FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

WHEREAS, recent events on the domestic and international scene have dramatized the increasing number of problems Americans face in coping with international developments and the impact of these events on domestic issues; and

WHEREAS, the report of the President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies, significantly entitled Strength Through Wisdom: a critique of U.S. capability, refers to America's incompetence in foreign languages as "nothing short of scandalous" and further states that "nothing less is at issue than the nation's security;" and

WHEREAS, there has been a dramatic decline in the study of foreign languages in this country and a disproportionate reduction in the number of foreign language teachers as compared to other disciplines during the past ten years; and

WHEREAS, the overwhelming majority of the world's population neither understands nor speaks English; and

WHEREAS, the United States must develop a first-class apparatus to cope with this fact in business, industry, trade, politics, scientific research and general communication; and

WHEREAS, the loss of jobs requiring foreign language skills to non-citizens has been significant because leaders in politics, industry and commerce have found it increasingly difficult to recruit qualified American citizens; and

WHEREAS, present and future generations of Americans should be given the opportunity to develop to the fullest extent possible their intellectual and communications capacities in all areas of knowledge pertaining to other countries, languages, peoples and cultures, and to reinforce basic communications skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing; and

WHEREAS, a concentration on language and international studies can help to improve the quality of our schools' curricula by addressing the public's demand for rigor and competency and by exposing young people and future citizens to our basic values of democracy and human rights:

RESOLVED, that the AFT support legislation that would:

• offer federal assistance to school systems to help build and maintain language instruction and international studies programs

• support the expansion of teacher exchange programs that would allow both language teachers and other teachers to study and teach abroad

• provide specific support for the education of American workers in world affairs.