Although President George Bush announced a proposal Jan. 5 to increase the number of Americans fluent in "critical need" languages, including Ara-bic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi and Persian, it remains unclear if this program will affect Brown.
Under the plan, called the National Security Language Initiative, Bush will request $114 million in fiscal year 2007 to enhance foreign language instruction in K-12 schools and universities. The State and Education departments will supply 75 percent of the $114 million. A similar $750 million request will be made to the Department of Defense for the improvement of the language skills of military and intelligence personnel for fiscal years 2007 to 2011.
But Associate Director for the Center of Language Studies Merle Krueger said it is too early to say if Brown will benefit from the initiative, pointing out that the Bush administration has yet to secure funds for the plan. He said one part of the proposal that may have a direct implication for Brown is the plan to expand the State Department Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program, which allows native speakers of critical need languages to teach in U.S. universities and schools. At present, Brown has three Fulbright Teaching Assistants: one in Arabic from Jordan, one in Swahili from Kenya and one in Spanish from Mexico.
Otherwise, Krueger said he foresees no major changes in the instruction of critical need languages at Brown, adding that issues of national security play little role in the choice of languages offered.
"We don't consciously of-fer languages identified as something in the national security interest," Krueger said. "The interest in specific languages waxes and wanes, but I don't think the decisions about where resources from the University are directed are made on the basis of what is in the news. It's more a reaction to student interest."
Krueger acknowledged, how-ever, that student demand often depends upon languages that are relevant to international politics. He cited Arabic as a language that has gained popularity of late.
"In global political terms, when something like 9/11 occurs, then interest in Arabic and the Arabic-speaking world grows," Krueger said. "That's just logical."
Mirena Christoff, lecturer in Arabic, attested to the popularity of Arabic. She said that due to burgeoning student interest, a third section of AB 10-20: "Beginning Arabic" was added in the fall and AB 70-80: "Fourth-Year Arabic" was created as well.
A second section of AB 30-40: "Intermediate Arabic" will be added for next year, as well as a course in classical Arabic literature taught by Elliot Colla, assistant professor of comparative literature, in spring 2007.
Christoff, who is currently the only full-time Arabic teacher, said the search for another full-time faculty member is complete and an offer to the top candidate has been made. She declined to say who the choice is, but said the professor should arrive at Brown next fall.
Christoff recognized the importance of Arabic as a language critical to national security, but put greater emphasis on its capacity to open students to a vast cultural legacy.
"Learning Arabic opens a huge window toward a cultural tradition shared by about 250 million people in today's world," she said. "It's an immense opportunity to work through the language to acquire first-hand knowledge of this culture. Of course the security of this country concerns every citizen here, but there is no better way to improve your own security than to know who you're dealing with, and there is no better way to do that than to do it in the people's language."
Professor of Anthropology William Beeman agreed that the first priority in improving Middle Eastern language instruction at Brown should be to enhance Arabic course offerings, but also mentioned the value of other critical need languages. Beeman said he has almost finished a proposal that, if approved, could result in the introduction of Persian language courses in the next academic year. He said there are funding considerations that could extend the process, but hopes that after nearly three decades of pushing for Persian, his goal may materialize.
"There's no question at all that there's a national need for training in these languages," Beeman said. "Our training in Arabic, Persian, Turkish - these critical Middle Eastern languages - lags way behind, even behind places like China and India."
Krueger said increased interest in national security languages would not affect Brown's offerings of non-critical need languages. He emphasized that he hopes the National Security Language Initiative does not diminish the significance of foreign language instruction as a means for understanding other societies.
"It disturbs me a little bit to think that the only reason for studying language is in terms of language as a weapon or as defense," he said. "We have to be realistic and understand that that's partly necessary, but it also needs to be stressed that language is something that can bring the world closer together. It's not just that we need to know about potential threats, but we also need to learn and become more global citizens."
