|
The MLA's Articulation Initiative:
High School to College in Foreign Language Programs
Articulation
Beth Bossong, Vestal High School, Vestal, NY
- Articulation needs to be moved from discussion to practice.
- Articulation has to have common starting ground and equal footing for both university and preuniversity people.
- We need to find a way to have more university people accept the importance of a continuum of balanced instruction. This has probably been our biggest frustration in our articulation projects in New York state. Those university people who do align themselves with high school and pre-high school instruction find themselves discounted by others in their department or in a lonely position.
- A key element in getting things to move has to come from deans and administrators as well as from changes in admissions requirements. Administration must provide an impetus for those mired in old beliefs.
- Admissions requirements, what universities want, are a major driving force for high schools (students, guidance departments, and parents). Continuation of language study is frequently based on what the university expects and what students opt for, whatever courses those are (frequently at the expense of foreign language study beyond the state requirement).
- As states change graduation requirements at the high school level to include all students, more students of different abilities may continue with foreign language. This will (and is) finding its way into the university, causing the same frustrations for teaching staff there as it does at the high school level. If we continue to hold on to the elitist philosophy, the frustrations will be profound. We have a responsibility to provide and encourage (by means of evaluation) new and different instruction to meet the needs of all students, be it majors, minors, or those interested in pursuing higher-level courses.
[continue to next article]
[table of contents]
|
