mid-year intensive instruction at the
undergraduate level in particular languages, with the students then continuing
throughout the academic year with some kind of a self-instructional maintenance
program, I think that we could attract more students into the less-commonly taught
languages. We could also then provide study abroad programs for students to
reinforce their formal instruction with experience in a host language culture.
I recognize that these final points go well beyond the initial steps which your bill
would take in encouraging foreign language instruction. Our associations do not
think it is necessary to add these additional programs immediately. We do want to
go on record as saying that a full national effort to increase foreign enrollments
should probably include them.
May I therefore return to my original comments: We are in full support of the
proposed legislation. We stand ready to assist you and members of the congress in
achieving the goals it so ably sets forth.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present this testimony.
ASSOCIATED COLLEGES OF THE MIDWEST
Beloit College, Beloit, Wis.; Carleton College, Northfield, Minn.; Coe College,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Cornell College,
Mount Vernon, Iowa; Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa; Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.;
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill,; Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.; Maca-
lester College, St. Paul, Minn.; Monmouth College; Monmouth, Ill.; Ripon College;
Ripon, Wis., and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
GREAT LAKES COLLEGES ASSOCIATION
Albin College, Albion, Mich.; Antioch University, Yellow Springs, Ohio; Denison
'University, Granville, Ohio; DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind,; Earlham College,
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166
Richmond, Ind., Hope College Holland, Mich,; Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo,
Mich.; Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio; Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; Ohio Wesley-
an University, Delaware, Ohio; Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind.; and The Col-
lege of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES B. NEFF, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATED
COLLEGES OF THE MIDWEST
Mr. NEFF. Thank you. I will try to abbreviate my testimony. I
hope I do not have to abbreviate it more than I intend to.
I am glad to be here representing the Associated Colleges of the
Midwest, which, as you have noted, is a consortium of 13 liberal
arts colleges located primarily in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Min-
nesota, and Wisconsin, with an additional college in Colorado.
With the permission of its leadership, I am also speaking on
behalf of the Great Lakes Colleges Administration, a similar con-
sortium of 12 liberal arts colleges located in the States of Ohio,
Michigan, and Indiana.
Collectively, these 25 liberal arts colleges have a student enroll-
ment of approximately 40,000 and a teaching staff of about 3,000
faculty. They range in size from about 600 to 3,000.
What makes our colleges perhaps a little different from some of
the others that have testified is that at times when foreign lan-
guages and international studies have declined and they have been
decreasing, we have managed to hold the line pretty well. I do not
think our record is by any means perfect.
But if the figure previously quoted by the chairman, Mr. Simon,
is correct, that only 8 percent of the colleges and universities in the
United States require a foreign language for graduation, we have
12 out of 25, or about 48 percent we calculate, doing some rather
crude calculations, what we think conservatively, that about 60
percent of all of our students will graduate with 2 years of foreign
language or something like its equivalent.
We also note-and I think this is a very encouraging thing-that
the number of double majors, people who are majoring in econom-
ics and language or political science and language, is very definite-
ly on the increase. I cite some of these things partly because I
think we have, the colleges like ours-we are not, of course,
unique; there are many more like them around the United States-
but maybe it is a source that is not being tapped enough by defense
and intelligence establishments, because at least a lot of people are
coming out with training in a lot of exotic languages, like Marati,
we have 20 students every year who spend half a year in Puna,
India, but prior to that time will have studied 3 months of Marati,
probably one of the few places in the country where undergrad-
uates can study such a language.
We also have quite extensive foreign-study programs, 15 pro-
grams are operated just in the associated colleges for the associ-
ation. We also have, in conjunction with the Great Lakes Colleges
Association, programs in Hong Kong, Japan, India, Costa Rica,
Colombia, England, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Africa. The member in-
stitutions operate foreign-study programs in about 107 different
sites.
We do think that we are contributing to the national pool of
resources. But we realize we have a long way to go, and we very
much support the intention in the provisions of the bill, because we
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think it will not only help institutions of our kind, but will very
definitely contribute to the national need.
I will not comment on the part of the bill that deals with elemen-
tary and secondary education, except to say the obvious: that to the
extent that students reach us with adequate training, it makes our
job of teaching them at the undergraduate level that much better.
I will make a couple of comments on the nature of the bill itself.
First of all, we think there is some difficulty, at least as the bill is
currently phrased, in that counting students enrolled in the for-
eign-language programs, it may have been an intent, of course, to
talk of course enrollments. That is a way to keep those statistics.
Furthermore, if you counted students, you run into the problem
that many students, especially those majoring in foreign languages,
are both registered in more than one foreign-language course in
the same semester, so they should be given credit for all of the
foreign languages that they are taking.
Second, we find that there is the general issue of quantity versus
quality. For the most part, students completing the second year of
foreign language are not fully proficient in that language. One of
the unintended consequences of H.R. 3231 may be to encourage
colleges and universities to increase enrollments in the first and
second year in order to obtain the additional support. Course en-
rollments at that level could be increased without in any way
strengthening third- and fourth-year enrollments.
We think perhaps that one way of dealing with this would be in
calculating the 5 percent of student enrollments of foreign lan-
guages to count enrollments in the third and fourth year as 11/2
times that of the first and second years, so that although an
institution might not have reached 5 percent, by giving extra credit
to the third and fourth year, you are also providing an institutional
incentive to teach at that level.
On the whole-and someone else said this earlier-we think the
legislation will tend to reward those institutions which are already
offering foreign-language instruction, but it will not do very much
to attract the students.
That is, it is one thing to say to an institution, "Here is $10 more
because you are teaching a student at a present level or because
you are teaching an exotic language," but that is not going to get
students in the courses. Students are likely to come either because
of interest in the language or there is some other kind of incentive.
So although we think this is a good start, we just want to
06 mention some other things that we think, in time, should be added
to the legislation in order to round out the whole picture.
One such step would be a modest student scholarship program
which would encourage students to take less-commonly taught lan-
guages. A second step would be a program of direct institutional
support at the undergraduate level for initiating programs in less-
commonly taught languages.
And the third, which we would particularly support, would be a
program of regional language centers jointly staffed by a consor-
tium or an association of institutions. For instance, in the case of
our colleges, it is likely, given their size, that each college individ-
ually can support at most one less-commonly taught language, and
for smaller colleges that would be difficult.
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If, however, the colleges could band together to offer summer
and mid-year intensive instruction at the undergraduate level in
particular languages, with the students then continuing through
the academic year with some kind of self-instructional mainte-
nance program, I think we could attract more students into the
less-commonly-taught languages. We could also then combine that
with an increase in our study-abroad programs for students to
reinforce their formal instructional experience in a host language
culture.
I realize these final points go well beyond the initial steps which
your bill would take in encouraging foreign language instruction.
Our associations do not think that is necessary to add these addi-
tional programs immediately, but we do want to go on record to
say that a full effort to increase foreign language enrollments
should be improved.
May I go back to my original comments. We are in full support
of the proposed legislation. We stand ready to assist you and Mem-
bers of the Congress in achieving the goals that it so ably sets
forth.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak.
Mr. ERDAHL. Thank you, Dr. Neff.
Thanks to all of you for some very specific suggestions.
I have made notes of these; for example, the one about whether
higher education includes junior and community college. My as-
sumption is it certainly does, and I would assume that is Mr.
Simon's intent as well.
Your suggestion about student scholarships, I think, Mr. Freitag,
you raised the question about should this apply to nonpublic
schools and some of the controversy that boils around that issue.
We appreciate that.
We also appreciate the very important support of groups like the
NEA and the AFL-CIO and the Midwest Colleges Association. I
think those things are significant.
As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, sometime ago I
met one of our-I think this was not very typical; I trust it was
not-the foreign people who had been in one of the-I will not
mention the country; maybe somebody could track down who it
was-but had been in our country for 3 years.
I talked to him about the language. And I remember his com-
ment was that he had not learned the language, because, "The
people with whom I deal speak English," which really kind of came
across to me as very arrogant. I wonder how that comes across to
the nationals of those very countries, if we have the attitude of the
people that we deal with, they are expected to speak English. I
would trust that many people that he should have dealt with did
not speak English.
I want to thank you so much again for being with us, and
especially all of you for your patience, and those in the audience
and some people working with the media who have survived the
several interruptions.
In looking at my schedule, I see that I am 30 minutes late for
being at a meeting, a national meeting of American Ukrainians. So
somebody who knows how to say "I am sorry" in Ukrainian can
tell me on the way out.
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Thank you very much. The meeting stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned.]
[Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO
H.R. 3231 is an appropriate and significant step in the direction of re-establishing
U.S. support for programs of foreign language study at all educational levels. It is
an effort to strengthen and to improve the U.S. position in the world vis-a-vis
business, foreign trade and academic excellence, and to further the national security
interests of our democratic government and its institutions. The American Feder-
ation of Teachers wishes to express its support for this proposed legislation and to
reassert its commitment to foreign language study as a vital part of a total school
curriculum.
Since the late 1960s, the nature of the political, social and economic interdepend-
ence of nations has changed drastically. As a result, the role and impact of interna-
tional events on most, if not all nations of the world, have received increasing
attention, particularly within the Western democracies. In the United States, for
example, the Congress itself has become even more involved in decisions relating to
International issues, since the early 1970s.
Greater international interdependence has significantly changed world power
relationships, and the need for the U.S. to take an active and directing role in these
changes has become apparent, if we are to maintain our own economic and political
well-being, as well as the security of our democratic system.
Unfortunately, at a time when the urgency of greater U.S. participation is foster-
ing international understanding, cooperation and maintenance of world peace is
evident, our efforts to augment our functional knowledge and our comprehension of
other cultures and languages have remained at a "static low." Public opinion on
foreign policy at times demonstrates a lack of multi-cultural awareness on the part
of the American people. Foreign language study provides an opportunity for a better
understanding of world cultures. The public perception of the declining status of the
U.S. as a world leader should and could be changed by a demonstration of federal
backing for relevant and substantive model foreign language programs at all aca-
demic levels.
During the course of other testimony, you will be made aware of important and
current statistics which highlight our present deplorable situation with respect to
foreign language study in our schools. This data and testimony will serve to recon-
firm the observations and conclusions of the Report of the President's Commission
on Foreign Language and International Studies, released in November 1979. As a
matter of fact, organized labor and the education communities at-large, and the
language teaching community in particular have recognized and have spoken up
about these deficiencies for several years now. H.R. 3231 gives the Congress the
opportunity to officially recognize the problem, to present and promote a plan of
action and to provide the necessary funds to ameliorate the situation.
Of course, it is true that there is tremendous concern both in Congress and in the
White House about increased federal spending. But there are ways that with limited
government spending and a concentration on the most effective method of allocating
that spending, significant results can be achieved at a low per-pupil cost. H.R. 3231,
by providing financial grants at all levels of instruction, will reach a large number
of students, will promote improved and expanded foreign language training and will
do so at a relatively low cost.
While registering our support for passage of H.R. 3231, we would also point out
our concern in one particular area.
In the language of the bill itself, the purpose of Section 2 is to provide funds for
the "improvement and expansion of foreign language study for students residing
within their school districts." However, if improvement and expansion are to occur,
it is imperative that monies ultimately granted to the local education agencies be
used not to supplant funds already being allocated to foreign language instruction,
but to supplement existing funds so that programs will get better and so that
enrollment will increase. We would be glad to provide the Committee with the
language that we feel would address that concern. It could best be included either in
Section 1 or in Section 5.
Finally, we would like the Committee to consider the following brief points as
relevant to the effective implementation of H.R. 3231.
While support of higher education programs is needed, it is the K-12 students
who represent a true cross-section of the population and it is to this larger, signifi-
cant cross-section that funds should be directed. We feel that a larger portion of the
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allocation of H.R. 3231 should be dedicated to secondary programs in Section 2 of
this legislation.
In order to motivate and to create respect for the study of language, it would
seem that a larger proportion of the entire teaching population should be consid-
ered. It would be useful and appropriate to offer language training services for
teachers for personal or professional use, in conjunction with ongoing teacher train-
ing programs, international exchange and professional exchange programs. This
would encourage teacher interest that would ultimately transfer to student interest.
For the benefit of greater effective program continuity, articulation between
secondary and higher education institutions should be encouraged. This would
ensure that federal funds spent would have a longer term effect on the development
of foreign language proficiency.
For the purpose of clarity, there should be some suggestions as to what factors
might be considered as elements of "model" programs, so that state and local
education agencies would have some idea of federal intent.
We are also submitting to the subcommittee a copy of the AFT's resolution on
"Foreign Languages and International Studies."
Thank you for the opportunity to present our ideas and suggestions in regard to
this proposed legislation. We would be pleased to answer any further questions that
you may have.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Whereas, recent events on the domestic and international scene have dramatized
the increasing number of problems Americans face in coping with international
developments and the impact of these events on domestic issues, and
Whereas, the report of the President's Commission on Foreign Languages and
international studies, significantly entitled Strength Through Wisdom: a critique of
U.S. capability, refers to America's incompetence in foreign languages as "nothing
short of scandalous". and further states that "nothing less is at issue than the
nation's security," and
Whereas, there has been a dramatic decline in the study of foreign languages in
this country and a disproportionate reduction in the number of foreign language
teachers as compared to other disciplines during the past ten years, and
Whereas, the overwhelming majority of the world's population neither under-
stands nor speaks English, and
Whereas, the United States must develop a first class apparatus to cope with this
fact in business, industry, trade, politics, scientific research and general communica-
tion, and
Whereas, the loss of jobs requiring foreign language skills to non-citizens has been
significant because leaders in politics, industry and commerce have found it increas-
ingly difficult to recruit qualified American citizens, and
Whereas, present and future generations of Americans should be given the oppor-
tunity to develop to the fullest extent possible their intellectual and communica-
tions capacities in all areas of knowledge pertaining to other countries, languages,
peoples and cultures, and to reinforce basic communications skills of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing, and
Whereas, a concentration on language and international studies can help to
improve the quality of our school's curricula by addressing the public's demand for
rigor and competency and by exposing young people and future citizens to our basic
values of democracy and human rights;
Resolved, that the AFT support legislation that would:
1. Offer federal assistance to school systems to help build and maintain language
instruction and international studies programs.
2. Support the expansion of teacher exchange programs that would allow both
language teachers and other teachers to study and teach abroad.
3. Provide specific support for the education of American workers in world affairs.
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE IMPROVE-
MENT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1981
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION,
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,
New Haven, Conn.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, in Lyman Auditorium
of Southern Connecticut State College, at 10 a.m., Hon. Paul Simon
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Simon, Coleman, and DeNar-
dis.
Staff present: Marilyn McAdam, staff assistant; and Jennifer
Vance, minority senior legislative associate.
Mr. SIMON. The Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education will
come to order.
The Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education is delighted to be
in New Haven, Conn., today for this hearing.
[Opening statement of Congressman Paul Simon follows:]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL SIMON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Today we will be discussing a little known but very real threat to our national
security and our economic health. It is a nationwide-wide shortage that hasn't
received as much publicity as our energy situation but, similarly, it hurts our
economy and affects our ability to function in today's world.
The shortage I am talking about is our national deficiency in foreign language
skills. Fewer than 4 percent of our public high school graduates have more than two
years of foreign language study, and I might add this has declined. We are the only
country where someone can graduate from college, even get a Ph. D., without
having a single year of instruction in a foreign language.
As a result of this language shortage, we are losing potential markets and poten-
tial diplomatic friends at a time when we need them most. We compete with the
Soviet Union for influence with developing nations; and we compete with Japan,
Germany and the major exporting nations for markets all over the globe. But
because of our language deficiencies we are going to bat against these countries
with one hand tied behind our back.
During the subcommittee's recent trip to the Soviet Union and West Germany,
? our delegation relied almost exclusively on the translation and interpretations of
the Soviets to conduct high level policy discussions. We rarely enjoyed the services
of a U.S. interpreter.
The Department of Defense has more than 488,000 active duty military personnel
stationed overseas, but only 314 persons, less than one-tenth on one percent, were
classified by the military as linguists last year.
Admiral Bobby Inman, Deputy Director of the C.I.A., told our subcommittee in
July that deteriorating U.S. language capabilities "are presenting a major hazard to
our national security".
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Our schools are not turning out graduates proficient in the languages of develop-
ing nations, and the Federal Government is not doing enough to encourage schools
to offer comprehensive language programs.
The bill that is the focus of these hearings, H.R. 3231, would help elementary and
secondary school districts to establish model foreign language programs and would
provide foreign language grants to colleges and universities.
Today, and on October 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina, we will be hearing from
representatives of the academic community and international business experts on
this vital topic. It is my hope that their testimony will awaken Americans to our
real security needs.
Mr. SIMON. We now will go to the second portion of our testimo-
ny here today and that is on the foreign language area. Today we
will be discussing a little known but very real threat to our nation-
al security and our economic health. It is a nationwide shortage
that hasn t received as much publicity as our energy situation but,
similarly, it hurts our economy and affects our ability to function
in today's world.
The shortage I am talking about is our national deficiency in
foreign language skills. Fewer than 4 percent of our public high
school graduates have more than 2 years of foreign language study,
and I might add this has declined. We are the only country where
someone can graduate from college, even get a Ph. D., without
having a single year of instruction in a foreign language.
As a result of this language shortage, we are losing potential
markets and potential diplomatic friends at a time when we need
them most. We compete with the Soviet Union for influence with
developing nations; and we compete with Japan, Germany, and the
major exporting nations for all markets all over the globe. But
because of our language deficiencies we are going to bat against
these countries with one hand tied behind our back.
During the subcommittee's recent trip to the Soviet Union and
West Germany, our delegation relied almost exclusively on the
translation and interpretations of the Soviets to conduct high level
policy discussions. We rarely enjoyed the services of a U.S. inter-
preter.
The Department of Defense has more than 488,000 active duty
military personnel stationed overseas, but only 314 persons, less
than one-tenth of 1 percent, were classified by the military as
linguists last year.
Admiral Bobby Inman, Deputy Director of the CIA, told our
subcommittee in July that deteriorating U.S. language capabilities
"are presenting a major hazard to our national security."
Our schools are not turning out graduates proficient in the lan-
guages of developing nations, and the Federal Government is not
doing enough to encourage schools to offer comprehensive language
programs.
The bill that is the focus of these hearings, H.R. 3231, would help
elementary and secondary school districts to establish model for-
eign language programs and would provide foreign language grants
to colleges and universities.
Today we will be hearing from representatives of the academic
community an international business experts on this vital topic. It
is my hope that their testimony will awaken Americans to our real
security needs.
Our first witness today is Mr. William M. Derrick, who is a
pioneer in the immersion system. It is a pleasure to welcome
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William Derrick, who is associated with St. John's School in Platts-
burgh, N.Y., but who is a national figure in the foreign language
field who has been pioneering in the field of immersion, which is
much more on the scene in Canada and some other countries than
it is in the United States, but through Mr. Derrick's leadership
may become much more a part of the scene here.
We will enter your full statement in the record and if you can
summarize your statement here today that would be appreciated.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM DERRICK, EARLY LANGUAGE
IMMERSION TEACHER, ST. JOHN'S SCHOOL, PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.
Mr. DERRICK. First I would like to express the customary appre-
ciation for the opportunity to be here and my statement does carry
the message that I wish to put across to your committee.
As much as possible, rather than talk about language immersion,
I had in mind today, if I can get enough of you over there to play a
game with me, to demonstrate it to you, I would like to do that. Do
any of you speak German on that side of the table?
Mr. SIMON. I speak a little.
Mr. DERRICK. Then that might make you an unfair contestant in
my little game.
I have to come across the table, and since there are not many
people here to listen to me, I have not spoken German for about 18
years but I would like to do this because it does demonstrate the
efficacy of the whole concept, if that is agreeable with you.
Mr. SIMON. This is agreeable and I do not know how we are
going to work this out with the record. We will have to adjust the
record.
Mr. DERRICK. If you can imagine that I am a lovely young
woman teaching kindergarten and you are kindergarten students,
and since I use the familiar form of German better than I do this
formal form, I will treat you as kindergarten students and speak to
you in the informal fashion, if that is agreeable.
Mr. SIMON. Our colleagues are returning shortly but we will tell
them about this.
[Mr. Derrick then gave a demonstration of the applicability of
certain German words to objects which he held in his hand.]
Mr. DERRICK. That is a demonstration. That is having the teach-
ers come into the classroom each day, introducing one little vari-
ation or a larger or different variation on the theme, and every day
the kids pick it up and sooner or later they are understanding all
of the things that they say.
The teacher is not teaching the language, the teacher is teaching
about yellow round forms, triangles, and squares and she is teach-
ing the subject matter, which happens to be speaking a different
language. That is the only difference. You are learning in the
language about things, about letters, and about history and about
numbers, and you are not learning the language.
That is the essential, key part of early language immersion.
I would like to read one paragraph and this is on page 5 of my
statement.
Since ELI is both subtle and sophisticated, it is difficult for even
the most imaginative to grasp. Seeing is believing, as Chairman
Simon can attest after visiting ELI classes in Silver Spring, Md.,
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Four Corners Elementary School. Therefore, I will depart from the
usual format to make an ELI demonstration as the main part of
my 5-minute presentation.
I think the most revealing testimony comes from the kids, from
those who received the instruction in this way.
In Silver Spring a young person was asked what she liked best
about French immersion and she seemed unmindful of French, and
her answer was, "math and science," and no reference to learning
a language.
I would be happy to receive questions if you have them and I am
sorry that I introduced myself as a good-looking kindergarten
teacher and that you have to remember, too, teacher is smiling and
having a good time and the language she used becomes unimpor-
tant.
[The prepared statement of William M. Derrick follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM M. DERRICK, TEACHER AND CONSULTANT ON
EARLY LANGUAGE IMMERSION
First, Mr. Chairman and other members of the subcommittee, I wish to express
thanks on behalf of all practitioners of elementary language instruction for this
opportunity to present information on the nationally neglected sphere of elemen-
tary language learning. As an informal spokesperson for my colleagues, I wish also
to express appreciation to you, Mr. Simon, as chairman, and to your other insightful
Congressional colleagues, for the leadership exerted via the Presidential Commis-
sion, the fine statement of our national linguistic inadequacy in "The Tongue Tied
American," and the sponsorship of H.R. 3231.
The deterioratiated state of American language learning and its negative impact
on our business, diplomatic, military and academic affairs has already been well
documented before this subcommittee and elsewhere. I wish to present the strongest
possible thrust for American foreign language competence and leave you with a
sense of renewed optimism. My comments will be directed to elementary school
language learning programs with specific emphasis on Early Language Immersion
(ELI).
I am an elementary teacher who went to Germany in 1954 to teach American
military children in English. As a monolingual Nebraskan, living abroad was a
mind boggling experience which broadened cultural perspectives and provided an
opportunity to learn, with great difficulty, a first foreign language. Upon returning
to the USA for graduate work in 1963, I entered university administration where
possibilities to support existing international study programs and to initiate new
ones existed. At the State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA) I organized
and conducted an innovative nine (9) week program of intensive summer language
learning for entering freshmen. In 1969, the program total cost was $750 for France,
Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, while the Canadian (Quebec) and Puerto Rican
components were $500 per student-quite a contrast to costs today! In 1976 at
SUNY/Plattsburgh, I started the French Language Immersion Program for pupils
in the campus laboratory school. This experience brought me into contact with the
several other U.S. immersion programs as well as the extensive practice and re-
search of ELI in Canada, only 25 miles from Plattsburgh. In the last four years, I
have acted as a coordinator of U.S. ELI practitioners. It is as a spokesperson for our
small group of ELI "converts" that I make this statement today.
In keeping with format suggested by you, Mr. Chairman, my first remarks focus
on language learning shortfall in a theoretically ideal setting. For nine years in the
dependent schools, I observed in my elementary classroom well trained teachers
enthusiastically teaching their mother tongue 30 minutes per day for five days each
week. The instruction was a typical Foreign Language in elementary School (FLES)
format commonly practiced in the U.S. at that time. In spite of the efforts of gifted
native speakers, FLES programs were not making bilinguals of our children. The
only students who learned more German in school were those who lived outside the
American housing area (ghetto) and played with non-English speaking children.
It should be noted that as dependent schools faced budget constraints, policy
decisions were made to reduce operational costs by eliminating or reducing elemen-
tary language instruction. This decision making was based on pragmatic and cultur-
al values, i.e., the FLES programs did not produce adequate results and foreign
language study was one of the unnecessary frills.
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The shortfall of American high school and college language teaching is already
well documented and needs no further illustration here. My specific concern is to
follow-up the frequent recommendations of Presidential Commission members, such
as Hechinger, Rassias and Reischauer, who urged that language learning begin as
early as possible in elementary schools.
Second, the national interest in strategic and economic benefits of able bilinguals
in abundance in our society is inestimable. We have the ability to prepare in public
as well as private schools large numbers of graduates of various abilities ready to
function fully in two languages. The strategic and economic impact of having many
such students entering our academic, diplomatic, military, and business communi-
ties is awesome to contemplate. In testimony before this Subcommittee last July 15
and 16, it was stated that a 44 week government language course costs $10,000.
Rough calculations for salary and additional living or moving expenses make the
real cost more like $30,000 to our government. My confident contention today is
that we can prepare functionally bilingual high school graduates at no added cost
and with great enhancement of our public school system. This can and is being done
on a miniscule scale in language immersion classrooms in several elementary
schools of various social characteristics across our country. In these schools they are
practicing what was recommended during the Presidential Commission delibera-
tions. The general agreement that it is easier to acquire language at an early age is
patently ignored in our national priorities and practice. I see this state of affairs as
a tragic miscalibration between the successful scientific experience (research) and
the impression that Americans are poor learners of other languages. Further, it is a
sad commentary on our ability as a society to put into practice what we can
demonstrate as beneficial and "do-able" at little or no additional cost.
The legislation under consideration here today would provide support through
state departments of education to pilot school programs. Such fiscal support would
negate the most common reason for not sponsoring new programs. It would make
possible the initiation of ELI and other elementary programs across our country.
Such elementary program development and demonstration is needed to regain
linguistic confidence and to begin the real business of educating young Americans to
accent-free foreign language competence.
Since ELI is both subtle and sophisticated, it is difficult for even the most
imaginative to grasp. Seeing is believing as Chairman Simon can attest after visit-
ing ELI classes in Silver Spring, Maryland, Four Corners Elementary School. There-
fore, I will depart from the usual format to make an ELI demonstration as the main
part of my five minute presentation.
[Demonstration.]
The novel concept of ELI presents startling contrasts and reliable outcomes which
force us to rethink our customary approaches to language learning or teaching.
First, in ELI programs, the second (new) language becomes the MEDIUM of instruc-
tion and is not the OBJECT of instruction. French, Polish, or whatever language of
interest or value in the local community becomes the language of instruction for the
first three years (K-2). In order for a new kindergarten pupil to have fun with the
other kids or with the friendly lady or man (teacher) who presents all the interest-
ing games, stories, and fingerpaint, it becomes necessary to listen more carefully
and to catch on to what is said in place of "red ball," "make a circle," "it's time for
our snacks," or "who wants to change the calendar?" This method confirms the
feelings of many adults who know they never achieved effective use of another
language until or unless their job or travel made it a useful and essential means of
communication.
This practice may seem more than novel or innovative. It may seem radical and
revolutionary. A privileged few in America have always had their chances of board-
ing schools abroad, junior years abroad, etc. The originators of the immersion
methods in Canada are actually U.S. citizens, Lambert and Tucker, who happened
to be professors and researchers in a Canadian setting where language competence
is a salient feature of daily life. They see immersion as a new development in
American education.
The immersion is widely practiced across Canada. The English population has
institutionalized second language learning in locally relevant languages, e.g.,
German and Ukranian in Alberta Province or French and Hebrew in sections of
Montreal.
The extensive research conducted over a 15 year period in Canada reveals that
children educated for the first three years exclusively in some other language, who
are then given formal English (i.e., their only home language) instruction on an
increasing scale (80 percent French/20 percent English at grade three; 60 percent/
40 percent grades four and five; and 50 percent/50 percent in sixth grade) develop
firm competencies in both English and French). They may be tested in either
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language on math, science, or social studies with results that are always as good if
not better then matched groups of students whose training was conducted exclusive-
ly in English. Psychometric testing further exclusively finds that the ELI bilingual
students achieve higher levels of linguistic flexibility and ideational fluency. This
means that they use words in each of their languages with greater ease and skill
than the monolingually educated children do. The U.S. results, although not as
mature since we started later, are equally reassuring from across our country about
achievement in the early school years. For instance, in Milwaukee where 40 percent
of the enrollment must be inner-city "disadvantaged" children, their standardized
testing is most convincing. It shows that children in the Multi Language School
(now offering ELI in French, German, and Spanish) score reassuringly higher. (See
Mr. Grittner's letter to Wallace Lambert, Appendix I.)
ELI has great potential. It is no longer experimental, costs no more than regular
classrooms, enhances English achievement, puts in place for life a second language
capability and adds a whole new dimension of personal growth and power for our
young people. It offers students a new linguistic skill which can have direct applica-
tion in further study or work and provides the basis for easier acquisition of a third
language when required by vocational needs. The concept is effective but not well
known. It needs the pilot program exposure that HR 3231 would provide.
In conclusion, a comment from "Education, USA", December 1, 1980, about Four
Corners' program makes the best illustration of ELI's efficacy and practicality.
When a student was asked what she liked best about the French program, she
seemed unmindful of French. "Math and science," she replied.
Appendix: Since ELI is not well known in the U.S., several letters are presented
by persons who are acquainted with the concept and its application.
Letters from:
A. Beverly and Gary Cross, parents;
B. Melissa W. Davis, parent;
C. Carole and Robert Harsh, parents;
D. Helene Z. Loew, language educator;
E. W. R. McGillivray, language program administrator;
F. G. Richard Tucker, linguistic researcher;
G. Ronald B. Stafford, New York State Senator;
H. Dale Nitzschke, university administrator;
I. Frank M. Grittner, language program administrator;
J. Paul Simon, U.S. Congressman;
K. Thomas M. Hines, language professor;
L. S. Frederick Starr, university administrator.
PLATrSBURGH, N.Y., September 23, 1981.
To Whom It May Concern:
Our two children are presently enrolled in an innovative language program called
FLIP-the French Language Immersion Program-which was developed here at
State University College at Plattsburgh's Campus School. My nine year old daugh-
ter, Mandy, began the program at age 5 and my son, Brian, began at the nursery
level (age 4) last year. From the first day of involvement, all communication and
instruction are done as in any American classroom except French, rather than
English, is used with the children throughout the school day.
The program itself is so fantastic-people are repeatedly amazed and intimidated
by the talents demonstrated by these children enrolled in the program. Without
question these children are bilingual. People who have studied French as a lan-
guage for several years are perplexed to see a six or seven year old child have a
command of the language that they as yet have been unable to achieve.
Most of the experiences I have had as a parent have been with Mandy. Platts-
burgh's geographic location has provided an interesting setting for many experi-
ences-it started with her eavesdropping in shopping centers on conversations be-
tween Montreal/Quebecois shoppers. One day I came home from work to find
Mandy at a new neighbor's house-when I went to retrieve her for supper I found
this lady was originally from Paris-she was delighted to find someone, even a
child, to speak with. I had a hard time explaining that Mandy had never been in
France. Many delightful conversations have since taken place to the satisfaction to
both.
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have a marina on Lake Champlain and many
of their customers are from the Montreal area. On several occasions my children
have spent afternoons on the beach happily playing and swimming with Quebecois
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children unable to speak a word of English. Different times her Uncle George has
scooped Mandy up into conversations with Canadian customers to help translate
what his limited vocabulary could not.
The interesting aspect of these experiences is that the Canadian French is a
dialect or a version of the language learned by these children. Our children in
speaking with Canadian children must in turn adapt their knowledge of Parisian
French to the Canadian vocabulary and pronunciation.
Mandy, as a 3rd grade student last year, for the first time received instruction via
English, for approximately one hour each day. At the end of the school year she
took the Metropolitan Achievement Test and scored well above her grade level:
Reading, grade equivalent-7.4, 90th percentile, 8th stanine; Math, grade equiva-
lent-5.5, 84th percentile, 7th stanine; Language, grade equivalent-5.1, 71st percen-
tile, 6th stanine. Her basic battery was-grade equivalent 6.0, 86th percentile, 7th
stanine.
In February last year she and her classmates participated in an exchange pro-
gram with the Notre Dame de Pitie in Quebec City. The children went for a week
and stayed with individual host families and participated in their daily school
program and went on several field trips with their hosting children. They in turn
came to Plattsburgh for a week and stayed with us. Our children found that the
families they stayed with spoke absolutely no English so therefore everything said
was said in French/Quebecois. It was hilarious to find my daughter upon returning
speaking to me in French about events that took place and not remembering which
language she was speaking in-she knows I speak narry a word of French. I was one
of the parents that drove to Montreal to meet the kids at the train station and
believe me all the kids were doing just this same thing.
When our turn came to host a child, I soon learned what it was like to care for a
child and not be able to communicate with her. Mandy was constantly on call for
that entire week because our guest really did not speak a word of English. Our son
Brian, who then was only in the program about six months decided that he could
use his French too-and proceeded to count to oblivion with her whenever a free
moment occurred during the day. It was a beautiful experience and much growing
took place during that exchange and we are looking to doing it again this spring.
Unfortunately for us, our program here at Plattsburgh is ending with this school
year. Budget cuts in New York State are affecting all of us and the entire campus
school program will close in June 1982.
The opportunities and talents developed within these children have been given to
these children and will stay with them-this gift of language cannot be taken away.
I am envious of and in awe of the implications and choices available to them as
adults. The education system in this country and all its short-cominfs has been
under fire for the past three decades. Parents feel that their children s needs are
not being met and when graduating from high school are not ready for the commer-
cial/professional/collegiate world. The ease with which this program was developed
and implemented and its all too obvious results (without even allowing for any long-
term implications) are astounding. This is the way to educate. There is no question
of its validity.
Sincerely,
GARY W. CROSS.
BEVERLY B. CROSS.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a firm advocate of early foreign language immersion exemplified by the
Campus School model (FLIP, Margaret M. Sibley School of Educational Research
and Development, SUNY at Plattsburgh) as the most efficient and natural way to
achieve second language proficiency. As a graduate of Georgetown University's
School of Languages and Linguistics with a degree in Applied Linguistics and
graduate work in Theoretical Linguistics, I have more than a passing interest in
language acquisition. I suppose I can be accused of using my children as "native
informants" in my field work, but the results have been positive and are worth
reviewing.
My nine year-old began his schooling in the French Language Immersion Pro-
gram at five years old, and my seven and five year-olds began at four. The older two
are functionally bilingual, that is, they could survive handily in a French-speaking
environment making themselves understood and understanding others. They read
French and English; they initiate conversations in French and respond in that
language spontaneously. The youngest has only had one year of half-days and
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cannot converse in French, although she has a large working vocabulary including
numbers, letters, and the names for the trappings of her daily life.
I would estimate that the rate of second language acquisition mirrors that of my
children's primary language acquisition, but that their level is three years behind
that of their French peers.
The argument is sometimes proferred that foreign language immersion is not
suitable for all children and no doubt there are statistics to support this. I would
guess that few children fail to learn their native language and those few generally
have diagnosable disabilities. I suggest that most children can easily acquire a
second language in this natural way. My two bilingual children are as different in
temperament, docility and personality as hand-picked laboratory test animals. Yet
both are phonetically and grammatically at home with a language that will always
be foreign to me-and I have studied it for years, in high school and college, in the
United States, France and Switzerland.
Not one of my children, or the others who have commuted forty miles each way
with us, has shown any resistance to the introduction of arithmetic, reading, science
or dodge ball in another language. An individual's range of acceptance is a lot
broader at four than at fourteen. Comprehension dawns incredibly early in the first
year and is clearly observable in the classroom.
I cannot attest to the durability of this early learning as my native informants
are still so closely allied with it. But I have had the satisfaction of watching my
oldest child continue to read and speak French although he has not been in the
program for a year. My own conclusion is that just as you don't lose your first
language as long as it continues to represent an effective means of communication,
so you will not lose any other in which you are comfortable.
Sincerely, MELISSA W. DAVIS.
ELIZABETHTOWN SOCIAL CENTER, INC.,
Elizabethtown, N. Y., September 17, 1981.
To Whom It May Concern:
Our seven-year-old son, Aaron, is now in second grade at the Campus School in
Plattsburgh. During the summer while on a phone conversation with his grandpar-
ents, he began answering their questions in French. Not long ago, when I went to
check on him in the night, he began talking in his sleep-in French. Having
completed two years of the FLIP (French Language Immersion Program) at Campus
School, Aaron and his classmates can carry on intelligent conversations in their
second language. Their accents are very good and they speak and understand
French easily.
When compared with traditional methods of language instruction which allot an
isolated 45 minutes to an hour of each day to "teaching a foreign language", the
FLIP method has all the advantages. Children hear only French while in class-all
day, five days each week. They learn their second language as they learned their
first, by imitation and repetition, by seeing the objects referred to, by watching
explanatory gestures, and by songs and games. Instead of learning a list of vocabu-
lary words, they learn phrases and soon sentences-by hearing the language. They
learn correct pronunciation and grammatical structures by imitating and repeating
what they hear. The children learn to read first in their second language and
reading skills for many children transfer easily back to English. Aaron has not had
any classroom instruction in reading English but reads easily on the same level
with or better than his contemporaries in English-speaking schools.
As parents, we are delighted with the FLIP experience and are hopeful that
Aaron s younger sister will also have the opportunity to participate in FLIP when
she begins school next year.
Sincerely, CAROL AND ROBERT HARSH.
NORTHEAST CONFERENCE ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,
Albany, N. Y, September 18, 1981.
Dr. WILLIAM DERRICK,
Peru, N. Y.
DEAR BILL: I write to you in support of your efforts to promote Early Language
Immersion Programs (ELI).
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As you are aware, my personal enthusiasm for ELI began with that initial visit to
the Campus School at Plattsburgh in 1977 and grew as I observed the Four Corners
Elementary School (Md), Milwaukee City Schools, San Diego and Halliston (Mass).
Then I was an Associate in the Bureau of Foreign Languages Education in the New
York State Education Department. Today, I am Supervisor of the Resource Alloca-
tion Plan, a priority program established by the Board of Regents to coordinate the
delivery of Department services and resources leading to the improvement of pupil
performance in the basic skills. ELI is an excellent example of how a school can
reallocate its shrinking resources and double its dollar at the same time; the
efficient use of learning time in offering content and skills in another language.
Research has shown that children who have learned a second language do demon-
strate added competence in English or native language communication skills.
As a language educator and Chairman of the 1981 Northeast Conference on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages, I heartily endorse the passage of H.R. 3231 and
especially any provision thereof which supports the early language immersion ap-
proach.
My best wishes to you in your testimony at the Hartford hearings on the Simon
bill.
Cordially,
HELENE Z. LOEW,
1981 Conference Chairman.
THE CARELTON BOARD OF EDUCATION,
Nepean, Ontario, September 9, 1981.
Mr. WILLIAM DERRICK,
St. John's Central School,
Plattsburgh, N. Y.
DEAR BILL: I received your letter of August 31 today, and I hasten to answer. I
attach my opinions on Language Immersion as a Method of teaching a second
language and a brief curriculum vitae. I hope that they arrive in time and that they
will be useful.
Sincerely,
W. R. MCGILLIVRAY,
Superintendent of Program.
[Extract selected from Mr. McGillivray's report: "In 1981-82 this board (school
district) has over 6,000 pupils in French Immersion from kindergarten to grade 11.
Since 1978, approximately 40% of kindergarten children have been enrolled in the
immersion program. * * * Parents are interested when they understand the bene-
fits for their children, both vocational and educational. In fact, in Canada, parents,
not educators, started immersion and have forced its expansion. ' * * As one who
has watched the development of ELI and seen its phenomenal success, I must admit
to being completely convinced that it is the best way, in a school setting, to teach
and learn a second language. The immersion principle, that learning in a second
language is more effective than simply learning a second language, is supported by
so much evidence, that it is unassailable. * * * Perhaps because we Canadians have
always turned to Americans for our models in so many educational innovations, I
offer, in return, the experience and expertise of Canadian educators to advise and
assist in the establishment of immersion if it becomes a widely used appraoch to
foreign language teaching."]
CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS,
Washington, D.C., September 8, 1981.
Mr. WILLIAM DERRICK,
St. Johns Central School,
Plattsburgh, N. Y.
DEAR BILL: I enclose, for your information, a copy of a statement which Tracy
Gray and I prepared for the transition team leading to the formation of the then-
new Department of Education concerning language education issues. In it, we stress
the importance of encouraging a variety of approaches to innovative language
education for all children so that each youngster attending school in the United
States will have the opportunity to become bilingual. In some cases, this would take
the form of adding a second language to English the mother tongue; while in other
cases, this would take the form of sustaining or nurturing the mother tongue and
adding a solid foundation in English as well.
