C.E.E.B.560's By Freshmen On Increase

The University may soon be able to offer new types of language courses--intensive, highly specialized, and designed for students who already know at least one foreign language.

The man reason is the constantly increasingly level of language preparation among incoming freshmen. Since 1956 the number of students passing the language requirement before entrance has gone from 40 to 53 per cent. 637 members of the Class of '64 met the requirement without taking a single language course at Harvard, compared with 451 from the Class of '61.

Continue Language Studies

But once having passed the requirement the students are continuing their language studies--about 75 per cent of them do so. In offering courses for this group, the University can take advantage of two facts--1) students are already familiar with the problems of learning a language, and 2) they have enrolled in the course voluntarily, not because they must get a certain score on the placement test.

Portuguese 100--taught specifically as a "second foreign language"--is an example of the type of course which may be possible. Since it was instituted in place of the old Portuguese A two years ago, course enrollment has jumped from 3 to 18, Francis M. Rogers, professor of Romance Languages and Literature, stated.

Students in the course must have a speaking knowledge of another foreign language. The course concentrates on conversation, making extensive use of tapes in the language lab. "I am very pleased with it," Rogers said. He indicated that similar courses in other languages--Italian, for example--were quite feasible.

Edward J. Geary, associate professor of Romance Languages and Literature, gave Swahili as an example of a highly-specialized language course which Harvard will probably be offering in the near future. Not only is there a need for such courses but students will better preparation in languages are able to handle them.

Because incoming freshmen are receiving more and better language instruction, the problem of an arbitrary score for passing the language requirement is becoming irrelevant, Geary explained. "No matter what particular score is set, many are far exceeding it."