English-speaking countries need to get up to snuff on foreign language study, but funding isn’t following.

In a global economy, even if English is the predominant language of business, mastery of other languages is an important communication skill.

The US needs speakers of “difficult” languages such as Chinese and Arabic, not just for business purposes but also for security reasons. We could also do well to keep up with other regions such as Asia and Europe, where business leaders nearly always speak several languages.

It is thus sad – and illogical -- to see budget cuts in foreign language education. As Education Week puts it:

The federal government has identified a huge demand for proficient speakers of foreign languages, but Congress substantially reduced funds to support the teaching of foreign languages to K-12 and college students in the budget deal struck for fiscal 2011.

(Foreign Language Programs Stung by Budget Cuts, Mary Ann Zehr, June 1 2011)

14 federally supported foreign language and international studies programs which are grouped under the International Education Program Service (IEPS) will see their funding cut by 40%. Among other missions, these higher-education oriented programs help train future foreign language teachers and provide resources for international education and innovation.

Not all the news is bad, however – no cuts have been made in the K-12 language programs that focus on languages that have been judged as crucial to U.S. security and economic needs.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.