PROCLAMATION
The federal Interagency Language
Roundtable unanimously applauds and supports the American Council on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages' declaration of 2005 as The Year of
Languages. This initiative highlights
the present and future critical importance to the American people of
developing a citizenry that possesses high-level skills in speaking and
understanding other world languages.
As the world advances into
the 21st Century, and as the pace of living quickens for everyone,
the need to comprehend and to communicate effectively with the people
of other nations and cultures has never been more important for Americans.
The need for Americans with
truly advanced skills in other languages is felt by American business,
which seeks customers around the world and throughout the diverse cultural
communities of the United States, and in education, where more qualified
teachers are needed, especially in the less commonly taught languages. The same need is even more urgent in the federal government, where
expertise in almost a hundred different languages is required by more
than 80 distinct agencies, and where the national security of the United
States increasingly depends on the complementary abilities to arrive
at mutual understandings with the peoples of the world and to monitor
and divert the activities of those people who mean us ill. Language
study is also central to a well-rounded outward-looking education.
It is no longer tenable for
Americans to implicitly demand that the rest of the world adapt to our
inertia by using our language whenever they meet with us. Too many other countries are working hard to develop poly-lingual
skills in order to communicate with and do business with world communities. Already,
approximately 50% of Internet communications are in languages other than
English, and the proportion is increasing.
Foreign language teachers
in the United States are among the most dedicated and most professional
in the world, and no one knows better than they that for any individual
to acquire true fluency and professional competence in another language
requires years of focused study, typically including extended time in
a country where the language is spoken. American
students need to begin learning their first foreign language at an early
age and continue that study for several years.
The Modern Language Association
reported in 2002 that only slightly over 8% of all American college students
study any language at all, and, of those, most stop their study after
one or two semesters. The United
States needs to do better. To
meet national needs, more students need to be enrolled in language study,
and those who are enrolled need to continue their study long enough to
develop real functional ability.
ACTFL's declaration of a
"Year of Languages" is very welcome at this critical time. The ILR membership will do everything in its power to help highlight
its importance. |
