Frances Kemmish <fkemmish@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
>> "Don Phillipson" <d.phillipsonSPAMBLOCK@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>
>>>From mediaeval times until 1970 or 1980, it was generally accepted
>>>that every scholar must have at least a good reading knowledge of
>>>two or more other languages than his mother-tongue. High school
>>>graduation usually required proof by examination of competence in
>>>at least one such language
>> I realize that you're writing from an officially bilingual country,
>> but has this ever (at least in the 20th century) really been the
>> case elsewhere, at least in the sense of "if you don't pass this
>> test you don't graduate"? I certainly don't remember my parents
>> talking about any such requirement.
>>
>
> As it happens, on Wednesday evening I was at a reception in New York
> for alumni of the University of Birmingham. One of the guests of
> honour was Paul Nurse, who was a student at the same time that I was
> (although I never met him then). He mentioned the matriculation
> requirements of the time, which included a pass at O-Level in a
> foreign language. He failed the exam six times, but the head of the
> department to which he'd applied went to the University Senate, and
> got a special dispensation for him to matriculate without that
> requirement, so long as he took language cl***** in the French
> department during his first year as an undergraduate.
>
> Since there was no "graduation" from secondary schools in the UK,
> matriculation would be the nearest equivalent of a "high school
> graduation requirement".
It may be the nearest thing, but (at least) until relatively recently
a high school diploma was as far as the bulk of Americans got (or even
attempted), so it's not really all that close.
That being said, I don't think that it was at all common in the US for
colleges to require demonstrated competence in foreign languages
coming in. What was (and is) common was to have them as exit
requirements, with the ability to have foreign language cl***** waived
based on courses or tests taken before college.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum
+------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The bathwater, in this case, does
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |not appear to ever have contained
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |any baby.
|
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