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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > June > 17
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Taking language instruction seriously
I’m just back from visiting western Canada, specifically British Columbia. This a beautiful area, which I highly recommend for your future vacations.
But while I was there, you might not be surprised to learn, I was paying attention to the education issues they were discussing. And a big one there is language instruction.
British Columbia, it turns out, is Canada’s only officially bilingual province. You may know that Canada has a large French-speaking population, especially in Quebec. In British Columbia, knowledge of two languages is viewed both as useful (Vancouver, its major city, has a very international flavor) and as important to protecting the heritage of the province.
OK, so if it is generally agreed that language instruction is important, that should be make it easier to agree on effective instructional programs, right? By comparison, in most of Ohio there is basically no pressure for serious foreign language instruction, especially at early grades.
But in Canada, one effective means of teaching language is through immersion at an early age. This means a student who speaks English at home is placed into a school environment in which instruction is given in French in most subjects. The idea is that this immersion environment promotes fluency in French, so the student is fully proficient in both languages by the end of school.
In Canada, test scores have mostly dispelled the concern that this approach could somehow harm the English speakers’ academic skills. But still, immersion can be controversial.
In fact, on Vancouver paper last week had a story about parents fighting for immersion instruction. For schools, immersion is expensive and some are trying to wriggle free from it.
It’s a shame that language immersion and other early instruction options are not generally available in our area, even in the best scoring and wealthiest school districts. In the U.S., we just don’t take foreign language seriously. Wouldn’t it make a difference if school boards here knew they’d have a fight on their hands if they cut language programs or didn’t offer language at early grades?
Skipping out on teaching other languages seems especially risky today, given the increasing globalization of our economy. Aren’t we are just giving away this potential competitive advantage to other nations that make it a priority?
(Image credit: Lifesport)
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