Curricular Issues and Language Research: The Shifting Interaction

Abstract

A comparison between research in second language acquisition from the mid-sixties to the late seventies and that research today sheds light on the dynamic between what we teach and the new directions in our curricula. The biggest problem facing all of us in the sixties and seventies didn't need any statistical analy sis to clarify its implications: the raw facts spoke for themselves. Enrollments in second language programs were declining, and language requirements had vir tually disappeared. In a pragmatic society, the tradi tional role of foreign language learning as the hallmark of a humanist education, the elite scholar, had little cogency. Higher education in America was in transition. It seemed as though one half of our au dience wanted to be engineers or business executives, and the other half were seeking gurus in the Far East or the Arizona mesas. For either group, foreign lan guages, indeed, humanist studies as the heritage of Western thought, were suspect. Liberal arts colleges looked like an endangered species. Foreign languages were in particular jeopardy, be cause they were at odds with themselves. After World War II the advent of audio-lingual approaches to lan guage learning seemed to change our mission. But only in appearance. No audio-lingual program gave rise to an advanced student who represented an al ternative to the elitist scholar, to the high culture goal of language learning. There were still plenty of senior faculty members who saw an emphasis on speaking skills as contrary to our academic aspirations. As a result, an uneasy compromise was made to main