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.
>
> There may have been, and still are, requirements that students take
> clases in foreign languages, but not that any useful level of
> competence be demonstrated.
>
> You'll be happy to know, I'm sure, that well over half of my son's
> public elementary school's students are getting intensive instruction
> in a language other than their mother tongue and will be expected to
> demonstrate a rather substantial degree of competence in it. My son,
> alas, doesn't qualify for this status, having learned English as his
> first language.
>
>
>>and the PhD degree required proof of at least two. These
>>qualifications were generally abandoned late in the 20th century:
>>but the idea survives, that scholar****p requires competence in
>>languages.
>
>
> Which, of course, brings up the reason that it was expected that
> scholars be able to read and write in other languages: those other
> languages were the lingua francas of academic (and commercial)
> discourse. Today, that discourse is overwhelmingly in English, so
> there's less draw to other languages (and more draw to people with
> other mother tongues learning English).
I would say that the main reason today for learning foreign languages is
trade, and to a lesser extent, tourism. My state (at the moment) has
compulsory language study in primary and lower school (Years/Grades
4-10, ie roughly age 8-15), but that could change at political whim.
--
Rob Bannister
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