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Inasmuch as we have prepared this statement some time ago, I offer it to you for
use in any way that seems appropriate to buttress the arguments that you would
like to make. In addition, I enclose a copy of testimony by Tracy C. Gray, Director of
our Office of Language and Public Policy, at an earlier version of Paul Simon's
hearings. I hope the views are complementary.
Lastly, as your requested I enclose a recent copy of my CV. I certainly do
encourage and support your efforts on behalf of early language immersion. With
best regards.
Sincerely yours,
THE SENATE, STATE OF NEW YORK,
Albany, September 4, 1981.
Dr. WILLIAM DERRICK,
Peru, N. Y.
DEAR BILL: As you know, Jan and I have been very interested in having our
children enjoy the opportunity of an early language immersion program. You are,
indeed, to be commended for the program which you established at the Campus
School at the State University College of Plattsburgh.
This program has provided an excellent alternative for students in our area.
Everyone I talk with including parents, professionals, students, who have come in
contract with the program have praised your work and the results of the program.
Looking at the program from an economic standpoint, must also be considered. In
areas like Upstate New York, anyone who can speak, for instance, French has a leg
up as far as employment opportunities are concerned. When we have citizens who
can speak this language, it improves our image and makes people from other
countries want to shop and contribute to our economy.
Also, of course, as we have discussed, it does not cost more to have an early-grade
program in another language. In that way, the young student learns a language
and, when he is older, is fluent in that particular discipline. Then, we are not
having the increased cost of another language being taught at the secondary level
or, as a matter of fact, at the post high school level, which is very expensive.
I am, of course, just writing as a citizen who would like to see these programs
continued and increased. We in America should be very proud of our country, and I
know you and I are. However, I always feel very ignorant when I am in another
country or another continent and only speak English-I can't be more frank than
that. As a matter of fact, on September 20, 1981, 1 will be appearing as one of the
five delegates from Lake Placid before the International Olympic Congress. My only
language is English, and it is just so unfortunate that many of us did not learn
French, Spanish or some other language when we were in our early years.
Frankly, I think this is also very good for world understanding and appreciation.
As you know, this is one of my main priorities, and I've so stated it publicly and to
all of those who will listen.
You may rest assured of my continued, utmost support and cooperation in any
way to make sure that we are able to provide these opportunities to the youth of
our state and nation.
Most sincerely,
RONALD B. STAFFORD.
UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS,
Las Vegas, Nev.. September 3, 1,481.
Dr. WILLIAM DERRICK,
Peru, N. Y.
DEAR DR. DERRICK: I was most pleased to learn that you will have an opportunity
to testify before the Subcommittee hearing testimony on the language questions and
H.R. 3231. 1 know firsthand of your long and distinguished career in furthering this
country's ability to be competitive through the essential acquisition of language
learnings. Your efforts in initiating programs in Early Language Immersion (ELI)
are the most significant in terms of the potential impact toward improving this
nation's ability to survive and perhaps even, once again, excel!
As you know, we have requested your assistance here at UNLV in our efforts to
establish a National Center for the Study of Early Language Immersion. In addi-
tion, and again with your support, we are forging ahead toward implementation of a
foreign language requirement for all students entering UNLV.
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We have an internationally known College of Hotel Administration at UNLV.
You would be amazed at how our students, who major in this area and who have a
foreign language competency, are sought after. They are the prime candidates of the
best and highest paying positions.
I sincerely hope you and your colleagues are successful in your attempts to
convince our legislators how critical our needs are in this regard. I feel as though
"Sputnik" paled by comparison!
Sincerely,
DALE NITZSCHKE,
Vice President for Academic Affairs.
THE STATE OF WISCONSIN,
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
Madison, Wis., August 25, 1981.
WALLACE LAMBERT,
Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University,
Montreal, PQ Canada.
DEAR WALLY: I have not forgotten your small request. I have been holding off
pending a visit to the Milwaukee Immersion Program to get some more formal
updated information. Since I have had to postpone my trip to Milwaukee, I will send
you the information as I now have it. These scores reflect children who were taught
only in the foreign language for three years. It is an immersion program aimed at
producing desegregation. Therefore, 40 percent of the students are black. Very few
of the students are German ethnics. When I have some better data, I will send you
an update.
Hope all is going well. Hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,
FRANK M. GRIrrNER, Supervisor,
Second Language Education.
MILWAUKEE-THIRD GRADERS IN THE GERMAN IMMERSION SCHOOL
[Appears below as 68th Street School]
METROPOLITAN ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES, 1978
Reading Scores [In Percent]
United States ...................................................................................................................................... 23 54 23
Milwaukee ............................................................................................................................................ 15 55 30
68th Street School ............................................................................................................................... 38 62 0
Summary: 100% in average to above range.
Mathematics Scores [In Percent]
United States ....................................................................................................................................... 23 54 23
Milwaukee ............................................................................................................................................ 16 55 29
68th Street School ............................................................................................................................... 15 77 8
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CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Washington, D.C., July 6, 1979.
WILLIAM M. DERRICK,
Director, Comprehensive Educational Center,
State University College,
Plattsburgh, N. Y.
DEAR BILL: Thanks for sending me the article on early immersion success. I think
it is assumed by both the profession and those outside, but it is good to have solid
evidence.
My best wishes.
Cordially,
PAUL SIMON,
U.S. Congressman.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN BIRMINGHAM,
Birmingham, Ala., January 17, 1979.
Prof. WILLIAM DERRICK,
Director, Comprehensive Educational Center,
State University of New York,
Plattsburgh, N. Y.
DEAR PROFESSOR DERRICK: Please accept my belated but sincere thanks for the off-
prints you forwarded to me in response to my article in The Chronicle. The reaction
to my essay has been, for the most part, very gratifying. Your total immersion
program, based in part on the Canadian model, would be the ideal solution to
monolingualism-but, as you also point out, local school boards are very reluctant
to support continuous language instruction in the elementary schools. In Alabama,
languages are now being dropped from high-school curricula under the guise of
financial pragmatism. It defies even the most cost-conscious imagination. One of the
reasons why I wrote the article!
In spite of it all, I remain (relatively) optimistic and will continue to man the
barricades against parochialism in linguistic matters.
Cordially,
THOMAS M. HINES,
Assistant Professor of French.
THE WILSON CENTER,
KENNAN INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED RUSSIAN STUDIES,
Washington, D.C., June 12, 1978.
Mr. WILLIAM M. DERRICK,
Comprehensive Educational Center,
State University of New York,
Plattsburgh, N. Y.
DEAR MR. DERRICK: I am most grateful for your thoughtful letter on immersion
language learning. It is incomprehensible to me that an approach of the sort that
you describe has not been universally accepted here, although I suspect we will
eventually be forced to recognize its value. I have written an essay on a related
theme that will appear in the Georgetown University volume on language studies
that James Alatis is editing. My main thesis in that essay is that we might do well
to establish a few special International High Schools within large city school sys-
tems, where the most intensive teaching would be provided to high school students,
to be coordinated with similar programs at the grade school level. I only hope that
our mutual efforts are not rejected as naive and utopian!
With all best wishes,
Your sincerely,
S. FREDERICK STARK, Secretary.
[Mr. Starr was the keynote speaker of the 1977 ADFL Seminar East. His com-
ments, "Escalating the Campaign Against Provincialism," appeared in the Septem-
ber 1977 ADFL Bulletin.]
Mr. SIMON. I have had a chance to visit two immersion situa-
tions. I am most impressed by it and wish my children had had an
opportunity to have immersion.
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When we introduced the bill that is now before the subcommittee
2 years ago, I specifically encouraged immersion but there were a
great many people in the foreign language community who simply
said that we ought to be encouraging innovation and not strictly
one form and not so much immersion.
The bill is tentatively drafted and my colleagues here are cospon-
sors of that bill. Incidentally, I received some encouragement and I
have not had a chance to tell either of them, but I received some
encouragement on that bill yesterday from the Secretary of De-
fense. But we simply have some money in there for the States for
innovation. Should we be more precise than that in the language of
the bill?
Mr. DERRICK. My opinion is that innovation is set up so that we
may explore new and different techniques, and in this particular
case as to what is successful. We do not have to go a long ways to
find what does work. When do innovative programs finally become
convincing and then we put them into place as a practice in the
State or in the district or wherever?
If you could please look at Mr. McGillivray's letter in the appen-
dices, he very kindly comments on Canada's debt to America on
education. This is appendix E, about the fifth line from the bottom,
beginning with the word perhaps."
Perhaps because we Canadians have always turned to Americans for our models
in so many educational innovations, I offer in return the experience and expertise of
Canadian educators to advise and assist in the establishment of immersion if it
becomes a widely-used approach to foreign language teaching.
I am not a member of the language teaching profession or com-
munity. I am an elementary and classroom teacher and university
administrator, and it seems that Much of the help is coming
through the foreign language departments from people outside,
such as Gabriel Jacobs of Silver Spring, Md.
Some of us are just kind of cutting through some of the impedi-
ments that get in the way of what seems effective.
I would appreciate it if you would look at Mr. Grittner's letter to
Mr. Wallace Lambert. That is enclosure I and if you would look at
the results which he shows in Milwaukee, the second page there of
appendix I. The Milwaukee schools started a language center
school as a matter to bring about de facto integration, certainly a
step that I highly approve, and 3 years ago they began teaching
inner city children and 40 percent had to be underprivileged and
many of them black children, before they could have Federal funds
to be given the program.
Here you see three categories compared. The first is the U.S.
average on metropolitan achievement test scores, the high, the
average, and the low, and then Milwaukee across-the-city, and
those children in the 68th Street school who have had 3 years of
their instruction in German.
Understand now their first 3 years of instruction were in a
foreign language. Notice how they test in English after 3 years.
They have none in the low category, whereas Milwaukee and the
United States had 30 and 23 percent. In the average they showed
62 percent, whereas Milwaukee and United States showed 55 and
54 percent. The total there is that they have 100 and the average is
above the level. On mathematics you see a similar reflection.
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Mr. SIMON. I have lost you somehow in the statistics. I have the
page of the statistics but I do not see where you get the figures of
Milwaukee.
Mr. DERRICK. Of the 68 schoolchildren, he did not send this in for
publication, you see, and we have three groups compared. The
United States is across the line there.
Mr. SIMON. And the 68, is that the school where that was tried?
Mr. DERRICK. It is called the foreign language center. That is the
German immersion school and I typed below that, it appears, 68th
Street school.
Mr. SIMON. Now the question arises, does this school appeal to
the young people who would automatically, if they were taking
English, fall into that category?
Mr. DERRICK. Well, they are kindergarten children, so appeal or
no appeal, that is maybe not a good question and you should ask if
it appealed to their parents.
The parents in this town were offered the opportunity to enroll
their children in this school and in this case it was a language
magnet school. Forty percent was necessary to have the funding
from the inner city school and that was enrolled immediately, the
40 percent. Then the rest of the community could apply after that,
so that the answer is yes, it did appeal to the parents and it was
quickly enrolled.
Now with that kind of results, you know, it is going to be more
and more effective and popular as this community becomes ac-
quainted with it. They now offer German, Spanish, and French,
and they may choose to have their children start the education.
Mr. SIMON. I am convinced and I don't know what language we
will use in the report language to accompany the bill. We can
encourage American schools to move in this area much more.
Mr. DENARDIS. I am still trying to absorb the testimony here. I
would yield to my colleague, Mr. Coleman.
Mr. COLEMAN. I am not familiar personally with total immersion
and I understand it is the total second language for 3 years, start-
ing with kindergarten. Is this mainly for special programs, in
school districts, and certainly it is not widespread. How do you
create the emphasis or impetus to start one up?
How costly are these?
Mr. DERRICK. The word has to be spread and that is the reason I
appreciate being here. Occasionally an innovative administrator
goes to a meeting and hears about it, as in Holliston, Mass. The
superintendent went to a professional hearing and heard about this
and he went back to his district and began to make things move
and did research. I happened to be their first consultant and they
started the program 2 years ago.
It moves very slowly because it is very difficult for Americans to
comprehend just how we can educate our children in another lan-
guage and have them come out effective in English. The net result
is that they come out better in English and they have a second
language too.
It does not cost more. In another article that I prepared I used
the name of the teacher, Miss Sullivan, in Holliston, Mass., and
they taught kindergarten French in the morning and kindergarten
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English in the afternoon, and the kindergarten teachers there do
teach 2 sections, 26 in the morning and 26 in the afternoon.
The next year those same children went into the first grade and
they had a full-time all-day-long French language instructor. It
costs more to hire a teacher qualified to teach French or German
or whatever language than it does to have one in English. So the
essential costs are minimal, if any greater.
On the first example here pertained just to the subject we were
discussing. The school had truly two languages throughout the
sixth grade and you would have some additional expenses there in
the library with two languages, so that those people could go to the
library and select Robinson Crusoe in another language.
Mr. SIMON. If my colleague will yield, there are some minor
additional expenses in that textbooks may have to be purchased
from Canada or France or Germany or somewhere. There is some
additional administrative work in the experience like in Tacoma
Park, Md. About one-third of the parents in that school district
volunteered to have their kids in the school, so you don't have
simple geographical borders for assigning children to the school.
There is some additional administrative work, but it is not expen-
sive.
Mr. DERRICK. Well, compared to educating those children inad-
equately and partially, that we do in our high school programs 6
years later, where you assign a teacher specifically to teach a
language, if we really costed those two programs against one an-
other and also in relation to effectiveness, then this would come
out far ahead.
As children leave the sixth grade you ask which language, and if
I may respond to that, my feeling is that you choose whatever
language is locally important in a community. Fall River, Mass.,
might have much to relate to having their kids educated in Portu-
guese, since it is a heavily Portuguese area, and the west side of
Chicago would probably be Polish, and they are doing that in
Canada.
In Alberta, Canada, the Lithuanian kids can't speak to their
grandparents. They started immersing in Ukrainian and now the
grandchildren speak with their grandparents.
Mr. COLEMAN. How often do you find a person certified to teach
who can speak a foreign language like, I assume, you have to and
have knowledge of it all day long, even for the kindergarten chil-
dren and the second graders, and don't we really have a shortage
of these potential people?
Mr. DERRICK. Well, if next year we said we were going to open
150 classrooms, you would have a shortage. If we opened 15 class-
rooms you would not have a shortage. As this becomes a vocational
area you are going to find some schools smart enough to start up a
program with a master's degree in immersion language teaching. I
have a curriculum waiting and waiting for the school to come
along and pick it up.
Mr. COLEMAN. If you have studies, and I don't know if this was a
study you were telling us about, about the two control groups in
kindergarten and so forth, but would you supply those to me, to my
office, and I would appreciate that, or any other studies that you
would have that have been made with some hard data.
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Mr. DERRICK. It is richly available out of both the American
scene and the Canadian scene, and this was from Mr. Grittner. His
measurements in the children in the language school in Milwaukee
is strong support of this whole concept.
Mr. COLEMAN. It is exciting.
Mr. SIMON. It is really exciting, -there's no question about it.
Mr. DENARDIS. I must say I am very much impressed. I do not
have a question on immersion language teaching, but I want to
take advantage of your presence here to ask you a question in the
general field, if I may.
Mr. DERRICK. Yes, sir.
Mr. DENARDIS. One of our interests-it is an interest cited in the
bill and developed in the course of the hearings to be a matter of
interest to us-that is to say, the less commonly taught languages.
Do you have any ideas because of the real need in this area which
we have been documenting in commerce, defense, and intelligence
and various other studies?
Mr. DERRICK. I heard your testimony from last fall that you
presented.
Mr. DENARDIS. Do you have any ideas that you could advance to
us how we can focus more resources and attention and spur the
development of teaching of what is commonly taught in languages?
Mr. DERRICK. Yes. I would first of all bring forward the idea to
the child, educating the child in the system of early language
immersion, so that he leaves sixth grade knowing French or
German and whatever language is locally important, and we go on
to junior high school. And we should have offered during junior
high school one or two courses a day in that language so that that
language continues to grow.
We make a large mistake in our country of letting all of our
Spanish-speaking kids put Spanish back on the shelf of their grand-
mother instead of helping them to get that language growing. That
is a whole discussion. But if we sustain that language as a literal
language, one that they wrote and read in school, we would go
bilingual.
If we continue French, which is a commonly used language in
our country in these programs, they would have it through junior
high school, and they may start a third language, whatever their
high school offers, possibly French and possibly German and,
maybe, Russian.
When those children, knowing one other language and possibly
two other languages, when they leave our high school and come to
the university and approach the defense community or have that
in mind as a possible vocation, they will be much better prepared
and less apprehensive of learning even a less commonly taught
language and they will have experience already in having acquired
more than one language and they will learn that third language
with greater ease. That would be one approach.
As to how to develop more interest in that, I will not try to
venture a solution to that because I don't really have it. It is a
difficult problem.
Here is one way to bring to our society, children who are compe-
tent in two languages, and lots of them, and that is the point.
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Mr. SIMON. If I could add one other comment here for my col-
leagues, which will not surprise Bill Derrick, I visited Takoma
Park, Md., where these young people come in and walk into a
second grade class, and to see these kids doing their fractions in
French is an exciting thing.
It is the same thing to go to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they had an
integration problem, where they finaly decided they were going to
establish magnet schools and establish a French school and
German and Spanish emphasis schools. I visited all three and you
walk into their rundown area of Cincinnati, and their beatup old
school buildings, with all due respect to Cincinnati, in this fourth
grade class, half black and half white, and they are getting their
biology lesson in German.
Mr. DERRICK. It is mind-boggling. Just in passing, I remember
the testimony on the floor, one of your colleagues from Illinois
made the comment on the floor that he wished he knew someone
who would have the determination to provide his children with
another language. And he did not know of anyone like that. In one
letter I wrote to you I said to be sure and tell him about me.
My son was admitted to West Point and we turned down an
appointment to West Point to let him spend a year in France, in a
school, attending school and living with a family and going with a
senior group of kids, which was in their last year before they took
their law examination, and he came back with a much broader
cultural point of view and thorough use of the language. I won't
say command of the language.
And when he was reappointed this summer he went down there
and tested out on that language and he is free now to learn a
second language while he is there. Therefore, they will graduate a
young man who will now be able to use two languages and one of
them may be one of the rare ones like Arabic, because I think that
would give him a fine edge on a vocational career.
There are things that we can do. We should not be contained by
the old problems we have had. This bill does help us find ways to
practice innovative programs and my hope is that many of those
innovations that they will try will be related to immersion.
There is a world of research and reassurance ready for us to pick
up and use as a candidate if we can bring ourselves to take some
wisdom from another country.
Mr. SIMON. We thank you very much for your testimony here
today and for your leadership.
Unfortunately I am going to have to leave. I want to introduce
the next witness, however, and mention one other witness who is
going to be here and then I will turn the chair over to my col-
league from Connecticut.
Dr. Vaisnys was a member of the President's Commission on
Foreign Languages and not only a member, but she has more zip
and enthusiasm than all of the other members of the Commission
put together. She is vice president of the Association for the Ad-
vancement of Baltic Studies, but that title is an inadequate descrip-
tion.
Let me add one other person that I wish I could be here to greet
and he is a little bit like Elona in being a dynamo also, and that is
Dr. John Rassias from Dartmouth College, who has been a teacher
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on national televisions shows, and on "Sixty Minutes" at one time.
He is really unusual as a teacher and I wish I could be here for his
testimony.
I hope you will forgive me, but they tell me I am supposed to
speak in Minneapolis tonight, of all places, and so I am going to
have to leave your good company. I will turn you over to my
colleague from Connecticut. I know they will treat you well and I
know you will treat them well.
STATEMENT OF ELONA VAISNYS, VICE PRESIDENT,
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF BALTIC STUDIES
Ms. VAISNYS. You know, of course, we have your presence in
every town in Connecticut because every one of our 200-plus librar-
ies has your book.
Mr. SIMON. I am sure that Elona Vaisnys is responsible for that.
Mr. DENARDIS. And they want you back here on Saturday night
to autograph every one of them.
Mr. SIMON. I have not been to New Haven for many years and
ironically I am here today and I will be back to speak at a dinner
meeting in New Haven tomorrow night.
MS. VAISNYS. My best regards to you. In Minneapolis we had a
good conference there last year on foreign languages and I hope
you are going to be speaking on foreign languages.
Mr. SIMON. I always work at it no matter what my speech is
about.
