Oregon schools try to bridge gap in second-language education

MEDFORD, Ore. – As soon as eighth-grader Breanna Cwiklinski heard Mandarin Chinese would be offered at Central Point’s Scenic Middle School this year, she was eager to sign up for the class.

“There was nothing else like it,” Breanna said. “It’s the first time ever there was another language to learn (at school), and it was a good opportunity.”

After about a month of instruction from teacher Qi Jing, of Xuchang, China, Breanna and her 36 classmates, divided between two sections, can understand simple sentences in Mandarin and have learned about China and its culture.

Breanna says one of the differences she noticed between U.S. and Chinese societies is that all Chinese students learn English at a young age.

Ordinarily, Chinese students begin studying English in the third grade, said Lin Lin, a Mandarin teacher at Medford’s St. Mary’s School. St. Mary’s provides the Mandarin instructor at Scenic free of charge as part of its role as a Confucius Classroom designated and funded by the Chinese government-affiliated Hanban Chinese Language Council.

Proactive Chinese parents in large cities often enroll their children in English classes at ages as young as 4 or 5, Lin Lin said.

“I think at a young age we should learn another language, too, because you see a lot of different nationalities over here,” Breanna said.

Second language instruction is rarely available at Jackson County public elementary and middle schools, and only a fraction of students participate. Even at the high school level, a minority of students are enrolled in a second language at any given time.

An estimated 18.5 percent of U.S. students in kindergarten through the 12th grade were enrolled in a second-language class at school in 2007-’08, according to a survey by the Alexandria, Va.-based American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages due to be released later this month.

That percentage has increased by only half a percent from 10 years before, said ACTFL Executive Director Brett Lovejoy.

In contrast, nearly 100 percent of school-age students in European Union countries are enrolled in a foreign language, and it’s often not just a second language but also a third or fourth language, Lovejoy said.

“We are the only industrial country where kids don’t learn another language,” said Ashland schools Superintendent Juli Di Chiro. “We are out of line with the rest of the world in terms of second-language instruction. Nationally, it’s a problem we’re not doing more.”

The scarcity of second-language instruction in U.S. public schools isn’t likely to end any time soon, Lovejoy said.

Recent school budget cuts because of the recession have taken a toll on second-language instruction.

When schools reduce expenses, second languages are often among the first targets for cuts, not only because of a lack of financial resources but also because federal and state governments have not made them a priority.

“Learning another language allows students to problem-solve better and learn other skills more readily because they’re not dependent on one set of information,” said Central Point schools Superintendent Randy Gravon. “It’s a good education tool. We just haven’t embraced it in this country.”