Protect Language Learning at UOG!
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Protect Language Learning at UOG
Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Pacific Daily News
December 30, 2016
At present at the University of Guam, each undergraduate
student is required to take two language classes (eight credits total) as part
of their General Education or GE requirements. UOG offers courses regularly for
Chamorro, Japanese, Tagalong, Spanish, Mandarin, French and can also offer
courses in Chuukese and other Micronesian languages upon request. UOG is also
home to the Chamorro Studies Program, of which I am a faculty member and this
program is unique in the world in terms of focusing its courses on the history,
language and culture of the Chamorro people. UOG serves and is supported by a
diverse community in this region and the many language courses that are offered
illustrate that.
The University of Guam is currently planning on reducing the
language requirement so that in the future students will only be required to
take one language course, or a single semester in order to graduate. With this
change, individual major programs may require a second semester or more for
their own requirements, but overall this would still impact negatively language
learning at UOG. To cut the requirements in half, would mean losing a number of
language courses every semester, which would mean less money to support
teachers of Chamorro, Japanese and other regional languages. The loss of these
classes would also mean that programs such as mine which are language focused,
would have limited ability to expand or grow, since institutional support at
UOG is largely dependent upon the amount of courses you offer.
In college, much of your focus is on your major courses
because they are meant to reflect your chosen path in life. But as many who have
attended college will tell you, your GE courses are usually the sources of your
most unexpected epiphanies. In college your major is usually where you are
meant to derive your most important skills or lessons. GE classes are supposed
to be dreary dreaded experiences, where you are forced to take courses not
because of what interests you, but because of some academic consensus about
what all students should at least be familiar with before moving to the next
stage of their lives.
But those GE classes are often the places where we learn
some of the most important and surprising lessons, because they educate or
enlighten us from outside of the comfortable confines of our discipline or
profession. Your major courses often reduce the world to a basic set of theories
or ideas, which in truth really apply to only a portion of what you will
encounter in your work or life. Your GE classes represent a sometimes
frustrating, sometimes enriching reminder that there are far more things in
heaven in earth than in your degree requirements young undergraduate. This idea
might be truest in terms of language learning. In my column next week I will
discuss more about the ways in which learning a new language, or for many
students learning your heritage language, can represent a defining moment in
terms of development and eventual identity as a person.
For today, myself and several other faculty at UOG are
currently holding a “Protect Language Learning at UOG” petition drive in hopes
of convincing the administration at UOG to not reduce the amount of language
classes required for undergraduates. If you would like to sign the petition or
learn more about this issue, please head to the website www.uoglanguagedrive.com.
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Language Courses are Important
Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Pacific Daily News
January 6, 2017
Last week I wrote about current proposals at the University
of Guam to reduce the General Education (GE) requirements for language learning
from a full year of course work (8 credits) to just a single semester (4
credits). I am part of a group of UOG faculty members and concerned community
members who feel that this will be detrimental to the learning of UOG students
and also does not reflect the realities of our region. We have a website www.uoglanguagedrive.com and a petition which we are
encouraging people to sign in order to convince the administration at UOG to
reverse this course and protect language learning at UOG.
In my classes at UOG, I generally cite our president, Robert
Underwood when describing the value of education, namely that it is not about
memorizing facts or figures, but rather giving students a set of intellectual
tools to help them confront the diversity of challenges they will face, from a
position of strength. This means, that through their General Education and
major courses, you cannot teach them everything or prepare them for everything,
but the courses you require them to take will help them confront difficulties in
their personal and professional lives with a greater sense of purpose and
possibility.
Major courses are meant to prepare someone for different
professional paths, but GE courses represent a deeper foundation. Each
college’s GE curriculum is a mixture of established international or national
norms developed over centuries and also a particular institution’s relationship
to the communities or the regions around it. A GE curriculum cannot represent
everything under the sun, but the local components tend to reflect certain key
relationships, most notably through history, language and culture courses.
In May 2015 I helped organize a forum at UOG focused on the
importance of learning second languages in today’s world. The event was
attended by more than 200 community members and undergraduates. We passed out
surveys and 185 out of 186 respondents expressed their support for keeping the
existing language learning requirements at UOG. At that forum Dr. Laura Souder
Betances, a noted Chamorro activist, scholar and educational consultant made
several statements which have stuck with me today. Here is one I find
particularly relevant for this discussion.
Universities exist to universalize
students. And how do we universalize
students? We universalize them by
providing them with different universes in which to learn, to make decisions,
and to operate, and to be successful. If we’re going to operate and be
successful in the global reality, we need to know more than one language. Fortunately, many – most – of us are
bilingual. But we need to know many
languages, because in order to be successful, you have to negotiate in many
parts of the world. In order to have an
economic future, we need to be able to speak the languages of the people that
we are trading with. Diminishing the capacity of students to learn more than
one language…is diminishing the capacities of universities to fully function as
universalizing places for students.
My argument is that Guam is a multicultural and multilingual
community whereby languages in addition to English are essential in not just
how we communicate with those in our region, but also communicate our respect
for what they provide to the university, whether through taxes, student tuition
or community involvement. The reduction of the language requirement in the GE
curriculum means a weakening of that potential connection, which is strongly
symbiotic. As communities around Guam want to see their cultures and languages
reflected at UOG, so too should students benefit from the learning of languages
in order to better interact with those groups or even feeling stronger
connected to their own cultures through beginners courses in their heritage
languages.
For me, this is something fiercely personal. When I attended
the UOG as an undergraduate, I did not speak much Chamorro or care much about
my culture. I took Chamorro to fulfill my language requirements and
didn't think much of it at the time. But taking those courses and learning the basics of my heritage language
changed me in so many ways and reshaped my consciousness. It pushed me to
become fluent and to become more connected to my culture and my elders. Not all
students will have that same transformative experience, but in my opinion, it
is important that we use the General Education curriculum at UOG to give
students from all ethnicities on Guam that chance to explore both new and
familiar universes.
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