Mr. DENARDIS. One of Elona's parting comments to me as I left
for Washington after the election was to be sure and immediately
look you up. She had already prepared me well on your credentials
in this area and she and I talked about you many times. So it is
nice that all three of us are in the same room, at least for a few
minutes.
Mr. SIMON. Perhaps you influenced him to get on the subcommit-
tee.
Mr. DENARDIS. I want to make sure that Congressman Simon is
properly dispatched to whatever station he is going to.
Ms. VAISNYS. Thank you for the honor of having this opportunity
to speak in behalf of the House bill H.R. 3231. I know the honor is
a very short one because we have to speak fast and to the point
and I will do that.
In Connecticut about 213,000 jobs are related to exports in some
way. On a per capita basis Connecticut is third in the country in
exports and it leads all of the States in the percentage of jobs
stemming from manufacturing exports. Economic development,
which is working to increase our exports even more, has come out
very strongly in favor of foreign languages as being something
which would help increase our exports, the percentage of exports,
even more and they know we really have to cut down the time we
use.
I am going to ask that this statement of Commissioner Stockton
to be included as a part of my testimony.
Mr. DENARDIS [presiding]. The statement will be included in the
record at this point, without of ection.
[Information submitted by Elona Vaisnys follows:]
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INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY ELONA VAISNYS, MOUNT CARMEL, CONN.
The Connecticut Commissioner of Economic Development, quoted in the New
Haven Register, March 27, 1980:
"In my opinion, as Connecticut continues to more fully move into the internation-
al economy, the needs for increased attention to foreign languages will accelerate.
The ability to communicate in languages other than English is vitally important
and many of us involved in international economics are handicapped by a lack of a
working knowledge of other languages.
"This is unfortunate. However, I think that state government, the business com-
munity, and all of our educational institutions must quickly focus their attention on
this pressing problem. Looking to the future, I am horrified to find that the number
of students in Connecticut's public secondary schools who are taking courses in
foreign languages has been dropping dramatically.
"To directly meet future needs, we must get down to the hard business of
reversing this undesirable trend by assessing the reasons for the current situation
and correcting them as quickly as possible.
"The Connecticut Department of Economic Development would be eager to work
with a group of concerned Connecticut officials to undertake the educational task
that must be directed at the general public as well as students and education
officials. It is obviously necessary that Connecticut take bold and effective action to
make the citizens of this state more Eonversant in several foreign langauges, includ-
inF Japanese and Chinese.
`This is educationally significant and economically sound."
Ms. VAISNYS. I would like to say that we see the very large
importance of foreign languages. We need people in various jobs
with foreign languages. They have come out with editorials to that
effect.
Yet Connecticut is losing business because of our inability to
have people who know languages. For example, when I was a
member of the President's Commission I had a chance to speak to
very many people in many walks of life. I became aware of several
things.
For example, secretaries of businesses would tell me, and they
confided in me, that a lot of sales get lost due to the lack of
knowledge of languages. If a letter comes in the office and nobody
in the management can read it, they toss it in the wastebasket
where possibly that is some export that is not going to be exported
out of Connecticut. Yet every $50,000 of exports equals one job for
an American here.
When buyers come from other countries to Connecticut, and
since we export a lot we get buyers from other countries coming to
Connecticut, and the presentation is done in fluent and slick Eng-
lish, again I was made aware of this by a secretary, an executive
secretary who used to be assigned because she knew some Spanish.
She used to be assigned to go with the buyers and sort of make life
more pleasant for them while they were visiting the company.
She realized that as these buyers, these men, would be listening
to the sales presentation, and their English was not up to the level
of what was being presented, in fact they were not getting what
was being told to them. The salesman was not reaching them
because of the language gap and she said that there were times
when she in fact stepped in and said, "May I please translate?" and
she would be sometimes allowed to translate. But she mentioned
one instance where because the content was technical and she did
not quite know the product well enough she asked the person to
explain what she wanted to say.
The president of the company who was there, because it was a
big contract being discussed, said, "Please never mind about under-
standing, just translate."
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That is a case of not understanding what the language is, of
course, and how it works.
As a member of the President's Commission I talked to a number
of businessmen and I also was alerted to something that was hap-
pening. For example, one instance comes to mind where there was
the possibility of a huge investment in an African country, which
was a French-speaking country. Just before signing the contract
the economist of one of the American firms, and there were a
number of them interested in investing, asked to see the contract
in the original. The contract was in the original and everybody was
given a copy in English, but by reading the contract in the original
he realized that those transactions were literal and correct, but
there were implications in French which did not or were not trans-
lated.
This economist counseled his company against the investment
and they did not invest, but they lived to be very happy about it
because other firms lost a lot of money on that deal.
These are just several examples. These examples are probably
multiplied very many times in many companies across the country,
and very many secretaries would probably say the same thing as
the secretaries in Connecticut, that is, about losing jobs in this
way.
Of course, when children are going to school we don't know what
they will end up as being, whether they will end up being econo-
mists or secretaries and maybe they will end up working in the
Defense Department. Now speaking of our national security, I have
become very insecure about our defense ever since I found out that
of the 1,500 people who work in the office of the Secretary of
Defense, not one has a competence in any foreign language.
That influences the 90 people in the European section and not
one is listed as having competence even in German or French. Now
that is quite something to think about.
A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense has said that
the results of military action which are based on inadequate knowl-
edge of the region and its people are unpredictable and may be
disasterous. When none of our people in the Defense Department
have any reading ability of the different languages, that is a very
sad state of affairs.
All of these people, when they go on fact-finding missions are not
able to understand the language and they do not in fact go and
find the facts and they rely on somebody to translate something
into English and then they question who is doing the translating.
As far as translating and interpreting is concerned, whoever
needs to talk in English and does not use English himself, has to
bring his own interpreter to the United States.
The same goes for Members of Congress who go on factfinding
missions. Most of them don't have any languages and most of their
staffs don't know any languages, and they go out into the streets of
Cairo and they have no idea what the people are speaking about.
They did not in Iran. They could not read the local press, and how
many facts do you find when you are really deaf and illiterate?
There are jobs which we have not developed because of the
shortage of our language skills. For example, in tourism, about a
year or so ago I think our tourists were up to 20 million people
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coming over or streaming our way. I heard that some hotel chains
now teach their cashiers how to exchange foreign currency, but
just think of the jobs which could be created if we learned from the
Europeans and others who are able to cater to Americans in
American English, and have them supplementing their national
economy nicely for years. We have not developed that kind of
service to incoming tourists.
I do not have time to speak of sections 3 and 4 of the bill, which
have to do with postsecondary education, except to say that college
students should be studying foreign languages as well as other
cultures and global problems. Having colleges require languages
and helping them to provide languages will help enormously and it
will snap into place programs in high schools also.
I would like to confine the rest of my remarks to the 15 or 17-
year-olds which are mentioned in section 2 and for which this bill
asks a modest $7 million. When I think Congress is thinking of
allotting $139 million to bilingual education, which would really
impact a fraction of these same 15-year-olds, many of whom will be
learning English anyway because they will be immersed in English
about them, I think there is a disproportion there. But maybe
Congress does not see it that way yet.
I want to speak of immersion again. I was delighted to hear what
Mr. Derrick had to say and I am going to read what he has to say
with great attention.
Mr. DeNardis, since you are the chairman now, I think I know
personally hundreds of children who have learned foreign lan-
guages by immersion. If everybody and all of the other people
spoke of their personal experiences, I can also trot out two children
who learned English by immersion because we wanted them to
have a second language, and the language we could give them at
home was Lithuanian. And I thought they could not pick it up, so
we insisted on speaking nothing but Lithuanian to the children,
knowing very well they would pick up English by immersion.
The kids are in college now, and doing very well and doing very
well in math, as Mr. Derrick mentioned, because they are bilin-
gual. They do have two languages and it helps.
I also know hundreds, literally hundreds, of children who have
learned languages by immersion and who again happen to be very
good at other subject matters, and I could give you names and so
on of very many of them who have learned several languages that
way.
I do not know how to get this across to people in Congress. There
are certain crops which need to be planted in the spring. If you
plant them later they will grow but the fruits will never amount to
very much of anything. One of these crops is the language. If you
plant it early it is easy, and the kids, as Mr. Derrick said, they
don't realize that they are learning another language because they
are learning math or geology or something else. Kids are able to
pick up languages in that way.
Now we must really go into this and maybe the language of this
bill should be drafted in such a way that the immersion will be the
preferred treatment, as was said before in the testimony, and it has
proven to work. We do not need innovation. We need to go with
something that really works. Canada, of course, has been doing it
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for 15 years and we have been doing it in very many ways here in
other aspects, but we are just starting it.
We do have the proof and the figures are there. There is another
reason why we really must go immersion, because otherwise we are
disenfranchising children from lower socioeconomic levels, from
minority groups.
If we get these kids to learn a language starting in kindergarten
they will be able to learn a third language later on. They will be
able to use the language that they learned if they are secretaries or
economists or working in the Defense Department or become Mem-
bers of Congress or work in middle-sized businesses in Connecticut
and want to do export work.
But the thing is this: if we wait until the kids are at an age when
they will be taught the language by the usual method, which is
through grammar, we will be losing the kids from the lower socio-
economic levels and from the minority groups also. That is because
the grammar itself is difficult and to learn a language through the
grammar method is much tougher than to pick it up by the immer-
sion effort.
Also, those kids are traditionally not in a position to have family
traditions to back them up and give them motivation. Those fami-
lies are from the lower socioeconomic levels, and they do not see
the applicability of foreign languages for their children and they
would not be encouraging it. So if we really want to open up the
possibility which foreign languages will give and which we will
need more and more of to a wider segment, a broad base of peace
of all of our children, and I can't think of quite the name, we must
do it by immersion and we must do it early, and otherwise they
will not be taking the languages.
I have one last thought. People sometimes say, "Oh, yes. I took
language in school. I took 2 years of it and I don't know a thing. I
can't talk it any more." That is true. There is one reason. Maybe
they did not start early enough and maybe they did not take it
long enough, but if they did take it long enough it is true also that
they will lose the ability to speak it. However, they will retain the
ability to read and also the ability to understand.
There are very many important things in my kind of factfinding
situations where you can learn by not talking but by listening. You
can do it in the street in a foreign country, at cocktail parties, in
corridors, and in factfinding missions when you keep your mouth
closed but both ears on and receiving.
Thank you very much.
Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you very much.
Elona was a long-time friend and neighbor and I have had the
benefit of exchanging views with her many times.
Mr. COLEMAN. Do you speak Iranian yet?
Mr. DENARDIS. No, but as you can see she is a very vivacious
person. Rather than questioning her, because I have the benefit of
her counsels often, I would defer to you.
Mr. COLEMAN. I think she is just an exciting person as a neigh-
bor, and your comments about Members of Congress is very accu-
rate. We had a hearing in Washington with the head of the For-
eign Languages Institute who in turn trains our State Department
and other employees of the Federal Government. And I asked if
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they would be interested in helping Members of Congress become
proficient in a foreign languge. And they said that they were.
As a result of that, the final day I extended to my colleagues in
the House the invitation to have foreign language classes on the
Hill at our convenience, and as a result of that 10 percent of all of
the Members of the House signed up, some 45 when I last checked
yesterday, and your Congressman, Larry DeNardis, is going to be
fluent in Italian shortly and I will continue my French.
But this to me is a beginning or an indication that there is an
? interest out there. The Members realize that we need to have this,
and there are foreign officials who usually speak very good English
and we can't even come back with the slightest "How do you do?"
and "How are you?" in their language. It shows something and it
shows a lack of concern, I believe, and that is what it conveys to
other people, and this was pointed out recently on a trip to Moscow
when I asked this question at the Foreign Language Institute and I
said, "How do you interpret Americans' lack of a foreign lan-
guage?" And the fellow said, "Maybe it shows you are not interest-
ed in the people of the world."
This, I hope, will generate support for an understanding of the
languages and if we can get these Congressmen in these classes
they can see how hard it is to do it in the winter and autumn
months of the year, and why their children in the spring are
having trouble and why they should work with this bill and other
efforts to try to do something about it.
It can be a national scandal that we can't turn out people for
basic defense and intelligence that we need in this country.
I would hope that you will continue, as I am sure you will, your
crusade and anywhere that you can to emphasize this. I think that
your testimony was outstanding and that makes me all excited
again.
Mr. DENARnis. If we have not had Elona in Washington I think
that we should bring Elona down. Thank you very much, Elona.
Is Professor Rassias here?
I understand that Dr. Donald Kagan is here. Dr. Kagan is the
professor of classics at Yale University and we are very glad to
have you here. I notice that you were to have appeared in a panel
with your colleagues, and I do not think that they are here at this
point in time.
Would you prefer to wait or would you like to go ahead?
Mr. KAGAN. Whatever you think should be done.
Mr. DENARDIS. I think we would like to have you go ahead.
STATEMENT OF DONALD KAGAN, PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS,
YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Mr. KAGAN. It is a pleasure to be here. I had no idea that any
such plan was going forward and first I was delighted that any
such plan was going forward, and after I read the law, or the bill, I
should say, I was more than delighted because it is such an intelli-
gently phrased bill, which strikes me as having the greatest possi-
bility of achieving important goals that you have in mind.
I really don't have very much to say except to compliment you
on your efforts and your undertakings and to say that I will
support them in any way I can.
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Let me say my own field is really history. I teach and my title is
history, but the reason I make the point is that I am not an
instructor in languages. I am a consumer. My students are stu-
dents in history and in order for them to do the kind of work that
they need to do at the level that is best, they need to be able to
read foreign languages.
I am not speaking only about Greek, let us say, in which their
sources would be found, but in the important body of secondary
literature which is the key to understanding my subject, as it is to
understanding most subjects. And what I discovered was this: when
I began teaching in the late 1950's the Sputnik boom had hit
education, higher education as well as others. The effects were
immediately noticeable.
The quality and quantity of instruction available in secondary
schools and colleges in mathematics and sciences, but not in for-
eign languages, had increased strikingly. I took it for granted when
I began teaching that I could ask my advanced students to read
works in French or German or Spanish with confidence that each
one of them could read in at least one of those languages, and so I
assigned it regularly. Let me assure you that that would be folly
today if I attempted to do that at Yale University, which is alleged
to be one of the better universities of the country.
Yet the preparation of our students is such that it is not practi-
cable to assign work in foreign languages. That is the contact that
I have had with this problem that is most direct, and I thought I
would share it with you because I think it is not often mentioned.
May I point out also that a decline in the study and the instruc-
tion of foreign languages dates pretty much to the late 1960's and
thereafter, for reasons I need not go into now which I think you
know. The much-complained-about decline in the quality of SAT
scores coincides almost perfectly with that development. I think
that is just not an accident.
The truth of the matter is that as the study of foreign languages
has always been a key way in which Americans learn the English
language, even when I was a student in school, very little time or
attention was given to the language or to the grammar and struc-
ture of the English language. We picked up usages as best we could
and we did not understand languages very much.
We first became aware of these other issues when we studied the
foreign language and, as a matter of fact, the American quality in
the area of language in general has always rested very heavily on
the study of foreign language.
We universities deserve a considerable amount of blame for the
sad state of affairs today because in the 1960's we just joined in the
race to get rid of all of these necessary requirements. When a
university or college, particularly the prestigious ones, drops these
requirements it is inevitable that the secondary schools will judge
that these are frills and not necessary and do the same. So it is a
vicious circle. I think we bear more responsibility than most.
I would predict that if many of us restored emphasis upon the
instruction of foreign languages you would see within a few years a
considerable increase in the quality and quantity offered at second-
ary schools as well. So it strikes me that the points in your bill
that are so attractive to me are the ones that reward programs
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that in fact lead to more students studying foreign languages. That
is a very important point.
I would simply want to emphasize one element in your bill which
is good, one which I would like to see interpreted very strongly
should you have the good fortune to put the bill across and make it
law and put it into effect. This is the one which speaks about
regular reporting on the part of the institutions benefitting from
the program.
What I think is very important is that we teachers should be
held accountable for what we teach and, more importantly, for
what our students learn. I would want to see-it doesn't need to be
written into the bill but it would need to be carefully monitored
once it is in effect- I would want to see regular reports, say every
3 years, of any program benefited and included in that report
should be a statement of how the students fared in examinations
that were standard in some form.
I would not want to recommend specific examination, but the
fact is whoever monitors this thing should be confident it is getting
something for its money. The purpose of these programs, after all,
is to see to it that we get the people literate in foreign languages,
and we should insist that they do that, that they not really take
courses but that there are results.
Now speaking as I have the right to do toward the world of our
education, my view is that we do not deserve anything as good as
what you are proposing. We have not done anything to merit it.
But you are right in singling out this area as one which very
badly needs attention, not from our point of view but from the
point of view of the national interest and we need to be led to do
the right thing.
That, incidentally, is another very fine feature of you bill in that
it does not impose regulations, and it does not order people about,
and it centers on doing things well. It seems to me that human
institutions respond best to those circumstances and it strikes me
that this is a marvelous thing. I scratch my head and wonder as I
read the newspaper, can you possibly get away with this?
But the truth is, let me just -recapitulate, because if you are
talking to someone who was not sympathetic, the question would
be, why should the Government spend this money to do such a
thing? I think of myself as being very much in tune with the
current mood in Washington and I think Adam Smith would have
approved it because he understood that there were some areas in
the life of a nation for which the market simply was not an
answer, and yet the Nation required it.
I would argue that anybody who thinks for 10 seconds would
realize this is such an area. Your bill and the explanation with it
have made the point extremely well, as a nation engaged in inter-
national relations, first of all, the level of diplomacy and strategy
and so forth, and second, but not in any necessarily important way
as a nation engaged in commerce and financial arrangements with
other nations, is consistently in the position where we must have
people who are extremely competent, to provide foreign languages
to hold up our ends.
Now our competition beats our brains out. The Western Europe-
ans and the Japanese are extremely well versed in these languages
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196
and they simply have an enormous edge. That, as a national devel-
opment, is unacceptable, so if you ask what market is there to
remedy this, I find none. For that reason, it strikes me that your
approach is correct and that the only modest suggestion I would
have is please do insist upon the quality control at the end of the
thing. Don't trust us, and we are not to be trusted.
[The prepared statement of Donald Kagan follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DONALD KAGAN, RICHARD M. COLGATE PROFESSOR OF
HISTORY AND CLASSICS, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
ON THE NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT IN THE INSTRUCTION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN
AMERICA
In the twenty-five years I have been teaching at different colleges and universities
I have seen a terrible decline in the amount of instruction offered and received by
college students. In the late 1950s, spurred on by Sputnick and the resulting chal-
lenge to the quality of American education, our schools and colleges made consider-
able and effective efforts in improving the quality and quantity of education in
science, mathematics, and foreign languages. The results were soon apparent; it was
possible to ask students to read works in foreign languages in courses in history and
classics. The level of education rose accordingly. All this changed in the late 1960's.
For various reasons language requirements were weakened or abandoned. Once
again the results were soon apparent, this time on a far greater scale. As universi-
ties abandoned language requirements schools reduced and abandoned language
instruction. By the mid 1970 s it was impossible to ask students to read works in
foreign language, to the great detriment of their learning. It is, moreover, no
accident, that the decline in the level of students' verbal skills as shown in standard
tests coincides almost perfectly with the collapse of language instruction in the
schools and colleges. Language is the bed-rock of all learning. A failure to gain a
good command of language seriously harms the ability to reason and to learn.
Learning a foreign language is particularly valuable, for we tend to learn our own
language automatically, whereas the process of learning a foreign language neces-
sarily involves system, analysis and a comprehension of the way language works.
Students who don't learn foreign languages are handicapped in using and under-
standing their own language, as well. Thus, the decline of foreign language instruc-
tion in the last two decades has had a pervasively damaging effect on the entire
educational system. We see it in the quality of the students writing, the narrowness
of their interests and perspective, their inability to command great bodies of schol-
arship and literature needed to do their work at a high level, and, of course, in their
inability to enter fields that require foreign language skills so essential to our
national interests.
I will have to leave to others the subject of how important it to our country to
have people capable of engaging in commercial and diplomatic intercourse with
people of other nations. I will merely say that other countries have a vast advantage
over us in having almost all their graduates multi-lingual and thus having a wide
choice in selecting people for important international work. America's involvement
with the world grows greater each year, and that trend will not be reversed. It is
recklessly improvident to allow this disadvantage to continue and even to increase.
