LI B R.AR.Y OF THE U N IVER.5ITY or ILLINOIS UI V.20-ZZ MODERN tANGUAGt LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/universityofilli2022univ UWIVEES ITY OF ILLINOIS Modern Foreign Language NQv k^ laoti NEWSLETTER fji:i^EH53niJiai!?i?i Vol, XX. No. 1 October, 1966 Dear Colleagues: In extending greetings to you as the N^, oL^TTSR begins its txventieth year. I reiterate our intention to keep you informed as conpletely as possible about v/hi,t is going on here at the U of I, to some extent about oui' profe.;sional "world" elsewhere, and occasionally about readers' concerns and news as they i-.ay be coriniunicated to us and which ive are eager to have. One of the newest events on the U of I ca-:pus is the arrival of Dr. Clayton L Dauson as Trofessor of -ussian and >.ead of the Jepartiient of Slavic Languages and Literatures, trofessor Ja.vson con.es to our faculty with a rich :,nd highly successful experience in research and te^^tbook preparation in the Russian language. His Ph.D. thesis at Harvard was on i^erivational Suffixes of iiussian ? ouns and he has contributed articles to learned journals on the structure of «iussian. He is the author and editor of Intensive )>.us sian , Univ. of Syracuse, 5 vols., 1954-1957 and the princi;)al author of i.odej^n iljuasiSJl IjH* Marcourt, Brace, 1964-1965, the r. ost widely used audio-lingual textbook, ^r. .lawson has been language advisor to the .^.XT Force and quality control officer of all languages taught in intensive language training courses for military personnel at the Institute of Tec.u.ology in Dayton, Chio. Ke comes to Illinois from the dur.i position at Syracuse University of Chairman of the Jepartiaent of Slavic Languages i nd /.ssociate Director of the .liastern i^uropean L£\ngxiage Frograir. V.elco.r.ei irofessor Davvsoni 1 A sharp and deep concern of many teachers expressed in Articulation conferences here at the U of I last fall and 1 st spring, in which high school a^d university teachers mot to discuss conmon interests and problems, was the harmful influence of the National i erit Scholarship ' Tests oh the Foreign Languages. , Cn June 21, I wrote Dr. John I Stalnaker, President, National lerit Scholarsi.ip Corporation, ia part as follows: "This past year (1965-66) at both conferences a mtLtter uas presented concerning the National f erit Scholarship Tests. -Ithough this is not, strictl,' spea'.iing. a high school- U of I articulation matter, it came up quite naturally as a corollary to the problem of the continuous (vs. interrupted) study of .jj,)anish, and was voiced at both C'^nferences by a large number of high sciiool teachers, without dissent and with t/ie vocal concurrence of all. "The higii sciiool teachers said they lose, in the senior year, or in the senior and junior years, n any of their best students because of the National erit Scholarship tests^ the story going like this: The best students are a. ong the rost ambitious. Their parents are similarly ambitious. They know the co. petition is severe and only a small percent of top students will win or even get on a Ser.i finalist , Finalist, or -2- '•Commended" list, which riiay sain useful ^irefertnent in other competitions, nence they wish to study those subjects most clooCly allied to the knowledge and skills which will be tested. Since there is no foreign language compoent among the tests, they elect tu drop foreign language study in favor of other subjects v.hich are i. ore likely to help them make a high score in ^h:. r>,ationni . erit ociiolarship Tests. igh school counselors seem to find nothing objectj ohable in this line of reasoning and approve—pernaps even recoinmeud and urge--this course of action in prof^ramming. "Thus a body blow is de ivered to aigii sciiool-university articulation, since college foreign language requirements must subsequently be net and the resulting interruption in high school study or lack of continuity between high school anu college study has created a damaging barrier to the high degree of success in meeting them which these "b^st" students snould be able to achieve. This short-sighted policy — or, at least, practice--may indeed gain higher scores than otherwise and may r.iove students on into college witii preferment of different kinds; but, con- versely, it is bound inev^itably to make it more difficult for these students to meet, with the distinction all should expect, the foreign language requirements of the Univer"sity, not to mention the useful application of a ^jarticular foreign language to the study of many under- graduate disciplines and, of course, subsequently of virtually all graduate fields, iome students thus handicapped never get over it. "This result, I ai;j sure, was the the intention of the