I think that students deserve more flexible options in choosing and scheduling a foreign language, considering that it accounts for such a significant portion of their time here at Texas A&M University-Commerce. What it comes down to is this: many students are required to take foreign language classes, and those students have basically no options.
I think that knowing a second language is an important skill to have today as the world becomes increasingly “globalized.” Spanish in particular is going to be useful to students here as the Hispanic population in Texas continues increase significantly every year. Regardless of what someone is planning on doing with their life, there’s no arguing knowing a second language is a useful and necessary skill.
Since it is such a integral aspect of a college education, it’s important that students have some degree of flexibility or choice in how they schedule these classes. As it turns out, Bachelor of Arts students are required to take two semesters of sophomore level foreign language, but for such an unusually high requirement (compared to zero required hours in other degrees), there’s surprisingly few options. Most students choose to take two years worth, starting in their freshman year, in order to master or refresh themselves on the basic level material before the more demanding sophomore courses. The freshman courses can be tested out of, however.
Spanish and French are the only foreign languages offered here. To put that into perspective, my high school, which is roughly one-third the size of A&M-Commerce, has more options than we do. Students are required to take the same foreign language for their requirements, so for those who want to take a “liberal arts” perspective and get their feet wet in multiple languages (well, in this case, two), they’re out of luck. It would be a good idea to make students stay with a single language, but generally most only retain the basic material they learned in the first semester because of a lack of oral practice more than anything else.
Not only that, but the different sections are only available in certain semesters. Spanish/French 231 is only available in the Fall, and 232 is only available in the Spring. This forces students to take all four semesters consecutively, so if they miss a semester, they have to wait an entire year before being able to continue. That is a lot of time to retain a foreign language they’re probably not practicing on an everyday basis.
To clarify, what I mean by having more flexibility is this: more foreign languages should be offered, and more courses should be offered year-round.
As for learning a foreign language, two years worth of experience has taught me that you can learn the basics, but learning the more complicated concepts and being able to incorporate them into your speech takes a great deal more effort than students may be ready for. It’s something I had to learn for myself, it’s difficult, and it takes an active dedication to grasping the basics of the language.
Really, the only way a person can become proficient at speaking another language is to live and be surrounded by other people that read and speak that language all the time. Of course, the vast majority, maybe even all students, attempt to just coast through those semesters, content to just pass the course for credit towards their major.
I’m not going to say that’s necessarily right or wrong, but in the case of learning another language, that mindset can prove to be dangerous and difficult to overcome.
Requiring students to take foreign languages is a good, practical idea in theory, but I’ve yet to see a student in all my classes master anything beyond what can be taught in a single semester.