The bill before us seems well-designed to help bring about an improvement, by
rewarding enrollment in foreign language courses and the institution or mainte-
nance of language requirements it provides an incentive for colleges to take lan-
guage instruction seriously, to devise better ways of teaching, and to make it a
central part of the curriculum. To make the plan even more effective I should like
to see subsection (3) under Section 3(a) interpreted strongly. Programs undertaken
by grantees should be carefully evaluated every three years or so. Criteria for
continued funding should include the achievement of a satisfactory level of compe-
tence in the foreign language as measured by some appropriate, objective standard.
Achieving the goals of this bill is of great importance to our entire educational
system as well as to many specific economic and strategic needs of our country. If it
becomes law it is certain to have profoundly good effects on the problems it address-
es. It is particularly attractive because it provides incentives to virtue rather than
imposing unwelcome regulations. By requiring serious and timely evaluations it can
measure results and allow flexible response, thereby permitting the most effective
use of federal money and encouraging successful educational innovation. It deserves
support.
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Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you very much. I find your testimony very
refreshing.
You asked how we could pass such language, given the budgetary
climate in Washington, and it is a longshot, to be sure, but a lot of
things are being rationalized under the national security and na-
tional interest, and some good and some bad, and this is obviously
in the former category, and maybe we can get it under that rubric.
Mr. COLEMAN. How do you suggest we change the attitude of
colleges and universities on it, the admissions requirements or
requirements of foreign languages? You seem to be frustrated and
do you suggest to the trustees what your admissions ought to be
and what you ought to teach?
Mr. KAGAN. The fault in my institution, and I think my institu-
tion is not too different, the fault lies with the faculty. We really
do have control of the curriculum. Administrative people say they
don't have the power and it is always the faculty. For the most
part that is nonsense, but it is true when we come to the question
of curriculum.
We did what was wrong and we have the power to do what is
right. I can tell you that even my institution, which has been
shameful in this respect, I cannot predict success at this point, but
I believe this year there will be a proposal before our faculty
restoring the language requirement.
I think that is a belated response to a general sense of what was
happening and I think there is a movement in that direction but if
you ask me what other thing than appealing to people's sense of
community and common national purpose will do the trick, I don't
know.
May I point out there is one funny thing about the way this all
happened and perhaps it might be useful to you to know what
happened. I was astonished to learn these language requirements
went out-and let me speak about my institution again, which I
know best-that among those who were in favor of abolishing the
language requirement were people teaching foreign literatures.
Now that sounds terribly strange but it has to do with the kind
of sense that there is a distinction in a level and quality of work
between instructing someone in the elements of a language and
teaching him the literature in the language. This is a kind of
pecking problem that professors have some feelings about, I discov-
ered. So that in some sense it is beneath them to teach people how
to begin to read German or French or whatever. It is unacceptable
and it will sound like self-serving, but we don't feel that way.
That needs to be broken down and there needs to be a sense in
which that, too, is understood to be a part of a mature function of a
person in this category. But here is another thing.
I guess this is all a case of where the professor comes before the
politicians, but if you look at the changes that have occurred in
colleges between 1968 and 1975, during the dark years of every-
thing falling apart, whatever else was the consequence of the
change in almost every case it has made the life of a professor
easier. I think that is just one of the nasty things that we have to
face, that professors have shed various responsibilities that they
did not like in the name of this, that, or that noble cause and it is
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time to face that fact that we have responsibilities and we have to
take them on whether we like it or not.
For instance, here is a point. Nobody wants to have in his class
somebody who does not want to be there. That is just as unpleasant
a situation on the teacher as it is on the student, but the fact of the s
matter is that you cannot get the horse to drink if you don't lead it
to water.
There is no guarantee that if you take a foreign language that he
will learn that foreign language, but I will guarantee if he never ,
takes it he will never learn it.
Mr. COLEMAN. What about admission requirements?
Mr. KAGAN. That would be an excellent procedure because that
takes care of the problem. If we had admission requirements which
say you must have the rudiments of a language and you must take
several years at an advanced level, that would be the perfect
situation. The difficulty is competition. You are always afraid if
you set your admission standards too high in this way, then your
competitors won't, and the students will elect to go to the other
institution.
Mr. COLEMAN. That seems to me to be rather totally inconsistent
with the reputation of Yale University.
Mr. KAGAN. Everybody is looking over your shoulder. Yale is
always looking over its shoulder at Harvard and worrying about
what percentage of the students go to them and go to us.
I have thought it must be absolutely terrifying to work at Har-
vard because at least at Yale if someone gets too high if you are so
smart, how come you don't go to Harvard.
Mr. COLEMAN. I hope you continue your efforts and you get your
faculty to accept what your basic tenets are.
Mr. KAGAN. We have some chance.
Mr. DENARDIS. In the matter of your curriculum reform, is that
a movement toward a core curriculum?
Mr. KAGAN. There is no talk of that at all. We do have an
interesting program which has a core for freshmen, three courses
which they take, which is aiming at that idea. It is a special
program. It is likely to lead to one which I helped to put together
and it is a roaring success. It has been expanded this year to
include more students than it did before but it is still only a
fraction of the whole student body.
Mr. DENARDIS. Speaking of Harvard as you did, I am reminded of
the fact that they recently adopted a core curriculum. Do you
happen to know if language is part of that core?
Mr. KAGAN. I believe it is not. If I may say so, I think it is a very
deceptive thing as they do it, a core curriculum. I do not think it is
what you and I would think of. You and I, if I read you rightly,
would think of a certain course and certain subjects that need to be
the common property of everybody and that is the core. That is not
what Harvard said.
Harvard says that there are certain skills which need to be
learned by everybody but we don't care what subject you take to
achieve those skills.
It strikes me as being something for good or ill, quite different
from what we normally think of as a core.
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By the way, may I say what you are up to here has very impor-
tant educational virtues that have been lost over the years. The
notion of all students doing something in common is very, very
important. I can assure you of that from the study that we have
made at Yale. We do not have nearly enough of that. There is not
enough sharing of intellectual material.
In fact, our culture, it seems to me, is in trouble in large part
because even the educated branch of it does not have anything in
common. We cannot assume we have read the same books because
there is not any longer a center to which everybody refers. The
thing that you are suggesting helps us move perhaps a little bit in
that direction, and that is good in itself.
Mr. DENARDIS. So, that notion of a community of scholars is in
jeopardy?
Mr. KAGAN. Absolutely. It seems to me everybody who graduates
from a liberal arts college ought to be able to meet everybody else
and have a certain number of topics, confidentially.
There was a time we could talk about the Bible and Shakespeare
and perhaps Homer and be certain that every other educated
person knew what you were talking about. That day is gone and I
think that is a loss. You know that there is a special communica-
tion problem that is not addressed, having something to talk about.
Mr. DENARDIS. You have raised some very interesting points, and
I must say they have not really been raised in our hearings,
although we are just at the beginning stage of hearings on this
matter. But you have raised some very interesting points.
We thank you for your testimony.
Mr. KAGAN. Thank you.
Mr. DENARDIS. We will take a 5-minute recess and after the
conclusion of that we might have to declare an adjournment.
[A brief recess was taken.]
Mr. DENARDIS. We will come back to order.
Let me formally resume the hearing that we have been conduct-
ing today. This session has been devoted to the Foreign Language
Assistance Act and we now invite Dr. John Williams, chairman of
the Department of Classics at Trinity College, to give his
testimony.
Dr. Moskalew is also here and I will ask him to join us here. Dr.
Moskalew is assistant professor of classics at Vassar College and
the two of you may proceed in tandem.
Let me first say to both of you that two of my colleagues, the
chairman of this subcommittee, Congressman Paul Simon, and the
ranking minority member, Congressman Tom Coleman, have both
been here for the day in New Haven, and both left just recently.
Congressman Simon has to fly to Minneapolis, and Congressman
Coleman is on the way back to Washington now. But they were
both here and they asked me to say to you that they were sorry
that they had to leave, but it was necessary for them to make
connections.
They will have a chance to review this testimony. They are very
diligent members of the committee and they will review your testi-
mony and we want to thank you for that.
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STATEMENT OF JOHN C. WILLIAMS, CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT
OF CLASSICS, TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, CONN.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much. I should like to thank you
for this opportunity to speak in behalf of H.R. 3231. I address you
as a representative of the Classical Association of New England
and as an individual professor of Latin and Greek.
The Classical Association of New England is a regional society
composed of secondary school teachers and college professors dedi-
cated to the promotion of quality teaching and research in Latin
and Greek. Although I am speaking from the perspective of the
classical languages, most of what I shall say is applicable to the
modern languages as well.
Our failure over the past years to provide early and continuing
training in foreign languages has brought us, in the present, to a
frightening reality, namely, that the young people in college at this
time are for all practical purposes functionally illiterate and cul-
turally ignorant, myopic in vision, and parochial in opinion and
experience. Since so much of their education has been focused on
the present and on technology, these young people have no sense of
their place in the continuum of history and culture.
The art of writing and the art of speaking are almost foreign to
them because their education has been concerned with the acquisi-
tion of skills other than those of verbal and written communica-
tion. Because they have had little experience with foreign lan-
guages, ancient or modern, they have little sense about English.
They have never experienced trying to project themselves into
another culture, another time, another place, another way of think-
ing. Without knowing it they are locked in a prison of ignorance;
the walls of the prison are made of the stuff of technology and
electronics and the "now."
World understanding, yes, even world peace, can be achieved
only by a thorough understanding and knowledge of the peoples on
earth. The best way to achieve this understanding is through a
thorough grounding and training in the humanities. And within
the humanities the study of the language and literature of a people
is the most effective way. The way a people think, the way they
express themselves, their hopes, their fears, their aspirations, their
past, their heritage, their art-these are the means to mutual
understanding and respect.
Sociological evaluations can give only an inhuman assessment of
things as they are. Such evaluations do not and cannot promote
understanding and true sympathy. Technological training can only
focus on things.
In contrast, the study of ancient and modern languages and
literatures plunges us into the heart and the soul of a people. The
present can be understood only in the light of the past. If knowl-
edge of the past is removed, imperceptively oxygen is restricted to
us in the present. We then function only with difficulty. Our her-
itage, our roots, provide us with the grist for the present. A study
of the past very quickly makes us aware that we are not -the
cultural and linguistic center of the universe.
Our present predicament is not just the fault of the students
themselves. It is also with some of the younger teachers, professors,
counselors, advisers, and administrators, who themselves went
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through an education that had no emphasis on foreign language
and literature study, no emphasis on the value of the past. These
teachers and others can only see the importance of the pragmatic
and the technical. And so the "crime" is perpetuated, and the
myopia and parochialism are now epidemic in scope.
Your bill, Mr. Chairman, therefore will give a greatly needed
boost to the study of foreign languages, ancient and modern. The
passing of your bill would be a most important signal to the gener-
al public and to schools and colleges that foreign language study is
essential for the survival of mankind spiritually and culturally,
strategically and economically.
What greater goal could be achieved by the passage of this bill
than to create an intelligence, sensitive, perceptive population, ca-
pable of understanding and communicating with other peoples.
This bill is important for the very survival of the spirit and soul of
humanity.
Thank you for granting me this opportunity to address you.
Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you very much, even though you have
given us a rather startling analysis of the scene. I suspect that all
of us who are cosponsoring Congressman Simon's bill have much
the same perception. You have made a very eloquent presentation,
although frightening.
As someone who comes from the world of higher education, as
you do, I thoroughly understand what you mean about young
people in college at this time and what capabilities they possess
and what they do not possess. You are painting a rather bleak
picture of the combination of the worst of the technical society and
the worst of 1984.
I wish that my colleagues were here to hear you. They will at
least read your statement.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you.
Mr. DENARDIS. I think we should now like to hear from you, Dr.
Moskalew.
Mr. MOSKALEW. Would you like me to read my statement?
Mr. DENARDIS. Since there are just a few of us, if you would
submit your statement it will, of course, be incorporated in the
record and perhaps you would like to just highlight a few major
points. I will not deprive you of the opportunity to present the
whole statement if you would like to.
STATEMENT OF WALTER MOSKALEW, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF CLASSICS, VASSAR COLLEGE
Mr. MOSKALEW. I think that I would like to present the whole
statement because it would be difficult for me to excerpt and it will
not take an excessive amount of time.
., Thank you very much for allowing me to present my case and I
am here representing the Classic Association of the Atlantic States
which represents teachers of classics in high schools and independ-
ent schools and colleges and universities. I also am representing
the Council of the Empire State, which is a subdivision of the
Classical Association of the Atlantic States.
My statement is my own, although I hope I speak for the associ-
ation in what I say.
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Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, the Joint Na-
tional Committee on Languages in its testimony before this sub-
committee last July 15 has presented ample documentation of the
decline of language study throughout our country. My own experi-
ence is more limited, as are the statistics on which I draw, but both
bear further witness to this alarming trend.
In the New York State public schools the percentage of students
studying a foreign language in grade K through 12 has declined
from 21 percent in 1968 to 18 percent in 1980, a loss of about 85,000
students. These figures err on the high side because the data did
not discriminate between students taking one language and those
taking two, so that the latter were invariably counted twice.
The decline in enrollments did not affect all languages equally.
Between 1968 and 1980 Spanish fell only 8 percent, while Italian
rose a staggering 88 percent. More serious losses were sustained by
German, 49 percent, French, 53 percent, Latin, 62 percent, and
Russian, 81 percent. Thus not only has the overall enrollment in
the languages declined but there has been a major shift to Spanish
and Italian at the expense of the others, a shift that suggests
avoidance of what students have traditionally regarded as the more
difficult languages.
The cause of all this is well known, for the decline came soon
after large numbers of colleges and universities had dropped their
language requirements, and it came more precipitously in the col-
leges themselves. When the language requirement was abolished at
Vassar College for 1969-70 enrollments in the languages immedi-
ately fell from 84 to 59 percent, and this trend has continued, so
that in 1979 only 42 percent of the students were enrolled in the
language departments.
These figures also must be adjusted downward, for if literature
courses taught in translation are excluded those actually studying
foreign languages probably comprise no more than 35 percent of all
students in a given year. And those attaining proficiency in a
language form an even smaller minority, about 40 to 50 students or
6 to 7 percent. Of the class that was graduated in 1978, 33 percent
never took a language course in their 4 years at Vassar.
I am sure that in this Vasser is not unique among colleges. In
fact, it has probably fared better than others. But if the study of
languages could so seriously have been neglected at an institution
such as Vasser with its strong humanistic tradition, its commit-
ment to educational excellence, and its relatively sound financial
position, we are indeed in a sorry state.
The effects of such neglect on international trade, on diplomacy,
on defense are not for me to document, although they can be easily
imagined. One cannot effectively conduct business or make a viable
treaty or gather reliable intelligence data through an interpreter.
At best it is a handicap, at worst a disaster.
The inability to converse in languages other than our own hurts
in other respects as well, for it places us at a cultural disadvantage
with foreign partners who are multilingual and who are apt to
view the clinging to our mother's tongue as a sign of arrogance,
ignorance, or arrested development. Thus linguistic chauvinism
stands in the way of open and candid communication, for it breeds
misunderstanding and mistrust.
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The bill now before the subcommittee, H.R. 3231, speaks to the
very heart of the matter, the language requirement, the dropping
of which had originally precipitated a vicious cycle. The lack of a
requirement in colleges translated itself to lower demand in high
schools, which in turn led to fewer majors in college, hence fewer
prospective teachers, and so, ultimately, a teacher shortage, for
example, in Latin, resulting in further reduction of programs.
Inflation and budget cuts have also had their effect. This cycle
has to be reversed now or it will be too late. And the impetus must,
as it did before, come from the colleges. Stimulating the high
school language programs directly would probably create an acute
teacher shortage. Yet the colleges are not very likely to take the
lead in this without prodding.
The reinstitution of a language requirement means ultimately a
redistribution of faculty resources, which means that what the
languages would gain other departments would lose. At a time
when already at a number of colleges departments have been cut
back or eliminated such redistribution would be staunchly resisted.
Furthermore, in the face of declining high school enrollments,
the competition among colleges for applicants has become very
intense, while at the same time it has become somewhat easier
than before for students to get into college. Colleges have, there-
fore, become sensitive to the possibility of alienating prospective
students by seeming to be too rigidly structured or to have too
many requirements, of which the language requirement is among
the less palatable.
Should this bill pass, however, the incentive is attractive enough
so that it would soon create a snowball effect that would carry with
it many of the leading colleges and universities, and thus establish
the language requirement as something both educationally sound
and prestigious.
We welcome the fact that H.R. 3231 aims at supporting all
languages and not merely those that may at the moment be strate-
gically significant. We are always better at responding to present
needs than at anticipating future ones. We will do the latter best if
we encourage variety-Western as well as non-Western, modern as
well as ancient languages.
A practical benefit accrues no matter what language is studied,
for since it is the primary vehicle of thought and hence of culture
such study confronts one with other ways of thinking, of perceiving
and structuring reality. It teaches greater awareness of cultural
differences, and thus encourages international understanding. It
also provides a linguistic framework that facilitates the acquisition
of additional languages. - The more languages we know the more
easily do we acquire new ones.
Such transfer of linguistic skills is particularly in evidence with
Latin. There are three reasons for studying it. One, an understand-
ing of its complex morphological and syntactical structure provides
an excellent basis for the study of modern European langages
while it also develops certain analytical skills and a linguistic
sophistication that help one in grasping more quickly other linguis-
tic structures.
Two, it deepens our understanding of English, both by enriching
vocabulary and by forcing us to examine how it functions, how we
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arrange our thoughts, and how we express subtle differences in
meaning. This leads to greater precision of thought and clarity of
expression, both of which further effective communication.
Three, lastly, through Latin and Greek we come in direct contact
with the roots of our culture. They give us the historical perspec-
tive that allows us to break out of the provinciality of our own
time.
Mr. DENARDIS. Thank you very much.
I think you have made some very important points here, not the
least of which is the point which you make with great clarity on
page 3 concerning the reinstitution of the language requirement
and the redistribution of faculty resources. You have given us a
good insight into the politics of economics of the college scene.
Mr. MOSKALEW. I just came out of that scene because we have
instituted in Vassar a language requirement that falls short of
what is envisioned in the bill, and some of the arguments that I
have included here. That is the feeling of the faculty members,
that we might make the colleges less attractive to better students
and fears and the degree of paranoia about losing faculty positions.
That is a reality that we have to face.
Mr. DENARDIS. Certainly that is the environment of decline in
high school graduate numbers of 22 percent nationwide by the mid-
1990's and particularly heavier numbers here in the Northeast. I
think it is 40 to 45 percent, and that is another pressure point
involved in all of this.
I thank both of you very, very much and I will share the salient
points that you have made with my colleagues.
I believe that Dr. John A. Rassias, a distinguished foreign lan-
guage professor from Dartmouth is with us. I must make an apol-
ogy to you. Congressman Paul Simon was here to preside until just
a short time ago when he had to catch a plane for a speaking
engagement in Minneapolis, and Congressman Tom Coleman was
here until a few minutes ago, and he had to leave to make a
connection.
I am here left to greet you and welcome you and to invite you to
make whatever observations you would at this point.
STATEMENT OF JOHN A. RASSIAS, FOREIGN LANGUAGE
PROFESSOR, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Mr. RASSIAS. Thank you and members of the Subcommittee. I
spoke with Paul's office and actually I do not have anything specif-
ic to present. I was going to give some kind of a report on the
matters which I had observed. But as I was driving and trying to
collect my thoughts, the one thing that struck me--
Mr. DENARDIS. May I interrupt for a moment and ask if you
have any written testimony because I would insert that in the
record.
Mr. RASSIAS. These are just random thoughts and Paul asked me
to come here.
Mr. DENARDIS. We are delighted to have your random thoughts.
Mr. RASSIAS. I was impressed about something that happened.
This happened about the latter part of March, in the Committee
for Stanford University at that time and there was a debate raging
on campus as to whether the language requirements ought to be
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reinstated. I was fortunate enough to participate in some of those
discussions and I also had the opportunity to speak with some of
the academic administration of the university.
One of the observations made, and this is something that I think
ought to be brought to the attention of the subcommittee, and
somehow illusions were made to the fact that whenever something
occurs that really occurs, there is a wallop. It is going to have some
effect, I think.
We speculated as to what would happen if Stanford and other
universities, the best in the country, if they were to reinstate the
language requirement and what effect that would have. One of the
theories, of course, was that all of the kids would apply from
various high schools and they would make sure that they would
have Latin. During the debate someone pointed out that this would
really not be too influential, that students, mostly those who went
to Stanford, some 90 percent of those already have the requirement
or at least they have taken languages to satisfy it.
I think that is something that I would like to mention. In truth,
any attempt to make what is already a practice a principle and the
kids do take languages to apply to Stanford, if they really knew
that they had to get it there will be some kind of reaction and
there will be some kind of fallout. This was definitely something
that can be measured.
One of the hopes is, and the reaction I share with some of the
members of that department, having been there a month or so, is
that again indeed the effects that would be felt. For another thing,
one of the ideas was that suppose Stanford does take on this
recommendation and the requirement, would it have national
effect on the media?
On the 25th of June, the Wall Street Journal carried it on the
front page. I use that as an example and the work of the Commis-
sion, I am pleased to say, was one of the huge wedges to break
through some of the negative arguments. That is a very positive
effect, and a very definite one.
At the same time I am pleased to report that other schools that I
visited myself and most recently I came from Oberlin, where the
faculty there is making a real solid drive to make languages
number one, and I don't know that they are going to succeed.
Now, Mr. Chairman, as .1 say, these are random thoughts and I
wanted to be able to give a kind of demonstration of them and
would you like to see the demonstration?
Mr. DENAxnrs. Indeed, would you proceed?
Could I ask you about the state of Dartmouth College?
Mr. RASSIAS. It is booming and I have my good friend here,
Walter, and he will be pleased to know that the classics depart-
ment is booming. There is nothing better than to walk into a class
where you can hear Latin dramatized by some student apprentice
teacher and see everyone participate, not knowing that they only
speak this at the Vatican, if there. These kids are speaking Latin,
which is a wonderful thing.
One of things that I wanted to say before we begin this kind of a
presentation is actually a thought that I would like to continue just
two steps further. One of the recommendations made by the Com-
mission was that we ought to have more workshops throughout the
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country and we ought to have them in various types, and we ought
to have them for a year long or a week long or a month long and
send people to various countries where the languages are spoken in
house service and so on and so forth.
Again, in the spirit of that recommendation I had the good luck
to go to various schools and did some work with colleges, both at
the college level and at the high school level and also invited many
of them to Dartmouth for these weekend-long workshops. We had
them from colleges as well as secondary schools, and this gives us
an opportunity to share ideas, to work in a kind of methodology
that is exciting, and something that we hoped will touch students
and motivate them.
One of the observations was, we came across in the Commission
year, was that if the students are asked "Will you drop languages
and why are you concerned with languages," the single answer
they gave us was that languages were boring.
In order to work against that these workshops have been going
on and we are certainly going to continue them and in fact in-
crease them this year.
What happens during such a workshop is that a demonstration is
given, and the demonstration is like this: I will explain the philos-
ophy of this system and talk about the fact that teaching, one of
the oldest of professions, if not the oldest, has not really looked to
other fields and other disciplines to do something about vitalizing
itself. I maintain that much is to be learned from the acting
profession. It is in the acting profession, for instance, that people
are specifically trained to get the attention of the audience.
We as teachers are not often trained to do that. Often our
courses in education center around how to write on the blackboard,
whereas the actor or the actress has to be totally in command of
the subject and get the people's attention. So we go through five
steps that are rather important and the first of which is self-
knowledge, and everyone is asked to scour over his or her past to
detect negative experiences one has had and to reject those as soon
as possible.
Then we try to find a positive characteristic, those we enjoy in
our own teachers, and I dare say that they were in No. 3, the first
of which is the enthusiasm of the person, the second the respect
that he or she had for us in the classroom by hard work and we
appreciated that respect, and, third, that that person had kind of
an identity.
How do you make a class more than just a teaching vocabulary,
because that is what it is. We ought to pack everything into it and
stay all English. It can't be drilling words, but it has to be with a
cultural bias.
How does the French person shake hands? He shakes them in
one quick pump and then when he sees a woman coming he kisses
her on both cheeks, and all of these things are brought into the
classroom or something is lost. We try to show this to the teachers
first, and then tell them when they get in the class, if it is Spanish,
the same thing. I understand in Latin classics they will kiss right
on the mouth.
These things have to be spoken to the students and there has to
be a cultural awakening that languages are just not words, and
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then we go through the questions, whether the questions that are
used will zap up the class and make the class more exciting and
give the students more involvement and have them, go home at
night and say, "I discovered something."
These are cues which bring out two essential ingredients, one of
which is magic, that everything has a magic quality which we have
to somehow get to and explain to students in different ways, and
new ways that is an exciting way, and then drama, which, of
course, means participation in the action.
Then, finally, there is stage presence, and we do not need the
stage presence as a teacher but we mean most specifically the
student and how that student feels. Does the student feel good to
be in the classroom? And the next is the creative state. I would like
to do this in about 3 minutes.
Mr. DENARDIS. Let me say for the record that on the conclusion
of your demonstration the hearing is adjourned, just in case the
presiding officer has to leave, because he does in fact have to go to
a ground breaking ceremony at 3.
Mr. RASSIAS. Then I will drop the first part of this and give you
the last part. I will give you the creative state.
We feel for them to communicate with everyone or anyone they
have to be sensitive to that person's background. I cannot just walk
up to you and suddenly start to talk, because I do not know
whether you are of that sort or whether he needs it, or what it is.
It will take days to study that and so I will plunge directly into a
definition of sensitivity, which is best defined first by the French
philosophy by the name of Didrotrot. He was a philosopher and I
will do the whole thing in Italian and French and I do not know if
any of you know French, but it does not matter if it is clear, and
you should be able to do it.
We said before if there is magic in teaching and there is drama
in teaching our students should be able to"tune in, if we did not
have lengthy explanations in English, and they should be able to
sense it in the mimicking of the words.
We speak of sensitivity which in French is "la sensible." This is a
definition and, by the way, the whole purpose of this definition
which I use in these workshops and in class, it is obvious overkill,
no one is expected to go into class and do anything approximating
what we will do in this demonstration.
The point of this is to show the students that we are not all
strengths nor are we all weaknesses, but we are a mixture of the
two and this is what they have to appreciate.
[Dr. Rassias then gave a demonstration of a professor teaching in
a French classroom.]
Mr. DENARDIS. I am absolutely enthralled. This has been the
most unusual public hearing I have ever been a party to. I do not
want to go, but I promised some people that I would be present at
this ground breaking.
We appreciate very much the contributions which all of the
witnesses have made to this hearing and we stand adjourned at
this time.
[Whereupon, at 3 o'clock p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR'S COMMISSION ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, SALEM, OREG.
I am a Foreign Service Officer, working under the Pearson program, as Executive
Director of the Oregon Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.
This Commission, the first in the United States created for this purpose, was
established in 1980, with members from business, labor, civic groups, the legislature,
and educational leadership, all unpaid volunteers. Its task is to develop a statewide
program aimed at enhancing the awareness and competence of all the people of
Oregon in regard to the international community.
My own foreign service experience of 23 years includes no dramatic encounters
with language failure (or success). The Foreign Service is an undramatic profes-
sion-Dean Rusk once said our whole purpose is to make the world boring. More-
over, I think the U.S. Foreign Service does better than its counterparts from other
countries in mastering difficult languages. But our national disregard for foreign
language study, which ironically has become more evident as our interdependence
with the rest of the world has intensified, has had severe costs.
Our linguistic apathy has meant, for example, that the State Department and
other agencies have had to spend considerable time and money teaching languages
to people who, in earlier years or in other nations, would probably have learned
them, at least to some relevant level of competence, before entering the service. It
has meant excluding people in the service from consideration for otherwise suitable
assignments, for lack of the necessary language or time to teach it. Probably
greater, but harder to measure, is the cost in terms or irritation, inefficiency, and
lost opportunity, that American officials and businessmen have incurred because
foreign language has not been part of a standard American education.
Still more significant, however, is the myopia that this attitude toward language
represents. As a people we have often enjoyed looking at other nations through the
wrong end of the telescope. Many of us have regarded international studies of all
types-linguistic, political, economic, cultural-as something remote and not really
important in daily life. As the world becomes smaller and more competitive this
attitude becomes increasingly expensive and even dangerous.
Regarding H.R. 3231, the Commission welcomes the effort to strengthen language
studies nationwide, as part of a continuing pursuit of excellence in education gener-
ally. It particularly welcomes provisions for establishing performance standards and
external incentives for study. Model programs by themselves have tended to
strengthen schools that are already strong and to disappear when funds dry up.
What has been lacking is the sense that international studies, linguistic or other-
wise, are worthwhile for their content and as prerequisites for other important
goals-that they are in themselves valuable educational investments comparable
with English, history, and mathematics.
In Oregon, we are stressing the importance of persuading all citizens-teachers,
students, parents, employers, and taxpayers-that greater knowledge of the outside
d world, of foreign languages and foreign societies and how to cope with them, is
essential for the average person's well-being. In immediate terms, for example, such
knowledge will be crucially important in enabling the state and the nation to
participate in the increasingly competitive international marketplace. For the
longer term, greater cultural contact, and understanding of the international com-
munity, will be major factors in determining the security, economic, social, and
political character of the world in which we or our grandchildren will live.
We are seeking ways to instill this appraoch throughout the state, and to institu-
tionalize it for the long term. We believe that a basic attitudinal development along
these lines is the indispensable basis for progress in expanding awareness of the
outside world, and for strengthening the teaching of foreign languages and interna-
tional studies. We would therefore like to suggest that funding for model programs
include support for activities designed not only to further language training but to
maintain pressure for a more internationally conscious approach in the education
(209)
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process, at all levels and in the broadest sense of that term. The Commission also
suggests that the Committee may wish to consider measures for further strengthen-
ing language incentives connected with Federal Employment, not only for the
Foreign Service but for all aspects of employment for which language may be
relevant.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARVIN S. SCHINDLER, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF DE-
PARTMENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES; CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE AND
GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, AND DI-
RECTOR, JUNIOR YEAR IN GERMANY PROGRAM
Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to
speak to you in support of H.R. 3231, certainly the most timely and significant
legislation on behalf of foreign language learning in this country in recent years. I
am representing today both Wayne State University, one of the largest urban
institutions of higher education in the country, and the Association of Departments
of Foreign Languages, a subsidiary of the Modern Language Association of America,
whose membership comprises some 1,000 college and university departments of
foreign languages in the United States.
Although I am professionally involved in higher education, I wish to address
briefly all sections of the bill. For not only does this legislation have the foresight to
speak to the need for and encourage the study of foreign languages at every level
from elementary school through the university, but those who will teach the stu-
dents affected by the bill's provisions must maintain an ongoing dialogue and
develop methods of articulation among the various levels if the legislation is to have
the results desired. In short, the learning of foreign languages is presented quite
correctly in the bill as a continuum extending from our children's earliest education
through the completion of their formal education. No part of it can be disregarded
or considered less essential than another, least of all by those who teach foreign
languages.
H.R. 3231 seeks to implement ways of helping to solve a problem which has
enormous implications for the vitality of our nation's continued participation in
world affairs in the future. A solution to this problem is nothing less than essential
to the political, economic, and cultural stability and well-being of the United States.
The problem well described in the 1979 "report of the President's Commission on
Foreign Languages and International Studies" and admirably highlighted in your
Chairs recent book, "The Tongue-Tied American," is that of American monolingual-
ism, an affliction which strikes young and old alike and which is perhaps most
conspicuously virulent in the most unlikely segment of our population, those who
have completed the highest levels of higher education and who go on to hold the
most sensitive positions in government and in the business world. Moreover, incom-
prehensibly in our world today, the disease is spreading, its consequences felt more
each day. Our previous band-aid approaches at selective remedy for a few cases once
the fever was well underway are absolutely insufficient when most of the rest of the
world with which we deal regularly have undergone massive immunization at the
earliest age. What is needed in the United States now is nothing less then a
nationwide innoculation program. If the language seems extreme in its rhetoric, I
submit that it is no more so than the reality of our situation, which is reflected
realistically by such facts as that the number of students of English in the Soviet
Union outnumber American students of Russian by nearly ten million to 28,000.
Such a one-way conversation with the Soviet Union as would seem to be mandated
by these figures must be unacceptable to this country.
But this committee has already heard, I am sure, a wealth of documentation and
statistics pointing out the fact that the absolute number of students enrolled in the
study of a foreign language and, perhaps even more significant, the number of such
students as a percentage of all enrolled students at all levels of our educational
system, has been declining steadily during the past decade, and I see no real need to
repeat most of these figures to you today. But such basic facts as that only fifteen
percent of all United States high school students are today studying a foreign
language, with only three percent of them continuing beyond the second year; that
only eight percent of the nation's colleges and universities require a foreign lan-
guage for admission; and that enrollments in the aptly termed, and often critically
needed, "uncommonly taught languages" are virtually non-existent, do bear repeat-
ing, because they are shocking. For a complex of historical, geographical, cultural,
and economic reasons the study of modern foreign languages has never been an
organic part of the curriculum at any level of our educational system. America's
often-cited insularity, certainly insofar as it has been reflected in an unwillingness
to learn foreign languages, was for the better part of three centuries a historically,
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geographically, and economically imposed insularity. Human beings, as human
beings, have never been eager to spend the time and energy needed for other
essential tasks to work at things which seemed unnecessary. While the peoples of
nations throughout most of the rest of the world, in close proximity to countries
whose people spoke other languages than their own, could not escape from the
earliest times the absolute necessity of learning foreign languages in order to
function economically, politically, and even socially, no such pressure was felt by
the people of the United States, for most of whom, until very recent times, the miles
across an ocean might just as well have been light years. Thus foreign languages,
like many other desirable but "unessential" parts of the curriculum, remained at
the periphery of American education, a luxury too often considered as appropriate
for an educationally and culturally elite, at the very worst a "frill" to be eliminated
from curricula at the drop of a hat-or a millage. Indeed, in view of these very
public hearings and the renewed intensity of interest in the teaching and learning
of foreign languages in this country, it is sad and disheartening, though not unex-
pected, to note that with the failure of a millage proposal this past summer a large
school district just northeast of Detroit acted predictably by eliminating at one
stroke all foreign language programs in the junior high schools.
But the entire constellation of world affairs has changed, and what did not grow
as a natural part of our educational programs must now be grafted onto them with
outside assistance. And because of our past history regarding learning foreign
languages, we must all work a bit harder at getting foreign languages to be an
ongoing and accepted part of our curricula.
Yet there are signs of a new awareness of the increasing need for persons in or
society with foreign language skills-sadly, perhaps tragically, at a time when the
available pool of such persons is shrinking. Thus an article last year in Business
Week cites the Business Council for International Understanding Institute, which
specializes in cross-cultural indoctrination for families slated for overseas posts, as
indicating an increase in corporate requests processed for intensive language train-
ing of families of from 4 percent to 24 percent in two years. More and more United
States corporations, the article goes on to say, are stressing language skills in the
people they transfer abroad. Indeed, the same article reports that Citibank corpora-
tion will no longer allow foreign-bound executives to leave the country for their
assignments abroad unless they are at least "socially conversant" with the host
language, according to Hoyle C. Jones, a vice-president in charge of personnel for
Western Europe. The information and data already available to the Committee
make the reasons for this new emphasis abundantly clear-economic self-sufficiency
is no longer a realistic goal for our or any country. It is rapidly being replace by the
reality of economic interdependence. And the language of a sale abroad is indeed
the language of the buyer. The importance of a knowledge of the foreign language
involved goes far beyond question of accurate understanding of technical matters
and the basic ability to communicate. In his testimony before this committee in
July, Admiral Bobby R. Inman, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, testifying to
the vital importance of adequate foreign language capability in the intelligence
community, makes a statement which applies equally well to any hope of success we
many have in international trade:
`The success of our officers overseas depends to a very large extent on intangible
psychological and human factors, on feelings of trust and confidence, and on person-
al rapport. Speaking the other person's language plays a critical role in this chemis-
try."
Admiral Inman's further testimony can leave no doubt the importance of thor-
ough foreign language training for the defense and security of our country. Calling
for "decisive action' by the government to help reverse the trend of the foreign
language capability of our country, which he calls "poor and growing worse,"
Admiral Inman goes on to say that he is limited in what he can disclose "about the
statistical effect declining foreign language ability has had on our operations. Suf-
fice to say that we have been impacted severely." He testified further that the
problem has been aggravated by the failure of colleges and universities to mandate
foreign language requirements.
Given our interdependent world, it is appropriate that we see today nationally
and at every level of education a strong movement to broaden our citizens' knowl-
edge of and sensitivity to that world, in which they must clearly play and increasing
and increasingly direct role in the future. Clark Kerr, in his introduction to Barbara
Burns' recently published "Expanding the International Dimenisions of Higher
Education," puzzles over the problem he sees:
"It is hard to understand why Americans seem to know or care so little about the
international dimensions of their lives, when it is so obvious that we share our
world with men and women of different countries and cultures. Young people are
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likely to know more about prospects for life on other planets than they do about the
problems of human survival faced by people in the less developed countries on
earth."
Curricular revision towards the goal of developing "global perspectives" in our
youth, which has been emerging in the past few years, is one positive sign of
movement in that direction. But one of the problems of international and area
studies programs in the past has been that too many of them did not contain foreign
languages as a required component, and I cannot believe that anything approaching
"global perspectives" can be achieved if the students involved are not studying a
foreign language, the one uniquely suited vehicle for opening the way to under-
standing a foreign culture in the broadest and most applicable sense of the term. A
more general, but not less important indication of the need for foreign language
study can be seen from the results of a recent study by Eugene Timpe, Chairman of
the Foreign Language Department at Southern Illinois University, which seems to
indicate clearly a correlation between foreign language study and high achievement
on ACT verbal scores, with the most benefit from the study of a foreign language
apparently accruing to those students who were not in a high school college pre-
paratory program, who were not in the top quarter of their high school classes, and
who did not have the highest grade point averages, facts which argue strongly for
the significant role foreign language study could play in improving the educational
achievement of all our students, not just an intellectual elite. Finally, while it is
always difficult to gauge public sentiment in such matters-and because of the
complexities of our system of education, especially where funding is involved, that
sentiment is not, I believe, always accurately reflected in existing curricula-it
would seem that there has perhaps never been more clear recognition of the need
for and value of increased foreign language study on the part of the people of this
country. The results of a recent national survey conducted by the University of
Michigan's Institute for Survey Research and the Center for Applied Linguistics
show that an overwhelming majority of Americans support the offering of foreign
languages in elementary schools and junior and senior high schools and are encour-
aging their children to study a language.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, H.R. 3231 will take a major step
towards making it possible for our schools and colleges to answer the demands, the
needs, and the desire for expanded foreign language study I have referred to above,
for it will encourage foreign language study at all levels, reward innovative and
imaginative teaching, and provide what must be considered seed money, needed
desperately in these times of frightening retrenchment in funding for education, to
create ultimately an atmosphere conducive to the cultivation and growth of foreign
language programs which, I have no doubt, will then flourish in relative independ-
ence of federal support monies. It will create also the structure for needed correla-
tion of programs and cooperation among programs at all levels of education. It is a
fitting and timely response to the needs reflected in the report of the President's
Commission, to those needs and expectations expressed in House Concurrent Resolu-
tion 301, approved by the House and the Senate last November and December as a
sense of the Congress, and to what appear now to be the wishes of a very large
segment of our population.
I would like to offer some comments on specific sections of the bill:
Section 2. All of our experience and research indicates that foreign language
learning is easiest, most enjoyable, and most successful when begun with children of
pre-school through primary school age and reinforced thereafter by continued regu-
lar study. One of the problems of the FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary
School) programs, begun auspiciously in the 1960's but now all but extinct, was the
frustration often caused by lack of continuity in the later school years. This section
of the bill provides encouragement for the necessary early start in foreign language
learning and offers incentives for the equally important aspect of reinforcement of
learned skills through program continuity throughout the high school years. The
model programs segment is important for the incentive it will lend to the develop-
ment of creative and imaginative techniques and approaches to foreign language
teaching.
Sections 3 and 4. These sections recognize and encourage the role which colleges
and universities must play in reversing the present deficiencies in our foreign
language capability as a nation and at the same time require a clear, realistic, and
welcome institutional commitment to that role at the outset by requiring a reason-
able percentage of the institutions' total enrollment to be already registered in
foreign language coursework before funding will be made available. This is as it
should be, for the institutions themselves should demonstrate their own sense of
priorities in this respect as well as their own sensitivity to an urgent national need
before being considered eligible for federal funds.
