Attracting Investment in Language Education through Interdisciplinary Approaches
Language Magazine – January 2025
Is the end of language education in sight?
Absolutely not, even if your favorite AI can translate and even deepfake fluent speaking (Matsakis, 2024).
But world language enrollments are declining, and technology is advancing faster than we can imagine.
How can we keep attracting investment in language learning and teaching?
“Here is the problem: We are very good at making arguments about the value of language learning that appeal to others who think just like us… We want to believe that our passion is contagious, as long as our energy holds out. If we are very fortunate and convincing, a few of the 7% of students who are studying languages will have the audacity to follow us down the paths we have chosen, into degrees in language, literature, linguistics, or language teaching.
“We are also remarkably bad at framing arguments that align with the priorities of people who do not value multilingualism like we do. Language learning ought to enhance our perspective shifting skills more than that! Our language learners, their parents, teachers in other subject areas, administrators and supervisors, policy makers, and others may appreciate our enthusiasm but nevertheless choose to allocate their limited resources to other priorities…”
Matsakis, L. (2024, March 26). The end of foreign-language education. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/generative-ai-translationducation/677883/
