Michael Sylvester wrote:
> If some schools can provide sign language interpreters for students,I
> don't see why arrangements could not be made for the student to take the
> tests and write papers in his/her national language?
Perhaps because it isn't the language of the institution where s/he is
studying?
I've never been clear on why people feel it is obligatory for US
institutions to teach in languages other than the primary one used by the
population. I can see the benefit in bi-lingual education for children in
public schools so they can compete on an equal basis with students who are
English language speakers, but to suggest bi-lingual education at the
post-secondary level is absurd. If by the time a person is an adult s/he
has not learned the English language it is either because s/he lives in
another nation or because s/he has not made an effort to do so if s/he is
a long-term resident of the US. If the former, then there is simply no
reason our schools must adapt to serve the interests of non-US residents
who intend to gain an education here and return to their own nations (if
they planned to stay, they would of necessity want to learn English
anyway). If the latter is true, s/he has already demonstrated that s/he
doesn't have the commitment to learning that is necessary to succeed in
college anyway.
The concept of educating people in other languages does NO ONE any
service. It costs us more to operate bi-lingual schools than uni-lingual
ones, it reduces the number of available classes (teachers can't teach two
sections at the same time so something has to go), and most important it
does a true disservice to the students. Unless you speak the English
language, there are no meaningful career opportunities available in the
US. That may be acceptable in the case of a person whose educational limit
is High School graduation (most jobs available at that level are service
industry or lower level jobs where a command of English is probably not as
critical--particularly if a large community exists where the student's
native language is spoken) but it is clearly NOT acceptable in the case of
a college education.
> Btw,has English been declared the national language of the
> United States?
Nope--and to me that's a serious mistake. While it's the de facto
language of the nation, there has been too much opposition by non-English
speaking special interest groups to permit our law makers to pass such
legislation. From any rational perspective, defining the national language
as English would simply be openly acknowledging something we all know to
be fact anyway--that, barring recent immigration (true of ANY nation),
nearly all educated Americans speak, read, and write the English language.
> When the Early American Psychologists went to Germany to study under
> the German Structuralists,did they know German?
Most did, yes.
Would YOU expect to go to another nation and study a technical subject
without a knowledge of their language? I studied German to fulfill my
language requirements as an undergrad (remember when THOSE existed?) and
it served me in VERY good stead in terms of reading the original versions
of the works of the German and Swiss psychologists.
> And when G.Stanley Hall invited the Freudian group to Clark U.did
> they lecture in English?
No.
Did HE lecture in German?
Rick
--
Rick Adams
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College
Jackson, MI
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"... and the only measure of your worth and your deeds will be the love
you leave behind when you're gone. --Fred Small, Everything Possible "
