The role of international language education in the United States
is becoming vitally important in everyday living. Through the study
of languages, students gain the rich experience of real communication
with other human beings and an understanding of individual differences
to the extent perhaps that no other discipline can offer. It prepares
them with mature responses to the diversity of world cultures and
the needs of our American pluralistic society. Learning language
is learning people.
In an age where people are seeking identity and wishing to rediscover
their roots, world communities are awakening to the necessity of
learning about themselves and about the cultures and languages of
their neighbors. To meet this challenge, we, as language teachers
of Rochester, are trying to bring about a change
in attitudes and emphasis of international language education to
insure its benefits to all Americans.
Today, an increasing number of business training institutions are
requiring their vocational trainees to add competence in the use
of an international language to the skill being acquired to practice
the vocation itself. That is why many colleges are bolstering their
language programs and many college students are completing their
degrees with affiliated international colleges. To arrive at these
goals, at least a two year preparation in international language
is considered essential to a basic college preparatory high school
program. Students who plan to attend competitive colleges should
study international language for three or four consecutive years.
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