Linguistics in America

Today, we feature just one article, written by George A. Miu, who possesses a wide range of knowledge specifically related to the topic. Enjoy.

The Fluency Problem in Our Schools, and a Proposed Solution
by George A. Miu

I have been very fortunate in life; I have been thrown into long-term situations that necessitated speedy assimilation of a given language: first, it was English, then Arabic, and then French. My native Romanian tongue, also, has had to be employed at various times. I will not go so far as to say that I am fluent in all four, but I have a passable understanding of the spoken language first and foremost.

Upon arriving in the US, I enrolled in French classes at my high school, and found that I was more advanced than the rest of my class. This was not because of some amazing talent I had for the language, but rather because of the way in which it was taught to me. I was, intellectually speaking, no more advanced than any of my classmates; yet, I found the course we were all enrolled in to be rather trivial.

I often reflect upon these times, and my thought has yielded fruit! America suffers from what I like to call a “fluency problem”. All of my colleagues in the aforementioned high school class had approximately the same reading and writing skills. However, they lacked the necessary comfort in actually speaking French. This is because, from the onset of their education, they were taught to conjugate verbs and memorize sometimes-absurd lists of words. Our classes were always split into four sections: reading, writing, listening and speaking, with an emphasis on the first two.

This is unique to the United States. In my British school, all language courses were focused on acquiring fluency in speaking first, and then in writing and reading. Of course, if one looks at ordinary human development, we learn to speak in sentences long before we can write them or read them. I believe that it is advantageous to employ the same sort of pedagogical philosophy in approaching second and third languages, too. In my experience, a five-minute oral exam does more for my vocabulary and understanding of the language than a fifty minute written exam.

I propose that the approach to foreign languages in our schools be changed to incorporate a greater focus on speaking and listening, rather than reading and writing. In this way, for example, a two-year student of a given language can commence writing the sentences they already speak in and subsequently learn the nuances at an accelerated pace.

We live in a multi-lingual environment, both here and abroad. If we can write our requests better than we can speak them, solving problems becomes a theoretical task done on paper. Since this is not the way of the world, I suggest that we develop a system whereby human tendencies are given higher regard.

Only when this is done will Americans be regarded as more than uni-lingual creatures, forever stranded when abroad.