By Yujia Song

Arabic has recently become the second-most popular foreign language taught at Virginia Military Institute, while at Washington and Lee University, the number of students taking Chinese more than doubled this year. The popularity of exotic languages is gaining in classrooms across the nation, but Rockbridge County schools are not ready to answer President Bush’s recent call for a greater emphasis on “critical need languages.”

On Jan. 5, Bush launched the National Security Language Initiative, which aims to enhance national security and economic competitiveness by equipping students with advanced language skills. The president is requesting $114 million in the 2007 fiscal year to train language teachers and encourage students at all levels to learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and other languages. The intended result of this program is a generation of students more capable of communicating with foreign governments and people.

The College Board, meanwhile, has announced two new Advanced Placement Tests to be offered this fall: “Chinese Language and Culture” and “Japanese Language and Culture.” Classes teaching these subjects will not be offered in Rockbridge County.

Currently, the only foreign languages taught in Rockbridge County schools are Spanish, French and Latin. The Rockbridge County High School offers all three while the middle schools offer mostly Spanish. The elementary schools do not have foreign language classes.

RCHS Assistant Principal Jennifer Weaver said that the school does not have any plans to expand the foreign language program in the foreseeable future.

Students interested in other languages can propose an independent study in the language, said Deborah Pruett, a guidance counselor at RCHS. They can then arrange classes with someone who knows the language - a professor from Washington and Lee University or a member of the community. However, very few students have done so.

“I don’t think we’ve had any student from the high school in our Japanese or Chinese classes since I came here in 1999,” said Professor Janet Ikeda, head of the East Asian languages and literatures department at W&L.

Even though the classes are open to high school students, it will be hard to accept anyone from outside the university at present, said Ikeda. “We have 24 students taking beginning Chinese this year, about twice the size of the class in previous years.”

However, in a place like Rockbridge County, a local student’s interest in China or other countries may be limited. Mei Zhu, visiting instructor of Chinese at W&L, said that county residents have very little exposure to foreign cultures, as the area has a low international population.

The population of the county is highly homogeneous ethnically. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data, 95.4 percent of the population is white while only 0.4 percent is Asian and 0.6 percent is Hispanic. A mere three percent speaks a language other than English at home, compared to the national average of 17.9 percent.

In contrast, Fairfax County in northern Virginia, where 30 percent of the population speaks a language other than English, offers a much broader range of foreign languages in its schools. Besides Spanish, French, Latin and German, Fairfax schools offer more exotic languages such as Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

Another problem with introducing new languages to area classrooms is funding. “Schools can only support so many languages at a time,” said Helen Small, specialist for foreign languages at the Virginia Department of Education. “Adding a new language represents a significant expense for a school division.”

In addition to financial constraints, schools may face difficulty fitting extra language classes into their tight schedules. Barbara Burnett, guidance counselor at Central Elementary School, said that students already have full schedules packed with compulsory classes. A foreign language program, on the elementary level, could only take the form of an after-school club, she said.

A few years ago there was a Spanish club after school at Central Elementary.
Students loved the activities, but unfortunately, the teacher in charge was unable to continue the program, Burnett said.

“Our kids are willing and excited to learn new things,” Burnett said. “It would be great to let them know there are many ways to say the same thing.”
 

Rockbridge County Schools

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd