Today, university students are
surrounded by changes that impose choices–fundamentally important
choices. In part, this situation is a product of shifts within
university programs that now oblige students to select a
substantial part of their own course of studies, but outside the
university, the working world has also changed. It has grown more
volatile and, for those who aspire to satisfying careers, there is
a growing demand not only for skills in a speaker's native tongue but
for an education in other languages as well. Knowledge of other
languages is promised by the very best institutions of higher
learning, and students should expect no less when they come to
Western. Such knowledge permits contact with other cultures and
other peoples–contact through which whole new perspectives can be
acquired. Students, mistrusting themselves, may find that idea too
grand or too remote from their experience. What they remember is
the problems of a high school language course–problems of
memorizing vocabulary, or conjugating verbs. Let's begin, then, at
the difficult point of those remembered tasks, and consider the
value of language study in introductory or intermediate courses
and programs.Languages @ Western
Why Study Another Language ?
See also:
Western Linguistics
Also of interest:
