International and Language Education for a Global Future: Fifty Years of U.S. Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs

4. The Impact of Fifty Years of Title VI on Language Learning in the United States

Why Americans Need to Learn Foreign Languages Why is it important for Americans to learn foreign languages? In a nation that has been so resolutely English-speaking for more than 200 years, where U.S. citizens can apparently live their entire lives without ever needing to use any other language , why should they bother? Even for those interested in international travel and work, is it not enough just to learn about other areas of the world without having to learn the languages spoken there? There are many good reasons, both individual and national, for Americans to learn foreign languages. At the individual level, bilingual mastery improves an individual ’s cognitive capacity as well as his or her employability in a range of professions . At the national level, more foreign language knowledge is essential if we are to effectively implement “soft diplomacy,” avoid the impression of arrogance on the world stage, and build relational networks essential to our national security. Individual Benefits of Multilingualism For individuals, research has shown that a person’s knowledge of a second or third language confers not only an aesthetic appreciation of other cultures but many cognitive benefits: C H A P T E R 4 The Impact of Fifty Years of Title VI on Language Learning in the United States Elaine E. Tarone 71 • Significantly higher levels of creativity and problem solving (Kessler and Quinn 1987) • Improved cognitive flexibility (DeGroot and Kroll 1997) • Earlier development of awareness of language (Bialystok 2001) • Longer retention of fluid intelligence skills in aging (Bialystok et al. 2004) In addition, Americans who are proficient in a second or third language have an undeniable competitive edge in job seeking and professional advancement compared with their monolingual competitors; the more advanced their proficiency in these languages, the more effectively they are able to use them in carrying out responsibilities in professions ranging from medicine to academic research to international business to intelligence gathering (American Council on Education 2009). National Need for Foreign Language Ability There is also a national-level rationale for improving the foreign language competence of U.S. citizens. There is a growing consensus among international advisors to the U.S. government that we need more use of “soft diplomacy” or “smart power” if we are to transform world opinion in ways that “hard power” cannot (Armitage and Nye 2008; Nye 2005, 2008). Where “hard power” is the use of force or military power, “soft power” is the ability to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction and communication rather than payment, coercion, or military action. Central to the implementation of “soft diplomacy” is the ability to communicate across difference—and this does not just mean the ability to communicate in English. It is in fact arrogant to insist that all those we want to communicate with should switch to the only language we know. English is not the only world language—there are far more speakers of Chinese than English worldwide, and English is also rivaled by Spanish in terms of its central role in international communication. “Soft diplomacy ” must include the ability to communicate with high levels of proficiency in other languages, including less commonly taught languages that are critical to the national interest (Gates 2009). Our country’s overall diplomatic success1 ultimately relies on person-to-person, private diplomacy, for which foreign language skills are essential (Heyman 2008). The National Language Security Initiative (NSLI)—a collaboration at the highest levels of the departments of Defense, Education, and State with the National Intelligence Program—has made it clear that our security as a nation depends on our development of a cadre of citizens who can use critical foreign languages at superior levels of proficiency (Spellings and Oldham 2008). Each year, these federal divisions fund grant programs to support the learning of the same set of seldomtaught languages considered to be critical to the nation’s security. The specific 72 E L A I N E E . T A R O N E languages targeted can shift from one year to the next depending on economic and security conditions worldwide; as of this writing, these priority languages include Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and languages in the Indic, Iranian, and Turkic language families. The ability to communicate in other languages is considered to be an integral part of our national defense. Indeed, a major goal of the Department of Defense...