Promise (Un)fulfilled: Reframing Languages for the Twenty-First Century

Change. How often in the past few years we have heard the mantra—change. Yet as multiple entities, including institutions of higher education, contemplate change, it is significant to note how difficult, slow, and ineffectual change may both seem and actually be. Change in higher education, as manifested in curriculum reform, can be particularly difficult as the structures of academia, such as rank and tradition, retard the process. Nonetheless, as educators and professionals we must rise to societal and professional concerns/demands, particularly in response to crises such as 9/11, globalization, and other international conflicts. Two recent reports from the Modern Language Association (MLA) strive to address needed curricular adaptations and offer a roadmap of considerations for modifications. Although the reports from the MLA primarily focus on foreign languages in higher education, implications for language learning in K–12 and nontraditional language instruction are also addressed. More significantly, the reports offer a springboard from which to consider where we have been, our situation today, and where we must go if we are to remain relevant in the future. But even with these documents, the profession would be remiss in not considering in part the as yet unfulfilled potential of the national standards as a unifying element in our conversation and practice. Rather than acquiescing our pedagogical and professional responsibilities to the most current trend or always operating in a crisis management mode, institutions would gain by anchoring their practices in twenty-first-century literacies, focusing on what our students should know and be able to do.

The 2007 MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages report, "Foreign Language and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World," posits that "the language major should be structured to produce a specific outcome: educated speakers who have deep translingual and transcultural competence" (3). The ideal model, then, would be an integrative, interdisciplinary major with accountability for language competence and study abroad opportunities. The aforementioned report does acknowledge that the "language deficiency that is prevalent in the United States cannot be solved at the college level alone. While learning another language is possible at any age, learning languages other than English must be included in the earliest years of the K–12 system if the United States is to have a citizenry capable of communicating with educated native speakers in their language" (8). Thus, it encourages "alliances between K–12 educators and college and university faculty members to strengthen language learning at all levels and to foster collaboration" (8). This is an admirable goal but one that must be accompanied by an attitude shift that does not minimize the contribution of the PK–12 partners.

Although the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Teachers for a New Era (TNE) project is not a focus here¹ it is worthy to note that such efforts are designed to increase the quality of teaching in K–12 classrooms by improving the quality of teacher education programs and do have a definite focus on the importance of content area. This cross-disciplinary relationship, then, prepares teachers for the classrooms from which the next generation of university language students comes. Indeed, if one considers the "National Standards for Language Learning" as a truly PK–20 endeavor, then the profession should be looking at the issues in terms of the impact across constituencies and the potential benefits of articulation and other measures to maximize resources and impact.

In light of such, departments of Spanish and Portuguese must consider the needs of various constituencies—teachers, students, business—as a reframing of the current undergraduate major takes place to move toward a more integrative model where cultural, linguistic, and literary knowledge and practices are more functionally relevant outside the ivory tower. One additional reform focus, "Partnership for 21^st Century Skills," has begun to steer the educational community in that direction, and it should be taken under consideration, along with the MLA reports, during any curricular changes in Spanish and Portuguese.

"Partnership for 21^st Century Skills"

The "Partnership for 21^st Century Skills" (P21), formed in...