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In encouraging foreign language requirements by colleges and universities, the
bill responds appropriately to the Perkins Committee Report opinion that these
requirements should be reinstated in school, colleges, and universities throughout
the country. I am aware that there are those in our profession who are not as
enthusiastic about the reinstatement of such requirements, citing lack of motivation
and even outright hostility to the learning process in many students who are forced
against their will into language study. Indeed, we should like nothing more than
larger numbers of students who come to us fully committed to the study of foreign
languages and highly motivated to undertake it. And that day may well come,
especially if contact with and experience of a foreign language is begun regularly in
the earliest years as a result of such incentives as H.R. 3231 will provide. As with so
many things, accepted curricula and ideas of adequate education result from accept-
ed patterns which develop firmly over time, although they never become inflexibly
unresponsive to a felt need for change. Historically, there has been no real pattern,
no established tradition of comprehensive foreign language study in our schools on
which we can rely. If the plant does not grow on its own, then the seeds must be
resown and cultivated carefully until foreign language is accepted as a normal and
essential part of education in this country. And if, as I suspect, one of the effects of
requirements at the college and university levels is to move students to begin their
study of a language in the lower schools long before they reach college, so much the
better, for a good early experience will determine their later attitude towards
foreign languages and make college and university programs more meaningful,
substantive, efficient, and enjoyable for all.
Finally, the support provided by the bill for study beyond the second year is
absolutely essential. Whether we in the profession promised too much under what
used to be a more or less traditional two-year foreign language requirement, or
whether our clientele simply expected too much, the discontent of many who stud-
ied a language for four semesters and then complained that they were unable to
function adequately in that language is understandable, but, I believe, partly dis-
torted the degree of effectiveness of the coursework. Most specialists agree that a
minimum of three to four years of study at the college level in our educational
system, where students spend perhaps an hour a day in an artificially constructed
foreign language milieu, only to leave it again almost completely for the remaining
twenty-three hours, are ngcessary for any degree of proficiency. At the third and
fourth-year Levels, where enrollments are small and budgets lean, such support as
this bill provides is indispensable.
I want to thank you
for once again, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommit-
his important and sorely needed
tee, this opportunity to express opinion , on t p
legislation. On behalf of Wayne State University and the Association of Depart-
ments of Foreign Languages, I offer enthusiastic endorsement and support of H.R.
3231.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM GREENE, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL/INTER-
CULTURAL EDUCATION, BROWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, I am William Greene, Director of
International Education at Broward Community College. Broward Community Col-
lege is a large, multicampus institution serving the metropolitan Fort Lauderdale,
Hollywood, and Pompano Beach areas of Southeast Florida. I also serve as the
Executive Committee Chairman of the Florida Collegiate Consortium for Interna-
tional/Intercultural Education. This Consortium, comprised of 12 colleges and uni-
versities in Florida, was created in 1977 for the purpose of encouraging and coordi-
nating international education efforts among institutions of higher learning in
Florida.
Perhaps as much as any state, Florida can serve as an excellent example of why
an increased emphasis on foreign language and international studies is of critical
importance to the United States. Several facts can be cited as evidence of the
increasing international character of Florida:
More than 40 nations maintain consulates in Florida.
Florida has established international trade bureaus in Frankfort and Tokyo.
13 international ports have been established in Florida by the United States
Customs Bureau.
Hundreds of international flights operate daily from Florida airports.
More than 1/2 million non-U.S. citizens currently reside in Florida.
Direct foreign investment in Florida exceeds 1 billion dollars.
In 1980, exports from Florida ports exceeded 10 billion dollars while approximate-
ly $6 billion in imports entered the United States through Florida. This represented
a 40% increase over 1979.
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In 1980, over 2 million international visitors came to Florida.
Almost 15,000 foreign students are enrolled in Florida colleges and universities.
It must also be noted, however, that the rapid internationalization of Florida has
occurred concurrently with the development of problems unique to the state. The
recent influx of refugees from the Caribbean into South Florida has created enor-
mous economic and social problems and has contributed to a backlash against
anything "foreign." This has served to hamper efforts to promote international
understanding. At a time when Florida's future is largely tied to international
developments, growing numbers of Floridians have become resentful of the multi-
cultural nature of our population.
It is clear that an increased emphasis on foreign language education and interna-
tional studies is in the national interest. It is not necessary for me to add to the vast
and growing body of evidence that supports this premise. Mr. Simon has provided us
with a powerful statement in his excellent publication, "The Tongue-Tied Ameri-
can." Our national security, both military and economic, is indeed at stake. It is
vitally important that schools, colleges, and universities in the United States ac-
knowledge their responsibility to educate future generations of students to live and
function effectively in an increasingly interdependent world. The foundation of our
democratic society requires no less because, for us to survive as a democracy, we
must have an educated citizenry.
In view of the current situation, H.R. 3231 can be an important step in helping to
reverse the serious decline in this nation's foreign language capabilities. Moreover,
it is entirely appropriate as it addresses the federal responsibility to encourage
programs and efforts that are in the national interest.
While the economic incentives provided by H.R. 3231 will undoubtedly encourage
foreign language study at all levels of education, I think it is important to repeat
the well-known cliche that "money alone is not enough." Foreign language study
desperately needs strong support and encouragement from all segments of educa-
tion. School and college administrators, faculty members, and guidance counselors
must provide leadership if we are going to reverse the downward trend in foreign
language enrollments. Academic programs for all majors should be re-examined to
leave room in the curriculum for foreign languages and international studies. We
must overcome ignorance and indifference if we are to succeed-but this has always
been the challenge for education.
There have been some encouraging developments that can be cited as evidence
that we may be on the verge of a resurgence of interest in foreign languages.
Growing numbers of colleges and universities are reinstituting foreign language
requirements for graduation, and several have adopted or are considering foreign
language requirements for admission. Many national organizations and associations
are providing leadership by focusing attention on the seriousness of the problem.
Regional and national consortia have been formed to promote international studies,
foreign languages, and study-abroad programs. Community colleges have assumed a
major role in advocating and developing international education programs. H.R.
3231 is appropriate in its timeliness as it will complement and encourage these
efforts.
H.R. 3231 represents an ambitious beginning. It is important, however, that we
not lose sight of the overall objective-that of advancing our knowledge of other
peoples and cultures. Foreign languages are an important tool for increasing global
awareness, but they should not be viewed as an end product. A recent study
conducted by the Council on Learning revealed little correlation between language
proficiency and world knowledge. The study concluded that, among U.S. college
students, no relationship exists between the level of global understanding and
proficiency in a modern foreign language.
This study presents us with a serious dilemma. It documents the lack of interest
in foreign language study by U.S. college students. But it also reports that while
large numbers of students have studied a foreign language at some time (most often
in the ninth and tenth grades), only seven percent of those students surveyed
possess adequate conversational skills in a foreign language. This unfortunate reali-
ty raises serious questions about the effectiveness of foreign language instruction in
our schools and colleges. Many prominent educators and national leaders, as well as
the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, have
urged that conversational skills be emphasized in foreign language courses. It is also
apparent that some integration of foreign language instruction with cultural and
international studies is desirable. We must do more than just expose increasing
numbers of students to foreign language courses: We must explore alternative
approaches to instruction.
While I am in complete support of the intent of H.R. 3231, I do have some specific
concerns about the impact it might have on foreign language instruction, especially
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as it relates to community colleges. These institutions are of great importance as
over half of all entering freshmen in the United States enroll in community col-
leges.
(1) H.R. 3231 would certainly lead to increased enrollments in foreign language
courses, and would provide incentives to train increased numbers of foreign lan-
guage specialists that are so vital to this nation's future security. At the postsecond-
ary level, however, the greatest impact would occur at 4-year colleges and universi-
ties. The 5 percent minimum enrollment figure referred to in Section 3 would
effectively exclude many community colleges from deriving benefits from the bill.
(2) The additional incentive for students enrolled in foreign language courses
beyond the second year does not benefit community colleges.
(3) While alternative approaches to foreign language instruction are encouraged
at the elementary and secondary levels, the requirement that a foreign language
course meet for at least 250 minutes per week might discourage innovative and
nontraditional instructional approaches at the postsecondary level.
I would like to offer the following suggestions for expanding the beneficial impact
of H.R. 3231:
(1) Community colleges should be treated separately from other postsecondary
institutions, perhaps by encouraging model programs similar to those being sought
at the elementary and secondary level.
(2) The 5 percent enrollment base should be replaced with a formula that rewards
actual or percentage increases in foreign language enrollments.
(3) That part of the bill which provides increased assistance for the costs of
foreign language instruction above the second year should be rewritten so as to
permit two-year institutions to benefit when offering advanced language courses.
(4) An additional bonus should be included for students receiving foreign language
instruction while enrolled in a study-abroad program. This would help institutions
offset the additional costs of overseas study programs and would lead to increased
student participation.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, I wish to express my appreciation for having been
given the opportunity of appearing before this subcommittee today. The prospect of
renewed federal initiatives in the area of international studies and foreign lan-
guages is exciting. I am optimistic that the schools, colleges, and universities of this
nation can be enlisted in the effort to improve our global awareness.
For many years, educators and psychologists have referred to the term IQ as an
index of intelligence. Perhaps it is time for us to consider a new term that will have
special relevance for all levels of education, as well as for this nation's prosperty
and security in the coming decades. We can call this new term IIQ-"International
Intelligence Quotient." The IIQ of Americans is not very high. We must reverse this
situation if America is to meet its international responsibilities, if American busi-
ness is to survive in an increasingly competitive world, and if American citizens are
to exercise responsibly their rights in a democratic society.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MANUEL A. MENCIA, INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE,
OFFICE FOR LATIN AMERICAN TRADE, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
In my capacity as an international representative for the State of Florida Depart-
ment of Commerce, I have had an opportunity to observe first-hand the detrimental
effects that the inability of most Americans to communicate effectively in foreign
languages has had on our balance of trade and our international prestige.
The overwhelming technical superiority that the United States enjoyed following
World War II no longer exists, as even the quality of American products, long
unchallenged, becomes more and more suspect in the eyes of our foreign clients. Yet
the misconception that "English is the language of business", and thus that lan-
guage skills and knowledge of foreign cultures are only a secondary consideration in
the decision-making process of choosing international representatives, remains.
I believe this cultural myopia has created a self-enacted trade barrier more
effective than any protective tariff ever established. While our competitors continue
to succeed in penetrating even our most traditional markets due to their ability to
adapt their product conditions to the cultural patterns of their target country,
Americans continue to trasact business, as well as diplomacy, through interpreters.
Consequently, it is no surprise that we are constantly outmaneuvered by our com-
petitors in business deals where delicate, on-the-spot negotiations are necessary.
My area of specialty is Latin America and the Caribbean, and when we talk about
competition in this area, I am referring not only to our traditional Japanese and
Western European competitors, but also of Koreans, Brazilians, Taiwanese, etc., who
are aggressively and successfully penetrating Latin American markets once consid-
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ered our own backyard. Almost uniformly these competitors outstrip their Ameri-
can counterparts in the essential language skill resource.
The feeling in our business community too often has been that language skills
and cultural awareness can be purchased as needed. In Latin America, where
personal relationships play such a key role in the conduct of business, I have seen
many monolingual Americans learn the sad lesson through lost opportunities and
contracts, that the most important language for business is really the language
spoken in the country of your potential client.
That English may be the most frequently spoken language in the business world
is little consolation to a salesman trying to sell to a potential client in Venezuela
who speaks only Spanish or to a Brazilian who knows only Portuguese, because
while you can pass on price information and product specifications through an
interpreter or printed literature, it is impossible to create the personal rapport so
necessary to build a proper client-supplier relationship through a third party.
If you are familiar with the style normally used at the negotiating table, involv-
ing signals, proposal and counter-proposals, etc., it is easier to conceptualize the
disadvantage under which an American must compete when relying on an inter-
preter for accuracy against foreigners who are usually capable of communicating
quickly with one another.
The saga of South Florida's international development supports my contention
that the development of foreign language skills is a hidden asset waiting to be
tapped by our country and that language promotion is as beneficial to the American
business community, and in turn to our economy, as is international business
education or export promotion.
In 1980, as America continued to lose its position as the principal force in world
trade, and while our national balance of trade picture was further clouded by a
$32.3 billion deficit, the State of Florida was generating a $3.8 billion trade surplus
and increasing the CIF value of its exports to a record $10.34 billion.
Approximately 70 percent to 75 percent of the total exports of Florida moved
south to Latin America and the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, the role of Florida,
and particularly the Miami area, in interamerican trade, has become so prominent
that in 1980 approximately 30 percent of the total exports of the United States to
Latin America (except Mexico) proceeded from Miami's Custom District 52.
There are many valid reasons why South Florida has developed from an area
generally perceived as tourist-oriented and hostile to industry just a decade ago, into
a principal center of Latin American trade and finance. No doubt our privileged
geographic location and port facilities are among the foremost; but there can also be
no denial that the internationalization that the area experienced in the past two
decades as a result of a massive Latin American influx, created the conditions for a
socio-economic milieu conducive to ever-increasing economic exchange with foreign
countries.
I believe that the ever-growing, multi-cultural atmosphere that so changed the
face of Miami, was also instrumental in generating our trade pattern with Latin
America. Miami's multilingual capability created an ambience which permitted
visiting Latin entrepreneurs to take full advantage of America's highly efficient
service industries, of our banks and superior systems of communication and trans-
portation without the necessity of having to function in an alien language. By
parlaying a mere language skill, the ability of thousands of South Floridians to
function both in Spanish and English, the Miami area has been able to attract Latin
American business in such quantities that today foreign trade is not only our fastest
growing industry, but also will soon be our largest.
A different phenomenon that has been occurring in the same Miami area can also
serve as a microcosm to highlight the difficulties that Americans are facing in alien
lands. I am referring to the ever-increasing difficulty that English-only speakers are
having finding jobs in an area where foreign language skills are placed at a
premium. (Today, one out of every four jobs in the Miami area depends on interna-
tional trade and tourism.) Often, native Floridians have been forced to relocate to
other areas due to their inability to compete for jobs where the ability to speak a
foreign language is a distinct advantage. This is a sad state of affairs, and a poor
reflection on our educational system, which has done little or nothing to address the
problem, even in the face of evidence that proves that the study of language and
international relations is essential due to the ever-growing interdependence of our
world.
That is why I consider the passage of Bill H.R. 3231 of the highest importance.
The bill provides the funding mechanism to help the local school systems and
universities address this deficiency in our education system.
If America is to recover its way on the world market, we must develop a new
generation of American Businessmen who can compete in equality of conditions
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with their counterparts throughout the world. There is no better place to start
working towards this worthy goal than the school rooms.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM R. FOLKS, JR., PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
My name is William R. Folks, Jr., and I am Program Director of International
Business at the University of South Carolina. I am most appreciative of the opportu-
nity to provide testimony regarding House Resolution 3231. In the first part of my
remarks I would like to provide my general views regarding the importance of
foreign language education as it relates to business and business education. In my
view American companies engaged in international business suffer from a crucial
deficiency: a general inability to communicate in the language and cultural frame of
reference of foreign customers and clients. Abler individuals than I, including the
Chairman of this Subcommittee, have so clearly documented this deficiency that it
would be redundant of me to address this issue today. Rather, I would like to report on
of an approach to removing this deficiency which would benefit greatly from the
support engendered by this legislation.
There are three essential elements in the education of a culturally aware, commu-
nicating cadre of international business leaders:
(1) The provision of basic communication skills in at least one foreign language;
(2) The development of an in-depth understanding of the geographical, cultural,
political, and economic structure of a country or region;
(3) The provision of first-rate undergraduate or graduate education in business
administration, with a particular orientation toward the problems and opportunities
of the international environment.
I cannot overemphasize the necessity of linking the three areas of education
together in order to develop international managers. In particular, foreign language
training in isolation can only have a limited impact on American international
economic performance.
The University of South Carolina has been a leader in the development of entry
level managers with the requisite international business, language, and cultural
skills. With 193 students, our Masters in International Business Studies (MIBS)
degree program is the largest program in international business accredited by the
American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, and the only accredited
program to require that each U.S. national demonstrate or acquire capability in a
language other than English. We currently offer programs in French, German,
Portuguese, and Spanish, and are introducing new programs in Arabic and Japa-
nese in June 1982.
In addition to our language requirement, we also arrange for our students to
participate in a compensated six month internship program in a country and
culture which utilizes the language which each has learned. I have attached a list of
the progressive companies which support our operations to my written testimony.
In a day where the ultimate test of the viability of a particular mode of education
is its performance in the marketplace, I can report that the business/cultural/
language capability combination of our graduates has been well received. Graduates
of our most recent Class of 1981 report a median starting salary of $25,000, with
$30,000 as a maximum; parenthetically, only a small number of our graduates had
any meaningful business experience prior to entering the program.
The evidence thus suggests that American businesses are indeed interested in the
development of entry level personnel with language skills. Why, then, is it neces-
sary to seek governmental support for foreign language education, and, if the case
for support is made, what form would that support take?
I believe that the answers to these questions lie first in the present and future
technology of foreign language education. Currently, instruction in foreign language
is labor intensive, requiring low ratios of faculty to students to be effective. Further,
to the extent that there exists a payoff to the addition of capital, in the form of
laboratory equipment, or computer assisted instruction, an environment of stable or
declining enrollments creates administrative reluctance to acquire the necessary
resources. Such reluctance is particularly apparent in the less commonly studied
languages, and has materially impeded our efforts to develop business and language
programs in Japanese and Arabic. Enrollment based funding as envisioned in House
Resolution 3231 would increase significantly the resource base for exploring and
implementing new creative approaches to language education.
A second major benefit of enrollment based funding, particularly if coupled with
funding for universities requiring language instruction for all students, develops
from the patterns of exposure to the initial foreign language learning experience
observed in our students. Very few students in our graduate MIBS program obtain
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their initial language instruction during our program. Most have some prior back-
ground in language. We have had great difficulty convincing business undergrad-
uates who have never studied language to do so for the first time. In my view, an
earlier exposure to language is vital if we are to overcome this reluctance.
I of course strongly endorse the approach taken in House Resolution 3231, and
would only make one or two minor comments on the mechanics of the bill itself. In
my view it would be more appropriate to provide higher levels of support for the
skill building language courses (the basic courses and advanced conversation and
grammar courses) rather than support for the traditionial literature courses normal-
ly taught at the upper level. The national need addressed by the legislation is the
lack of trained businessmen and diplomats, a deficiency remedied by building up
general skills rather than literary ones. Further, I would certainly prefer a realloca-
tion of rewards to schools concentrating in the less commonly taught languages,
which would guarantee that funds provided under the legislation would be more
readily channelled to areas where we are woefully inadequate.
However, even without these changes, I believe the legislation is worthy of your
support. Thank you again for the opportunity to present my views, and I would be
happy to respond to any questions which you might have.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF RICHARD M. BURTON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION, DUKE UNIVERSITY; VISITING PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITE D' AIx-
MARSEILLE, FRANCE, 1975, 1976-77; AND VISITING PROFESSOR, ODENSE UNIVERSITY,
DENMARK, SUMMER 1978
American businessmen are becoming less dominant in international and multina-
tional business.
This is particularly true for lower and middle level managerial positions. Ameri-
cans have the technical skills and the ability, but are lacking in language skills and
cultural understanding. Executives from many other countries with equal ability
and technical skills have a much better understanding of international culture and
foreign languages which serves them well in business. The conclusion in obvious.
These positions are increasingly being filled by others.
American corporations put a good face on this situation "we hire local nationals,
wherever possible." Their experience is that American executives and their families
who go abroad are usually not very productive and are expensive. It is a situation
which can be changed, but only through action.
The long run implications are also clear. The next generation of top level busi-
nessmen will be non-American. It is not a particularly encouraging prediction.
Further, unless actions are taken to encourage the study of language and culture
such as H.R. 3231, these conditions will continue, and continue to grow to our
comparative international disadvantage.
We need a revived effort in the study of foreign language-not only for an
understanding of language and literature but for international business and our
important role in it.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. CRAIG PHILLIPS, NORTH CAROLINA STATE
SUPERINTENDENT
It is ironic that, as our society's need for improved foreign language skills has
increased, our attention to and emphasis on this matter in our schools has de-
creased. Our students must be afforded the opportunities to become global citizens
through foreign language education; ours is a world in which individuals and groups
are affected by international activity, thinking and communication. Foreign lan-
guage education is not just preferable, it is essential to the preparation of citizens
who can function and contribute in the world community.
Let me share with you some statistics, which, when juxtaposed, provide shocking
contrasts:
80 percent of the world's population speaks Chinese, Japanese and Arabic;
Conversely, only 1 percent of our public school students are enrolled in these
language courses nationwide;
One out of six American citizens owes his job to foreign trade; but sadly;
Americans lose out on one hundred thousands jobs a year because they do not
know a second language.
