Psyching Out is Hard to Do

Every year dozens of hopeful students trudge over to University Health Services (UHS), praying that maybe--just maybe--they can skirt the one-year language requirement. They're not Francophobes, and they don't really believe German was designed to be understood only by Bavarians, but they abhor the idea of anything to do with bon mots in exotic tongues.

Most of these hopefuls still have to take that one-year requirement. Though they try to persuade Kenneth T. Dinklage, psychologist to UHS, that their low aptitude and hatred of languages constitutes a psychological barrier they cannot possibly surmount, Dinklage generally tells them politely that they are stuck. These several hundred students who have no physical reason for doing poorly in language courses "are the real victims," Dinklage says. "Those that have an identifiable disability get a waiver."

And from 3 to 5 per cent of the Harvard student body has a genuine disability. Rarely is it a psychological problem, Dinklage says. More often those who cannot learn languages are the same students who had difficulty learning to read and spell in English, even though they could speak it. To try to master reading an unfamiliar language would be impossible for them. Other students have trouble interpreting a language they hear and cannot assimilate the Harvard language courses, which have become more listening-oriented in the past decade.

"Some people can handle reading or just audio-lingual," Dinklage says. "When we had translation classes only a couple dozen students a year couldn't handle them, and they were the hard-core dyslexics. With the audiolingual classes, we encounter many more students having difficulty and processing audio inputs." Dinklage says that when audiolingual courses gave many students more difficulty, several administrators suggested that they take Latin or Greek. "But the Classics Department revolted against having forced conscripts in their classes," he adds.

Dinklage says language disabilities are inherent, and have nothing to do with intelligence. In the general population, ten times as many men as women have such disabilities, and the Harvard ratio is similar to that, Dinklage says. Harvard began testing for the disability in the '60s, when administrators wanted to know why a few hard-working students would continually fail language classes, Dinklage says. Before then, students had been referred to language testing experts in the Boston area, Charles P. Whitlock, associate dean of the Faculty for special projects, says.

Language placement tests, questionnaires distributed to freshmen, and freshman advisers all help immediately spot any students with potential language problems, Dinklage says. That way, students can be tested for language disability before they have to take the language requirement. "There is a phenomenon by which the longer some students study a language, the lower they score on language tests," Whitlock says.

Dinklage is the only UHS psychologist who interviews students for language disability, and he says the number of students visiting him every year remains fairly stable. "Some of them try to act dyslexic. But essentially that would involve lying to an officer of the University. Most freshmen are trying to put their best foot forward and don't do that." Some students with real disabilities exaggerate their symptoms: "It's obvious they're malingering, but they are also covering up a real problem," Dinklage says.

UHS will give no tests for mathematical disabilities when math courses are required under the Core Curriculum, Dinklage says. But Andrew M. Gleason, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, says the Math Department hasn't yet faced the question of dealing with students with mathematical disabilities, since the Core requirement will not take effect until next school year. Gleason says he does not expect this to be a great problem to the department, however.

Students with language disabilities can get waivers, granted by the Administrative Board. But for the hundreds who just hate languages or simply have trouble with languages, Dinklage says, "They have no disability but lower aptitude and they hate languages and have to put in extra effort to pass the courses. For them it represents a painful diversion. That's just too bad--there's a language requirement."