I have argued in the past that students who struggle with learning another language should be provided alternate ways to learn, rather than be given a waiver or substitute of some sort. As language educators, we all understand the importance of second language learning for all kinds of reasons. What are those reasons? For the past few weeks there has been a discussion on the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Language Educators SIG (Special Interest Group) about precisely that.
A number of suggestions have been made, including links to various websites and YouTube videos and you can find those on your own. What I am posting here is the link to ACTFL’s own listing of the top 10 reasons to learn languages.
https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/why-learn-languages/top-ten-reasons-to-learn-languages/
Check it out and see for yourself! And, if you are not yet a member of this international professional organization, I would strongly encourage you to join. They are the group that has developed the Proficiency Guidelines that are used by many colleges and universities and they again have a great lineup of speakers at their upcoming annual conference in Washington, D.C. from November 21-23, 2019.
I’ll be presenting there too on Friday, November 22. If you attend, please stop by and say hello!
