The Future of Education

As reported by the MLA (Modern Language Association), the North-Eastern United States has seen extensive cuts, particularly to Romance Languages such as Italian at the University level. As a language requirement, Italian has had to compete, not only with its traditional Romance competitors, such as French and Spanish, but with trending additions added to the linguistic menu of options, such as Mandarin, Arabic and American sign language. While the numbers in many Romance languages decline overall in the US, Italian programs abroad are flourishing, as well as content courses on Italian culture in English. These positive developments however forfeit the study of the language to some extent, as students may go abroad, engage in international internships in Italy , as well as complete content courses in Italian studies, while never being required to become proficient in the target language. This paper explores some of the survival techniques used in the re-writing of the curriculum of the Italian program at my Institution in an effort to combat these challenges in the wake of an ever-shrinking population of students, including a decline in heritage speakers housed in our Program.