Q:
What are the advantages of HLI?
A:
Bilingualism has practical advantages in addition to contributing
to our society’s cultural richness and resources. Bilingual
skills are valued in the work place.
Q:
What is the end benefit to being bilingual?
A:
With the right kind of instruction, heritage speakers are considered
most likely to succeed in developing a command of a foreign language
at a level essential for professional transactions, international
trade, and national security.
Q:
Why base the HLI at a university?
A:
University students are currently studying how to help linguistically-challenged members of the community. Heritage language learners provide
hands-on experience for language, linguistics and education majors
at the university. The opportunities for community-based (in-service)
learning are enormous for students, both undergraduate and graduate.
Q:
Don't you have to be super-smart to speak more than one language?
A:
No. Children in a bilingual environment readily acquire bilingual
skills in a natural setting. Often, however, they are not aware of
how to further develop their linguistic skills. Research shows that
bilingualism is closely correlated with high performance on standardized
tests such as IQ tests and college entrance exams. So, development
of language skills results in improved performance in many walks of
life.
Q:
What does the community get out of the HLI program?
A:
The need for speakers of many languages is already critical in the
state’s judicial system and in the health-care industry. An
additional benefit of heritage language programs is that they contribute
to making the university transparent to communities who might
otherwise be fearful or mistrusting. Even if people who struggle with
language don't go to college themselves, their children will find
it easier to aspire to higher education if parents have had positive
learning experiences here.
Q:
Why PSU? Aren’t other universities in the state or the area
doing this already?
A:
PSU's motto, Let knowledge serve the city, reflects a longstanding
commitment to community and regional welfare. Over half of the state’s
heritage language speakers live within commuting distance of the PSU
campus. This is important in gauging how many people would be served
by on-campus programs as well as in determining how faculty and students
might go off campus to deliver language training in the communities
where it is most needed.
PSU's Department of Foreign Languages has a history of offering more
languages than any other institution in the state. The Department
has the necessary expertise to succeed in this innovative program.
The other heritage language program closest to Portland is in southern California.
There is a critical need to address the needs of heritage language
speakers who have much to contribute to our state and our region.
