Modern Language Teaching: Problems and Opportunities for the Seventies*

Abstract

W E ARE LIVING in an age of crisis. This is a pure platitude, because men have always lived in an age of crisis. Since before the Sphinx began posing its riddles, men have faced the future with foreboding and anxiety. This is a time of change, but change is the definition of time. So I like to remember that the Chinese character for crisis is a double symbol: danger and opportunity. I have chosen for my theme Problems and Opportunities because I want to be very realistic in discussing with you the problems and dangers I see ahead for foreign language teaching; at the same time I believe there are solutions to the problems, and opportunities contained in them for greater success and service. The first problem I see is that of decreasing enrollments in our language classes. There are several reasons for this. School populations will not increase as rapidly as in the past decade. The baby boom of the forties and fifties has now passed. The census and demographic studies seem to show that our school population will grow, but much more slowly (perhaps 2 percent yearly). More important for us specifically is that language requirements are being dropped, quite generally. Colleges and universities dropped them in the thirties, reinstated them in the fifties and early sixties, largely due to the campaign of the MLA Foreign Language Program and to the Sputnik furor; and now are again dropping the requirements both for the degree and for admission to college. The natural result is that High Schools and Prep Schools are makng foreign languages only recommended for the college bound, and optional or even counter-indicated for the terminal student. One thing is certain: we are no longer a protected profession with a captive clientele guaranteed to us by college requirements and other bases of an academic status quo. Underlying this significant change is the permissiveness evident in our entire life and society today. Everthing is becoming optional-morals, drugs, social ethics, financial responsibility, family obligations. Small wonder that permissiveness in our academic curriculum is the vogue of the moment. Students are told that they know best what subjects they should study in order to become well educated, and that their choice may