Bailey Singletary is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].Many majors at Mississippi State require students to take at least one year of foreign language be taken to graduate. While I understand that many professions will require a foreign language to be successful, what I don’t understand is why there is so much pressure for students to spend four days a week in a classroom setting.
It’s a great thing if the student actually learns the language enough to use it in a future job or even while traveling abroad, but are we gaining anything by being forced to take a language if we aren’t learning anything except what we need to pass an upcoming test?
There are many classes I’ve had to take, such as geology, that I feel I’ll never use again in my life as a journalist. I learned what I needed to pass the class and I forgot it days later because it was of no importance to me.
But when it comes to my Spanish class, which involves my learning a language I’m likely going to use, I want to learn it well enough to have an intelligent conversation.
However, this isn’t the case.
I don’t blame this entirely on the teacher I was given or the $150 book I was forced to buy, but more on the setup of the classes.
I’ve never had a lick of Spanish in my life except for a few random words here and there. I took French in high school but decided to give Spanish a shot in college to broaden my mind. The end of the semester is almost here, and I’m still not sure how to make a complete sentence.
I thought I was the only student having trouble, but even people I know who had the language in high school say they struggle to keep up with the freshman level class.
I’m not advocating an “Easy A” class. I’m asking to be taught the language I am willing to learn for my future.
Even though I try outside the classroom and have had help from a fluent-speaking tutor, my hard work isn’t reflected through my tests.
If the school would offer more conversational entry-level foreign language classes, students would be doing better.
In some of our foreign language classes, there is one day designated to be a “lab,” which I’m sure was meant to be for a more “hands-on” look at the language.
In my personal experience, the only thing we do is review exactly what we will cover the next day.
I have heard that the Foreign Language department has been somewhat reformulated and teachers have to give the same standardized tests to every class, but I don’t know why the department felt this was necessary.
If we students were taught vocabulary that’s beneficial to us as tourists, study abroad students and international business students, I feel that people would want to learn the language. Giving me a worksheet about Miguel and his family isn’t going to help me when I’m trying to find a hospital in Mexico.
I understand there is no such thing as an easy fix for the curriculum problems a university has, but unless something is said, nothing will be fixed.
I have a feeling it’s not just my professor that is having students with bad grades, and the reason I say this is because I’ve heard numerous students complain about their Spanish I class being too difficult.