Born Into Submission | Foreign Language Education: Satellites in the Classroom

Foreign Language Education: Satellites in the Classroom

19 October, 2011

With the world continually getting smaller, it is time that the arrogance of the educational system in the United States stops its flagrant disregard for the importance of foreign language education. While most of the world is at least bilingual; and most of the world speaks English as a second language, The United States is sadly, embarrassingly, lagging behind in foreign language skills. Cuts are being made in a lot of areas in education in the United States; and the arts, particularly language arts are unfortunately on the chopping board when it should be stepped up on a grand scale. The United States is the country of immigrants but the wealth of "foreign" languages spoken in the United States doesn't leave the barrios and neighborhoods of the groups that make up the country. Secondary school students must learn at least two credits of a "foreign" language to qualify for university level education. The teachers are not there and the majority of the ones there are not native speakers. While immersion is the best way to learn a new language, another possibly great alternative would be to have satellite hook-ups in the classes so that they are exposed to native speakers no matter whether their school could find a native speaker to teach in their classes. As stated above, the global community is getting smaller and smaller; and foreign language skills will be the key to making it or breaking it in the global arena.

-S. Garner-Giordano

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