FOREIGN TONGUE: Legislator wants immigrant families to keep native languages

Finally, some state legislators who recognize the need to foster heritage languages! We need more forward thinking legislators like these to counter those out-of-touch and backward thinking legislators attempting to push through English-only laws!

FOREIGN TONGUE: Legislator wants immigrant families to keep native
languages
Capital News Service March 6, 2008

By Laura Schwartzman

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080306/NEWS01/80306044/1002/NEWS01

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland lawmakers want to fix a "critical shortage" of foreign-language speakers in the United States by urging immigrants and their families to preserve their native tongues.

Sen. James Rosapepe, D-Prince George's, said his bill to establish a task force on encouraging "heritage languages" will benefit the economy and national security.

"[We must] hold on to this tremendous competitive advantage for America," he said at a Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.

While learning English is important for immigrants, Rosapepe said the state's population of foreign-language speakers is a vastly underutilized resource.

Nearly 14.5 percent of Marylanders speak a foreign language at home, according to the bill's authors.Jerry Lampe, deputy director of the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland, said more than 80 federal agencies need employees with proficiency in certain languages.

The rise of China as a global power and continued American interests in the Middle East and South Asia make languages such as Chinese, Arabic and Urdu important for national security reasons.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 the International Year of Languages, a prime motivation for introducing the bill."I know so many people like myself who came here as children, who may have known the language of their parents or their grandparents, but in many cases did not keep it," said Rosapepe, who was born in Italy and served as U.S. ambassador to Romania from 1998 to 2001. "We see this all the time across the United States."

But proponents of making English the official language do not agree.


"I'm opposed to any legislation which eventually leads to taxpayer financed programs that encourage multi-language efforts," said Delegate Patrick McDonough, R-Baltimore County, the lead sponsor of a bill to make English Maryland's official language. "We need to promote English. It's been the unifying force in this nation and that is the language that people need to learn how to speak."

Rosapepe's task force would study heritage language preservation and come up with ways to foster it. State government agencies, the University System of Maryland, business organizations and members of ethnic community groups would be represented.

A major focus of the bill is to advise educators teaching the American-born children of immigrants. At least 150 languages are spoken in Maryland's public schools, according to the bill's authors, although children often lose proficiency as families assimilate.

Representatives from Chinese and African ethnic advocacy groups said many parents are sending their children to study abroad or at language-specific schools in an effort to preserve their cultural heritages.

Without initiatives to encourage native languages, "the growing trend of African immigrants sending their children to attend schools back in Africa" will continue, at a loss to Maryland and U.S. educational systems," said Chuks Eleonu, CEO of the African Peoples Action Congress.

Henry Lau, chair of the Greater Washington Chinese-American Alliance, said several Chinese-language schools have sprung up around the state to meet the demand for cultural education. He urged lawmakers to assist the schools and reward students who master their native tongues."

Heritage language skills will flourish in Maryland only when there is an encouraging environment," he said.

Utah Efforts to Preserve Native American Languages

The Deseret Morning News reported on February 4, 2008 that the Utah "State Board of Education is seeking $275,000 to preserve and revitalize Utah's indigenous languages to help narrow the achievement gaps" between Native American and Caucasian students.

It's nice to see a State Board of Education recognize that Heritage Language teaching and Learning can be a means to addressing academic achievement gaps, rather than as an obstacle to academic achievement.

Read the full article here.

Defense to Begin Recruiting Foreign Language Corps

You've heard of the Peace Corps. Say hello to the National Language Service Corps! Note how this reveals the critical shortage of bilingual staff in our U.S. federal agencies. It will be interesting to watch this initiative to see how many of the targetted 1,000 for the language corps end up being non-native speakers vs. native speakers.
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Government Executive January 15, 2008

Defense to Begin Recruiting Foreign Language Corps By Brittany R. Ballenstedt

DOD is assembling a corps of people fluent in critical foreign languages to serve the nation during times of emergency or international need.

By 2010, the department will recruit at least 1,000 people to serve in the new National Language Service Corps, said Gail McGinn, deputy undersecretary of Defense for plans and head of the Defense Senior Language Authority. Congress gave Defense the authority to start a pilot project to create the corps in the FY07 Defense authorization act.

While the pilot launched last year, the department has not yet begun recruiting. The early stages have involved developing a CONOPS as well as determining how to recruit, test and certify people with foreign language skills, said Robert Slater, director of the National Security Language Program. Now that much of that groundwork has been laid, the department plans to begin recruiting this month.

To entice people to serve, the Pentagon plans to launch a Web site highlighting benefits of serving in the language corps. Slater said incentives include not only competitive compensation but advantage of being identified with an organization that values foreign language skills and the use of government-funded software to maintain language skills.

The department is developing a list of languages deemed critical, and plans to have it finalized in the next couple of weeks. The list will include at least nine languages, but Arabic probably will not be among them. "Arabic is a heavily recruited language already," Slater said. "We'd rather look at some other languages right now."

The pilot project includes a $19 million contract awarded to General Dynamics Information Technology under which the company will create a language training and communications center, recruit corps members and provide personnel support.

Slater said the department hopes to assess by the end of this year whether the pilot is working. If it proves successful, Defense will structure a proposal to make the language corps permanent by the end of the pilot in 2010.

While the project is being run within Defense, the concept holds benefits for the rest of government, McGinn said. "We looked at other agencies to determine what their needs might be," she said. "We're working to understand how [other agencies] can use this corps of people and bring them in when there are national needs."