Sayonara, Japanese! Au Revoir, French! Machts gut, German! It’s all over for the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at West Virginia University. The university has cut the aforementioned languages, along with Italian, Russian, and Arabic. Apparently, Spanish and Chinese are being allowed to continue with face to face classes.
The reasons for the cuts in the languages and other courses in the humanities are all a result of dwindling finances brought on by Republican lawmakers who are reluctant (refusing) to spend more money on the state’s flagship university, and falling enrollments. It’s understandable that enrollment would fall in a state with a population loss of 3.2 percent (and falling) within the last 10 years. Add to this what some faculty call financial irresponsibility on the part of the university and the president’s office which fell into the trap of privileging infrastructure over academics. The shortfall resulted in the decimation of an entire department, and wholesale cuts of classes, majors and minors, and faculty across several other departments…though the humanities felt the brunt of these changes. Here’s an interesting interview with E. Gordon Gee, WVU president on this topic.
Once the cuts were made, it became clear to this author, anyway, that the days of foreign language instruction are almost over. Now that the dam has broken, world language departments across the country, and at least a few of us here in Mexico, are bracing for what’s next. There are several reasons why I think this way, but I think this comment mentioned in the interview linked above sums it all up quite nicely:
“University officials have also suggested language apps as a potential alternative”
Entire departments of hardworking language professionals replaced by apps? Why not?
I will be blunt and just say it: Foreign languages aren’t important to people who have little or no interest in using them. In the grand scheme of things educational, language instruction survives because institutions require them to graduate (to make money?), not because they serve any real purpose to the vast majority of university students. They’re nice to have, but likely will not help students get a job, and even less likely to rescue a student from some unlikely linguistic emergency in the future.
The truth is West Virginia, where I was born, and Southern Indiana where I grew up are not hotbeds of foreign language use. On the contrary. There is little interest in foreign affairs or travel, and lower foreign investment and even fewer foreigners in West Virginia. In Southern Indiana we have a Toyota plant, though very little contact with anyone who’s actually Japanese. The University of Southern Indiana does sponsor and support a school for Japanese school-age students, and offers courses in Japanese, but in truth that’s about as far as it all goes. Evansville, Indiana doesn’t resemble the Ginza. West Virginia has a much lower exposure to
foreign investment than Indiana and there’s very little evidence of foreign influence on the culture there. So, in short, why should universities here offer language instruction?
Why keep Spanish and Chinese for face to face instruction? Money. Spanish is popular and has a reputation (rightly or wrongly) for being easy to learn, and one can use Spanish at the local Mexican restaurant or switch on Telemundo on cable. Chinese is much more complex however, but one can determine a future value to students since China is currently our number three trading partner (Mexico is second). Both languages bring in enrollments. The other languages…not so much. If your language can bring in the bucks, then you’re safe…if not, you’re still not really safe, not for long. If you’re an EFL/ESL professional, you probably should not consider yourself safe either.
AI will replace much of what learning a foreign language is about. The universal translator that Lt. Uhura would use aboard the Enterprise is no longer a television fantasy. Google translator, while not instantan eous, provides excellent translations these days. Instead of having to rely on just the three languages I already know, I can now command as many as I want. There won’t be a need for language teachers,anymore. There will be a need however, for those who can show others how to use the AI. This will be the end of the TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTs, and other achievement tests. It’s all over but for the shouting.
What will be left? Language instruction will be only available at the larger institutions and more exclusive universities. The requirement to learn another language will probably still fall on emergency, diplomatic, military and international business personnel. Tourism will continue to need linguistically skilled people, but probably not to the extent they do now. Language teachers who can adequately teach pragmatics or deeply specialized context-based language skills will be in demand, but generalists, of which there is an abundant supply will have little to do in the future, and translators, well, will have even less to do.
The future isn’t without hope, but it will take some creativity on the part of language professionals to stay relevant.