WASHINGTON, Dec 7: Asian languages will be included for the first time in a key pre-university US examination, a change that could lure more American students to study Japanese or Chinese instead of long time
favourites like French, Spanish and German.
The US College Board has decided from 2006 to offer Japanese and Chinese languages in its Advanced Placement Program, known commonly as AP, which allows students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school, officials said.
It is an "effort to further multiculturalism and multilingualism in secondary schools and to prepare students for an increasingly interconnected global economy," College Board President Gaston Caperton said recently.
Japanese and Chinese will join Russian and Italian as among the first new AP program offerings in foreign languages since the 1950s. The current languages under the AP program are French, Spanish, German and Latin.
"The fact that AP is now offered in Japanese and Chinese is sending a very important signal to schools, because the AP program is recognized as a high-quality program.
It is recognized by all universities across the country and it is widely available in high schools," Vivien Stewart, vice president of education at the Asia Society, said.
"I think the fact that it exists will certainly help to sort of shift the market and create an incentive for those schools and students to pursue an Asian language," she said.
American students have traditionally chosen to learn European languages, with relatively few course offerings for those of Asia. "Given the growing significance of Asia economically, politically and culturally, it would be an important issue to address as the United States tries to bridge the knowledge gap," Stewart said.
The main objective of the Asia Society, a key non-profit American institution, is to foster better understanding between the United States and Asia and their peoples.
Three years ago, it warned of a huge gap between the growing importance of Asia to the United States and most young Americans' lack of knowledge on Asia. For example, 25 percent of college-bound high school students could not name the ocean between California and Asia.
"If young Americans are to take on challenging global leadership roles in the future, they must possess a deep understanding of and appreciation for other cultures, geography, history and languages," said Stephanie Bell-Rose, president of The Goldman Sachs Foundation.
The foundation and the Asia Society created "Prizes for Excellence in International Education" last year to unearth the best innovative examples of international education for US students and teachers from the kindergarten to high school levels.
Among the winners this year was a school in Seattle where students as young as six learn math and science in Japanese and study Japanese calligraphy. The Stanford School has a long waiting list of parents eager to enrol their children.
Another school - the private Chinese American International School in San Francisco, where half the enrollment is non-Asian - has students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade study all subjects in both Chinese and English.
The school has offered its expertise to develop Chinese language programs in public schools in the northern California area. Students tend to like to take languages in which an AP course is offered because it links high school and college studies, Stewart said. Not having an AP class is seen as a disincentive to learn a language.
There are no immediate plans by the College Board to introduce other Asian languages under the AP program, but from the US foreign policy point of view, officials say, there is a sense that America has to develop capacity in Arabic and other Asian languages.
"I am often contacted by students who want to learn an Asian language and it is not offered in their schools for example," Stewart said. "So I think that tells you something about some growth of interest." -AFP