I^JIiSC, but it seens to be an umeniable side effect. The question is: what can be done about it? Can the iu SC include in the future a foreign language component? If not, can it include "culture" questions based on learning that \.ould cone through foreign language study? If not, car, it issue statements that ivould correct ti>e short-siglited policy novj ^jractised? If not, what can it do to repair damage it did not intend to cause? "I do not find in your 1965 Guid e any i.iention of foreign languages, not even among special, distinguishing, or "unusual" achievements; yet foreign languages are substantially the only college preparatory subjects not tested. It is inueed unfortunate that such an influential agency as the NI'xSC in aetermining quality in preparatory education should have produced an adverse effect in any area of study and particularly that it should have become, uowever unintentionally, a negative influence in what has become an area of critical need in our neitional life." Dr. Stalnaker's reply follows, in part: "The study of foreign languages is of great ir.iportance >nd shouiu be encouraged, i.e both agree, but I cannot agree with your assessment of the influence of the i.erit Program on the study of the foreign languages, or wita your statement about secondary school counselors. "It is not the intention of TwloC to influence t',:e curriculiuii. in fcict we have carefully designed tlie test we use to measure general educational development, and not attaini-ent in a k articular field. For exanple, we do not attempt to measure specific knov, leage in physics, advanced math- ematics, economics, or foreign langua{^:es, although \.'e recognize the o great importance of each, U'e restrict ourselves to the area of develop- ment common to virtually all college-bound students, including those who come from small or ill-equipped secondary schools v/here curricular offerings are restricted*. "The greatest influence on what courses a college-bound student takes in secondary school, we believe, is probably the college entrance and college graduation requirements. If the college requires or even encour- ages foreign language for admission, its applicants will study foreign languages, we believe. "In some random checking of the winners of the Merit Scholarships, we find that most of them have studied foreign languages. Perhaps we should make a more careful study of this matter. Such a study, given adequate publicity, might have the effect you seekp It would establish that most of those who win Merit Scholarships have studied foreign languages. "The Merit Selection Committee, I can assure you, gives thorough consider- ation to distinguished achievement such as unusual proficiency in one or more foreign languages ^ As you point out, we could state this fact more effectively if we mentioned it in several of our publications, and we shall plan to do so. ; "If you think it worthwhile, I shall be glad to have the study I propose undertaken and reported, so that you can use the results in your news- lettero" In my rejoinder I expressed the hope that he v/ould indeed make the study proposed, and Dr. Stalnaker's latest word is: "We shall undertake the study that I mentioned and as soon as we have some results from it, I'll send them along to you," v/e shall all await those results with interest and with hope and meanwhile watch for the more effective statements on foreign languages now planned, as stated, for several NMSC publications. V/. II. Shoemaker, Head Dept. of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese ETS EXAMS. The departments of French and German are inaugurating the use of the standardized ^rench and German exams of the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey, for the Ph.D. proficiency exam. This year both the traditional 600 word translation exams and the ETS exams will be given, credit being given for passing either exam (but a student may take both the traditional and ETS exam with penalty for failing only the traditional exam). Graduate students are urged to take the ETS exam in addition to the traditional one to aid the departments in their evaluation. To this end, the ETS exams will be given free of charge this year. EXHIBITION. The Center for Latin American Studies presented a Cornell- Guggenheim Latin /imerican Art collection "The Emergent Decade" at the Krannert Art Museum Sept. 18- Oct. 9 and on Sept. 25., a lecture by Thomas Messer, Director of the Solomon R Guggenheim i useum. o -4- IMLTA MEETING. The annual meeting of the Illinois Modern Language Teach- ers Association will be held Nov, 6 at the Holiday Inn East in Spring- field, in conjunction with meetings of the various AAT groups which have been invited to hold their meetings Nov, 5.