Foreign language study in our schools can no longer be considered a frill. We can
no longer rationalize our neglect in this area by saying, "English is the number one
language," or "Foreign languages are not required for college anyway." Our stu-
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dents simply must be equipped to communicate with other people of varying nation-
alities to understand the problems which the citizens of the world community share.
Research on foreign language education indicates that:
Students learn their own and foreign languages best before age 10 (Renfield,
1971);
Students enrolled in foreign language courses tend to become more verbal;
Students who are more verbal score higher on general achievement tests
(ERIC studies);
Language proficiency accounts for 50 to 80 percent of the variance on tests of
all types: IQ, personality, achievement, math and aptitude (Oler et al., 1978).
Foreign language proficiency means more than higher test scores. Foreign lan-
guage proficiency means jobs. In North Carolina alone, 1600 businesses operate on
an international level. Four hundred forty-five of these deal in importing and
exporting, and 109 foreign companies have established their businesses on North
Carolina soil. Not only our public school systems, but also our business communities
must join in the effort to recognize the need for and promote the hiring of employ-
ees with foreign language proficiency. Business-related jobs, couples with ever in-
creasing tourism dictate that foreign language education be reaffirmed and reem-
phasized in our schools. From 1972 to 1981 the number of foreign tourists on
American soil grew from 13.1 million to 24 million, with an influx of 11.4 million
from our neighbors in Canada, 3.2 million from Mexico, 1.1 million from Japan, half
a million from Venezuela, one third million from France, and almost 6 million from
other nations. The necessity to communicate with people from other nations has
come to us. It is here; we do not even have to leave North Carolina to feel its
impact.
What can we do to prepare our students to live in the world community? There
are several steps which must be taken:
First, we must learn from our neighbors in the world community. They take
foreign language education much more seriously then we do and the results are
obvious in math, science and industry.
Second, our secondary schools and institutions of higher learning must adopt a
more rigorous academic approach which includes increasing the-number of foreign
language offerings and the number of years thay may be taken. (Did you know that
only 8 percent of American colleges and universities now require a foreign language
for admission?)
Third, more foreign language teachers must be trained.
Fourth, foreign language education must begin earlier than high school. Our
elementary school children are eager and receptive.
National legislation has helped science, math and vocational studies, and it has
addressed the needs of our "special" exceptional children. House Bill 3231 offers the
chance to improve foreign language education through the combined use of federal,
state and local funds. Together, these monies, the concerned educators who adminis-
ter them, and foreign language teachers will be able to help North Carolina's
elementary and secondary level students as well as students at the post secondary
level.
Foreign language study is no longer the isolated intellectual pursuit of our very
best students. Foreign language competency is an ever growing essential in our
daily lives. Together, this bill and North Carolina educators can increase the prepa-
ration needed for our students to participate in the business, culture, industry and
knowledge of the world community.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHILIP STEWART, CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE
LANGUAGES, DUKE UNIVERSITY, AND VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
TEACHERS OF FRENCH
Mr. Chairman, Honorable Congressmen, and guests: As H.R. 3231 recognizes,
nothing less than a national program targeting all age groups is likely to give the
needed impetus to language learning and move us toward a public attitude that
naturally assumes and promotes its value, as is the case in many European coun-
tries. It is well known that children are better language learners than adults, and it
is to them that language teaching is least available in today's educational picture.
I would like to direct my remarks, however, to the particular importance of the
role played by language requirements in the colleges, for its effect is far greater
than is sometimes realized. Rather than cite statistics on this subject, which have
already been compiled by the Presidential Commission and other professional and
governmental agencies, let me devote my brief remarks here to the broad implica-
tions, as I see them, of this particular issue. As you know, by the late 1960's many of
the colleges which previously required languages for graduation had weakened or
eliminated that requirement; and while that trend seems to have halted a few years
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ago, and even reversed, it has not brought the level of language enrollments back to
where it was: re-instituted requirements are usually not as demanding as were their
former versions. The consequence has been an unfortunate weakening of language
offerings in the secondary schools.
This is, of course, perfectly understandable from the point of view of secondary
school administration. High school budgets are strained, and their priorities are
going to be determined, at least in those schools which prepare substantial numbers
of their students for college, by what the colleges themselves demand by way of
adequate preparation. If the message seems to be that language training is unessen-
tial to a college education, then secondary language programs are vulnerable to
trimming. That is what has happened, not only in terms of total student hours in
language classes but in terms also of variety of instruction. Relatively few schools
now offer any Russian or German at all, for instance; and frequently French and
Spanish offerings are reduced to just two years instead of four or five, or worse yet
to just one language. By the same token, high school students are not urged by their
counselors, even those who personally would favor language training, to make sure
they at least get started in a language or satisfy their language requirement in
advance of college matriculation.
In short, the question of college language requirements is a major influence on
secondary school language offerings and course enrollments. The bill under consid-
eration quite rightly places great emphasis on the college question, and for reasons
that thus go well beyond the statistics relating to college-level study alone. There
are probably very few colleges and universities which now require the two years of
post-secondary credits which the bill would promote under Sec. 4. (a)(1); a significant
inducement of this kind should be tried. The provisions of Sec. 3. would even more
generally encourage colleges to fill their language classrooms, not only by scaling
the federal support to the enrollment levels, but by augmenting it in function of the
attainment level of those enrollments.
The less commonly taught languages are almost exclusively limited to universi-
ties. Although no one doubts their importance to the national interest, the universi-
ties, also for financial reasons, have difficulty staffing such courses with their
predictably low enrollments. In my opinion, the subsidy increment proposed in Sec.
3(b)(2) would go a long way toward offsetting that burden, and therefore toward
multiplication of the courses available in such designated languages.
That is the perspective of a teacher in a college language department. I am
pleased to be accompanied here today by two colleagues in other schools of my
university, who can speak to their concerns in domains of their own professional
competence.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
Brooklyn, N. Y., October 5, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
U.S. House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIMON: I write to express my support for H.R. 3231, the
Foreign Language Improvement Act, as well as my appreciation for your long-
standing efforts to increase the study of foreign languages by Americans.
I am personally aware of the sense of heritage and tradition which the study of
languages can provide. As the chief administrator of the public school system in the
world capital of New York City, I am especially cognizant and supportive of the
need to provide students with the foreign language skills necessary to interact in
the world community. The New York City Board of Education, at my request,
recently approved a one-year foreign language study requirement for the high
school diploma, and curriculum is being developed with which to implement it.
Although I strongly support the intent of the Foreign Language Improvement
Act, I must urge that elementary and secondary schools receive a fairer share of the
Federal funds. The proposed appropriation inordinately favors higher education and
fails to recognize that programs at both levels are critical in addressing the prob-
lems which you have identified, offer equally important approaches, and therefore
deserve equivalent appropriations.
Foreign language skills are best learned in the critical early years of a child's life.
But there is much to be done in the classroom if elementary and secondary schools
are to rebuild once strong foreign language programs. The New York City Public
Schools might use new program money to create teacher training centers, develop
coordinators for elementary school programs, and introduce programs in the rarer
languages in secondary schools.
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I respectfully request that these remarks be included in the hearing record of the
Sub-Committee on Post-Secondary Education. Please contact me if I can provide
further information or assistance.
Sincerely,
FRANK J. MACCHIAROLA, Chancellor.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, U.S. House of Representatives,
Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIMON: I would appreciate the following statement being
entered as testimony in support of H.R. 3231. I had planned to present it during
your field hearing in San Francisco on September 28th, but the cancellation of that
meeting has prompted my writing to you.
My opinions are from the perspective of an educator and a parent: my doctorate is
in French (I have headed the French program at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Califor-
nia for nine years) and I am a parent of five children and active in local school and
city politics.
As a Community College language instructor, the needs for enhanced language
ability in our county are apparent. You are well aware of the low percentage of
high school and college students enrolled in foreign language courses nationwide. In
Santa Cruz County, there exists a large Spanish-speaking population. We are also a
County in which tourism plays a great role. And finally a sizeable number of
Indochinese refugees have settled here recently. How much more humane it would
be, and how much better for the local economy if social service workers, public
safety officers, and those in key guest-contact positions in hotels, motels, restau-
rants, and tourist attractions had received training in the foreign languages and
cultures of those whom they serve. Legislation such as 3231 might help fund new K-
12 programs in the foreign languages and cultures, and if such a provision were
made, might help public Community Colleges such as Cabrillo develop intensive
workshops for those already in the field but lacking foreign language skills. Cur-
rently, enrollment growth is not well-funded in the California Community College
system, and we are in the position of turning away students each semester rather
than expanding to meet community needs.
From the perspective of a parent, I would also urge passage of this bill. Public
School systems, specifically in California but I would assume nationwide, are in a
very poor financial position. I have worked during the last year and a half on the
Long Range Planning Committee of the Palo Alto Unified School District in devis-
ing plans for the coming decades. Even with my experience and strong convictions,
and in an excellent school district, I have seen little support for even considering
the inclusion of foreign language classes in elementary schools. Indeed, the trend
has been one of cutting back on lesser taught languages (such as Latin, German,
and Japanese) in grades 7-12. The possibility of funding for such curriculum addi-
tion, might be the one hope here. Three years ago, I arranged for French classes to
be offered in the elementary school my children attended, before school and with
parents paying for the program. There was such great parent interest that now
essentially all fourteen elementary schools in Palo Alto offer one or more for
languages. But this is still before or after school, and the parents are paying for the
classes. What a shame that school administrators can't see a way to add foreign
language to the elementary school curriculum. Even when considering a new middle
school structure that would add grade 6 to the grade 7 and 8 school now existing,
administrators appear more concerned with articulation with high school classes,
than with the possibility of enriching the program for 6th graders. It is in part this
type of limited approach which has caused us to place our children in private
schools this year, where foreign languages are part of the daily curriculum from
kindergarten on. Clearly a need exists for legislation such as yours if the majority of
our children are to receive foriegn language instruction.
A third set of comments I would like to make concern teacher training. I would
hope some provision in your legislation might provide for Workshops to update the
skills of foreign language teachers. I have been trained by John Rassias at Dart-
mouth and have assisted in teacher training workshops. I would like to think that
teachers in new programs which might receive monies from 3231 would have in
their repertoire some teaching methods which have been proven successful. With
declining enrollment, the pinch of inflation, and, in California, the effects of Propo-
sition 13, in-service workshops for teachers are becoming ever more rare. Such a
provision could help insure more successful implementation of new programs.
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I thank you for the opportunity to place these comments in the record, and would
be available to help in any way and to give any further information deemed useful.
Respectfully,
DR. BETTE G. HIRSCH.
FORD MOTOR CO.,
FORD INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE OPERATIONS,
Dearborn, Mich., October 7, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor, Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. SIMON: Mr. D. E. Petersen has asked me to reply to your letter of
September 4, 1981, regarding foreign language study in the United States.
I personally share your concern about the national decline in the study of foreign
languages and cultures.
At Ford Motor Company, our basic operating philosophy is to fill management
positions in our foreign subsidiaries with as many local national employees as
possible. We assign U.S. and third-country national employees overseas only when
qualified local nationals cannot be hired or when it is judged to be in the best
interest of the company. English is the "LINGUA franca' of Ford, but if an
individual best qualified for a specific foreign assignment does not speak the lan-
guage of that country, the company arranges for appropriate language training.
In some countries where Ford does not maintain operating affiliates, the language
and culture problems cannot be dealt with so easily. This is particularly true of the
so-called "hard" language areas in Asia, the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. As
a multinational corporation, Ford employs a number of management-level personnel
who are native speakers of these "hard" languages and also fluent in English.
Rarely have we found native-born Americans who possess fluency in these lan-
guages and who also have management abilities or expertise in some aspect of the
automative industry. It is precisely this combination of foreign language ability and
business expertise (as opposed to language fluency alone) that is now needed and
will be required even more in the future by U.S. companies if they are to compete
successfully in these markets.
Incentives for foreign language study seem likely to increase the pool of available
talent in this country, to the benefit of both U.S.-based corporations and the U.S.
Government. H.R. 3231, by offering such incentives, must be counted as a major
step forward toward this goal.
Thank you for permitting us to comment on the proposed legislation. I hope that
the Ford experiences and practices in this area will be useful information for you.
Sincerely,
JOHN McDOUGALL,
Executive Vice President.
STANDARD OIL CO. (INDIANA),
Chicago, Ill., September 21, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, House Committee on Educa-
tion and Labor, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you for writing in connection with H.R. 3231, the
National Security and Economic Growth Through Foreign Language Improvement
Act.
Standard Oil Company (Indiana) shares your concern about the quality of foreign
language education in this country. Our company is involved worldwide in well over
forty countries and depends greatly on the goodwill of those countries. Much of that
goodwill derives from our ability to communicate effectively with the host govern-
ments and nationals of these countries. Needless to say, language plays a major role
in that process.
In talking with our people I find that they feel most strongly about part 3 of your
bill (on page 2) which states that foreign language is a key tool in understanding the
"history and culture which influence the perspectives, values, and attitudes of the
people of other countries." We find this to be particularly true in the Arab world
where expectations run high and sensitivities are deep. While we have no illusions
that many of our employees will actually learn Arabic, we do think that exposure to
the language goes a long way toward familiarizing them with the Islamic heritage
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and civilization. That counts for a great deal and is very important to our business.
The same holds true for other non-Western parts of the world.
Closer to home and of particular relevance, Latin American and its generally
Spanish heritage need concentrated attention. Very special efforts should be made
in this area, not only for our relations with Central and South America, but for the
obvious domestic reason that Hispanics will become an increasingly important force
here at home.
For all of these reasons, the United States can no longer afford to remain a
monolinguistic nation, expecting the rest of the world's peoples to adjust to our
ways. Thus the need for Americans to learn foreign languages is more urgent than
ever. Toward this end, you will be interested to know that some of our people are
working with the Illinois Foreign Language Teachers Association in furtherance of
mutual goals, and that one of our foreign affairs specialists is the keynote speaker
at the association's October 2 meeting here in Chicago.
We appreciate your efforts in behalf of a renewed dedication to foreign language
studies at the elementary and secondary school levels.
Sincerely,
YOUNG & RUBICAM INC.,
New York, N.Y., September 22, 1981.
Congressman PAUL SIMON,
House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor, Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIMON: This is in response to your letter to Mr. Ney dated
September 4 concerning H.R. 3231. We certainly support this bill and its purposes.
In our International operation we have often come across the shortcoming that your
bill is attempting to correct: the inability of citizens of the United States to speak
foreign languages.
The only addition to your excellent bill that we would suggest is for continuing
education. We do believe in the purpose of your bill which, as we understand it, is to
increase the teaching of foreign languages in secondary schools and colleges.
However, there are a vast number of Americans who have graduated from college
and cannot speak foreign languages. Many of them are in business. Many of them
would benefit from language training, even though they have completed their
formal education. We realize this would change your bill somewhat but we do think
it's important not to write off that large number of U.S. citizens now in business
who have completed their formal education and who would benefit from such a
program. We think obviously that the country itself would be the ultimate benefici-
ary.
We thank you for asking our judgments and wish you great good luck with the
bill.
Sincerely,
MARK STROOCK, Senior Vice President,
Director of Corporate Relations.
OGILVY & MATHER INTERNATIONAL,
New York, N.Y., September 8, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Postsecondary
Education, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIMON: I applaud your attempt to reverse the decline in
language studies in the United States.
The ineptitude of Americans (including me) in foreign languages is an embarrass-
ment for our country. It contributes to our image of arrogance.
Ogilvy & Mather has offices in 34 countries, most of which are non-English
speaking. Many of our people express wishes to work in other lands, little realizing
that fluency in the local language is a requirement-an example of arrogance.
Actually, our shortcomings in language ability have not affected our operations
all that much, since we think it wise to have our offices largely staffed by nationals.
But that it neither here nor there. As a country, we must become more proficient in
foreign languages.
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My only comment on your bill H.R. 3231 is that the incentive strikes me as too
small to get the job done.
Sincerely,
PHILIP MORRIS INTERNATIONAL,
New York, N. Y., September 10, 1981.
Congressman PAUL SIMON,
House of Representatives,
Cannon House Office Building,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIMON: Thank you very much for your letter of September 4
addressed to Mr. Clifford Goldsmith. You have hit upon an issue close to our hearts.
The lack of language training of Americans is a broad social issue, but one whose
impact is dramatic in the international business sector.
Our international operating company is our nation's largest consumer goods
exporter. There are several factors which inhibit us from using as many Americans
abroad as we would like. Among these are tax disincentives and the cultural and
language deficiencies of Americans. Certainly, your point that language training
deficiencies have severe security implications for the nation is well taken. From our
perspective, it has at least equally severe economic ramifications.
Language trained, culturally attuned to the rest of the world Americans is a most
scare resource. It need not be that way; it should not be that way.
Please be assured you have our wholehearted endorsement of the premise of your
bill, and do not hesitate to let us know what we can do to be of assistance to you in
this area.
Sincerely yours,
ANDREW WHIST,
Vice President, Corporate Affairs.
DOYLE DANE BERNBACH INC., ADVERTISING,
New York, N. Y., September 22, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on
Postsecondary Education, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. SIMON: Mr. Bernbach has asked me, as International Creative Director
of Doyle Dane Bernbach, to respond to your letter.
I agree completely that Americans doing buisness abroad are significantly disad-
vantaged by poor and insufficient training in foreign languages. There is always a
subtle, but distinct, loss of the "upper hand" when one cannot make oneself under-
stood.
My personal feeling is that the quality of foreign language instruction is even
more important than the quantity. While your bill is extremely worthwhile in its
purpose, I feel that it could be enhanced dramatically by building in a number of
quality guarantees.
For example, the bill could require:
1. Native instructors in the foreign language.
2. Classes conducted strictly in the foreign language.
3. Some required period of time in the foreign country.
4. A comprehensive final examination leading to a special degree (Bachelor of
Language, Master of Language).
5. An exchange program with leading universities in other countries.
6. Grants to major professional organizations (American Bar Association, Ameri-
can Medical Association, The Association of American Advertising Agencies, etc.) to
provide special, professional foreign language training.
7. Similar inducements to Diplomatic and military personnel, If they do not
already exist.
8. Foreign language programs that model themselves after the most successful
commercial programs.
9. Cable TV channels to provide foreign language instruction.
Finally, I think we have to understand that the reason most Americans have not
mastered a foreign language is that it has not been necessary or even useful for us
do so. Worse, we consider it a flaw if others don't speak our language. ("What's the
matter with you? Don't you speak English?")
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A laudable bill such as yours must, I feel, try to make mastery of foreign
languages both economically and socially desirable from the perspective of the
students themselves or it cannot succeed.
We are grateful to have had this opportunity to comment on this important
legislation, and wish you great success with it.
Cordially,
ROBERT H. LEVENSON,
Vice Chairman.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS CORP.,
? St. Louis, Mo., October 5, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on
Postsecondary Education, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. SIMON: This is in response to your letter of 4 September 1981 to S.N.
McDonnell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McDonnell Douglas Corpora-
tion, requesting comments on H.R. 3231. Mr. McDonnell appreciates your referring
this matter to him, and he has asked me to respond in my capacity as Corporate
Vice President-Personnel.
We agree that a significant increase in foreign language instruction within the
educational institution would benefit both the public and private sectors of our
nation.
It is our recommendation that H.R. 3231 be modified to stress the features which
will increase the number of individuals studying a foreign language rather than the
funding for the development of new model programs. With this thought in mind, it
is recommended that the changes noted on the attached copy of H.R. 3231 be
incorporated.
We congratulate you on your investigation of this serious national problem.
Please let me know if we can be of further assistance in review of this bill or in any
other way.
Sincerely,
COMPTON INTERNATIONAL,
New York, NY, October 9, 1981.
Hon. PAUL SIMON,
Chairman, Committee of Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Postsecondary Edu-
cation, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. SIMON: This is in response to your letter of September 4 to Mr. O.
Milton Gossett seeking Compton's support for H.R. 3231.
Please rest assured you do have our company's complete support. As an interna-
tional company, we are deeply concerned by the woeful lack of adequate foreign
language training in our U.S. educational system. In fact, we believe this is one of
the several reasons why the U.S. is falling behind other countries in international
trade.
Our only suggestion to you would be to increase the appropriation, if at all
possible, particuarly at the secondary school level. Eighty million dollars strikes us
as being a case of too little, too late.
Good luck. Please continue the fight.
Most cordially,
JAMES R. ADLER,
President and Managing Director.
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J. H. MACDONALD,
Corporation Vice President-Personnel.