Reply to 2-3 years foreign language outcomes

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[quote=Anonymous]This comment comes from a person who completed two undergraduate, one graduate and one professional degree and who achieved success in her career.

During HS I took two languages, German and French, and in college German again for another couple of years. When I asked why language was a requirement of the degree, I was told well-roundedness and the facility to read scholarship in their field in the original language the student learned in college.

Ha! How many people retain any facility with the language they studied in HS and college 5 years out from graduation? 10? I’d love to see statistics on that, based on something other than the claims of the people who studied a language in college and are embarrassed to admit it has left their brain nearly entirely.

If we cared about language facility and being a multilingual society via education, we’d be teaching languages when it really matters, in early childhood or at least by 1st grade. Most multilingual people either got that way in early childhood or were language majors with the opportunity for immersion experiences on a regular basis. Most older childhood and adult language learners do not retain without immersion experience on a regular basis and most don’t get that.

We should rethink why we are doing this. But that should certainty come secondary to addressing why something like 66% of our kids aren’t proficient readers of English at grade level, nevermind a second language.[/quote]

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