Whatmough Asks For Abolition of Language Rules

The University has no need for a language requirement, Joshua Whatmough, professor of Linguistics, charged yesterday.

Whatmough called for either the total abolition of the University's language requirement or an amendment to require applicants to take three years of a foreign language while in secondary school.

Whatmouth termed present emphasis on language learning outdated. "To say that no one can call himself educated without learning a foreign language is not true," he stated.

Deploring the time a student spends taking elementary and intermediate language courses to pass the College language requirement, he said, "Some maintain that to learn a second language is to open the mind. But that implies a control and a penetration of the structure of the second language and of the total content of works written in it. Few do this over," he stated.

Other University exports were in disagreement with Whatmough. John P. Elder, associate professor of Greek and Latin and acting chairman of the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy last year when it amended the requirement, strongly supported the present system. The new requirement sets the time a language is studied as the passing factor, not the degree of proficiency reached.

"Our purpose in setting up a time requirement was to see that people were exposed to the language for what we felt to be a proper length of time," Elder said, "and not to force them to continue drearily in it."

"If they liked it, they may want to continue. But if they are not successful or if they are bored, the time requirement frees them for other courses." Elder termed a language requirement "the best way of preventing cultural isolation."

Robert L. Politzer, coordinator of language instruction in the Department of Romance Languages, objected to the time requirement. "A person with two or more years of language in high school can satisfy the requirement by taking French Ra, a half course reviewing elementary French, and Ca, the first half of intermediate French," Politzer said. "But a person with less than two years in high school must take Cb, the second half of intermediate French, too. I would favor a uniform requirement based on proficiency."