Why Does America Struggle with Language Education?
One could say that our main problem lies in American language classes; students are taught languages as if they are math problems: problems of a logical nature that must be fought and worked through until they are solved. A language, though, is not something to be solved, but rather something to simply internalize and not question. Granted, once we get past a certain age, what most folks like to call the “critical age,” our brains take on a firewall that automatically questions any and all incoming traffic. There is some literature on this as well; Eli Hinkel has written a book, Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, in which she says this: “Concerning the effortfulness of later language learning, Lenneberg [(the original proponent of the critical period hypothesis)] suggests that post-pubertal [second language] learning requires ‘conscious and labored effort’…[m]any professionals involved in one way or another with language have simply assumed that later [second language learning requires more effort” (p. 410).
Another issue could be attributed to the attitude that Americans have about the learning other languages. In her book Languages in America: a Pluralist View, Susan J. Dicker uses language like “an absurdity,” “linguistically malnourished,” and “an attachment to monolingualism” to describe America’s problem. In her words, “many Americans seem unaware of the advantages attached to multilingualism: it gives individuals a sense of identity; it creates a more equitable society; it promotes harmonious relations among linguistic groups; it adds richness to the shared culture; it allows for better foreign relations” (p. 299). She then goes on in her next chapter to envision an America that acknowledges the world and its languages. America could be a great nation of cultured, multilingual gents and ladies if it wanted to, instead of the uneducated ones that many Europeans like to pin it as.
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