The Lazy Intellectual by Richard J. Wallace & James V. Wallace

Author:Richard J. Wallace & James V. Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook
Publisher: Adams Media, Inc.
Published: 2010-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Language Learning in the United States

In many areas of business and government in the United States, there is an acute need for individuals who speak and understand a language other than English. Language was identified as the intelligence community's single greatest need in a report issued in September 2001 by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The late Senator Paul Simon declared in 2001 that “some eighty federal agencies need proficiency in nearly one hundred foreign languages. … Only eight percent of American college students study another language.”

The Problem

Of the small number of Americans who study a foreign language, very few attain any proficiency. The Foreign Service Institute, the Federal Government's primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community, estimates that a minimum of 1,320 hours of instruction is necessary to acquire language proficiency at the superior level. (According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a person at the superior level can “communicate in the language with accuracy and fluency in order to participate fully and effectively in conversations on a variety of topics in formal and informal settings.”) However, undergraduate college programs in languages in the United States typically provide three hours of instruction per week. At that rate, it would require fifteen years of study for an individual to acquire a superior level of language proficiency.

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