One of the main reasons I’m majoring in general studies instead of English is the foreign language requirement. I’d need 14-16 hours of a foreign language to graduate with an English degree and creative writing concentration, according to my degree audit.For general studies, I only need three hours of foreign language.Interestingly, a computer programming language course counts as a foreign language for me. Sadly, it doesn’t count for my boyfriend, a computer science major fluent in Java, C, C++, C#, Scheme, SQL, Javascript, MIPS Assembly, Prologue and PHP programming languages.Do Spanish majors have to take 6-16 hours of another language? Nope.Funny how that works.I get where LSU is coming from with the language requirement. Speaking another language is a valuable skill in today’s difficult job market. Plus, lots of students at LSU are ignorant and intolerant of other cultures, and a foreign language class might be their only venture into understanding a different kind of people.Why not require a cultural anthropology or linguistics class to encourage cultural understanding and interest? Or a semester abroad? New culture, new language — two birds, one stone.Taking two to five foreign language classes is no guarantee you’ll actually be able to communicate in that language. None of my friends who graduated from LSU with four semesters of a foreign language consider it a marketable skill they learned; they consider it a GPA-killer and study-time-sucker. I’m sure some LSU graduates value their newly-learned language as both a GPA and resume booster. I’ve just never met those people.Furthermore, the way foreign languages are taught at LSU (and many other institutions of higher learning) is not necessarily the best way to learn a language. Many linguists and neuroscientists agree upon a “critical age” for first language acquisition, where after ages seven to 13 children are mostly incapable of acquiring the ability to communicate through language. The same theory has been applied to second language acquisition, where it becomes more difficult (though not impossible, as in the case of one’s first language) to learn a second language after a certain age.Among educators, two-way language immersion is recognized as the best way to formally acquire a second language. Two-way immersion happens when all subjects are taught in two languages at the same time — imagine a math teacher explaining long division in English, but using lots of Spanish vocabulary along the way (or vice versa).So educators and scientists alike agree learning a language in a traditional language course after age 13 is not ideal. Why do we — and a majority of other learning institutions, both secondary and post-secondary — continue doing what doesn’t work?Well, it’s hard to overhaul an entire curriculum, especially during uncertain budgetary times.Cool. I get that. I’m not really even asking for that.I’m asking for LSU to drop the foreign language requirement, or at least reduce it to only one introductory course. It will boost GPAs, reduce student stress and maybe even increase graduation rates. Those are all good things for the University.You might have to let a few teachers go since few people will take a foreign language when they’re not forced to do so, but I wouldn’t be sad about seeing only LSU’s best-evaluated teachers kept on staff.  A reduction in staff has already been tossed around different departments as a way to streamline the budget. I haven’t talked to any administrators about this because they usually write me off as a student with stupid complaints, and I rarely feel helped, listened to or taken seriously. So I’m writing about it here.What’s the deal, LSU?  Sara Boyd is a 23-year-old general studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_sboyd.
 
 
 
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