Fluent students use classes to fine-tune language skills

By <br>By Andrew Kaplan
Daily Staff Reporter  On  November 5th, 2003

Although many students enroll in foreign language courses to
become fluent in a second dialect, others speak fluently before
even attending their first day of class.

From Spanish to Russian to Arabic, many University students say
they have registered for programs in languages they already speak.
They add that while they may speak fluently, their previous
experience has not prepared them for upper-level language
courses.

“I can speak pretty fluently, but my writing and reading
are pretty weak and my grammar is even weaker,” said LSA
junior Basil Mossa-Basha, who is taking Arabic 101. “It was
necessary for someone like me who already speaks Arabic fluently to
start off at a low level.”

Like many students queried, Mossa-Basha said he came into
contact with a second language through his family.

“My mom speaks Arabic fluently,” he said. “I
also went to Syria about five or six times, so that helped me learn
street Arabic.”

When fluent speakers place into introductory courses, students
said, they gain an upper hand over others who may not have had a
lifetime of exposure to a second language.

“I definitely think I have some kind of advantage,”
Mossa-Basha said, adding that he is fluent in Aami, an informal
version of Arabic.

Attending class with experienced speakers can alienate students
who are less advanced, said LSA sophomore Fatima Makhzoum, also an
Arabic 101 student.

“I do get the sense from people who know a lot more that I
need to catch up to be on the same level,” she said.

Makhzoum added that while she is a proficient speaker of the
Lebanese dialect of Arabic, she is less acquainted with
Fus’ha, the classical version taught in the classroom —
with which some of her classmates are already familiar.

While some students cited backgrounds as the main cause of
disparities in understanding foreign languages, others said the
inequalities arise from poor teaching methods.

LSA senior Oscar Rodriguez, whose proficiency in Spanish placed
him into an upper-level conversational program his freshman year,
said instructors’ emphasis on grammar lessons contributes to
the gap between fluent speakers and nonfluent speakers.

“The way (instructors) teach any LSA language is, in the
U.S., they teach more grammatical stuff, so there’s a
deficiency in just plain fluency,” he said, adding that his
background in Spanish gave him an edge even over accomplished
speakers.

To a foreign language instructor, a rift between fluent students
and less experienced ones can frustrate the pace at which the class
progresses through the curriculum.

Sylvia Sutter, an assistant for student services in the
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, said a glut of
fluent students in lower-level classes “would be difficult to
other students, because they would be left behind. … We try
to have students at the same level.”

To ensure that students in elementary language courses learn at
the same rate, Sutter added that students have recourse to
“heritage classes,” which the department has tailored
specifically for students who can speak — but cannot read or
write — a second language.

In addition to Russian, students can also take heritage courses
in other language programs such as Spanish and Chinese.

But administrators said they cannot obligate students already
fluent in a second language to take advanced courses or heritage
classes. Instructors can only ask students to transfer into more
advanced programs.

“It’s all based on the instructor’s decision
pedagogically,” Sutter said.

“I suggest to my student, ‘you need to take a higher
class,’ ” said Wei Liu, a lecturer in second-year
Chinese.

Although administrators said they often encounter proficient
speakers in beginner courses, they added that they do not believe
these students opt for elementary courses in order to cinch a good
grade.

“We don’t get people trying to do that,” said
Peggy McCracken, chair of the Department of Romance Languages and
Literatures. “It’s really hard to act bad in something
you do well. … It’s too much work, it’s a
four-hour-a-week class.”

But students said they notice some of their classmates trying to
cut corners by taking courses far below their ken.

“There are a couple students who do that just to get the
easier grade,” Mossa-Basha said. “But for the most
part, they’re there to learn.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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