FOREIGN LANGUAGE CAPABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88G01116R000200130002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 19, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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CONF~AL
The Deputy Director of Cen ral intelligence
Executive Registry
Washington. D. C. 20505 Copy 3
NFIB 78.1/2
19 May 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: National Foreign Intelligence Board Members
SUBJECT: Foreign Language Capabilities
1. The Intelligence Community's Foreign Language Committee in March
heard a presentation by a staff member of the Senate Committee on Labor
and Human Resources concerning language initiatives. Her presentation
began with an extraordinarily bleak review of foreign language studies in
the United States. (C)
2. I forward the report on her presentation for your information in
the belief that the data, particularly in paragraphs 2 and 3, are useful
for our own internal planning within the Executive Branch and with the
Congress. Members of the Intelligence Community, along with the
Department of State, have the greatest vested interest within the Federal
Government in the foreign language capabilities of the country's
students. (C)
o ert at
Attachment:
As Stated
C IDENTIAL CL By Signer
DECL OADR
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? V VU1..Illucll I. l.V .
NFIB 7?.1/2
DCI/ICS 86-3334
2 9 APR 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director, Intelligence Community Staff
SUBJECT: Foreign Language Committee Monthly Report-March 1986
1. At the 31 March meeting, Ms. Lisa Phillips, Legislative Assistant to
the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, addressed the Committee on
"Language Initiatives in the 99th Congress".
2. In her opening remarks Ms. Phillips said that there are fewer than one
million students enrolled in university-level foreign language courses and
that most of these are in traditional four year liberal arts colleges. Only
one community college in the nation requires any foreign language
study---significant because 40 percent of all college freshmen are at
community colleges. We are the only nation where a student may receive a
Ph.D. degree with no foreign language skill. Only four percent of high school
graduates have taken at least four semesters of foreign language training;
only 14 percent of high school graduates who enter colleges and universities
have had such training. Sixty percent of college students receiving foreign
language study either French or Spanish; 3.1 percent Russian; 1.6 percent
Japanese; 1.3 percent Chinese; and .3 percent Arabic.
3. The record on exchanges is equally dismal. There are some 20,000
Chinese speakers visiting the United States from both the PRC and Taiwan but
only 69 Americans training in China; there are 11,000 Japanese studying here
but only 634 Americans training in Japan. The statistics for the Soviet Union
are, of course, skewed because of political considerations; there are 343
Soviet students in the United States but no American students in the Soviet
Union. Although there are some 10,000 Japanese businessmen in the United
States fluent in English there are no more than 100 American business people
in Japan with a working knowledge of the Japanese language.
4. Title 6 of the Higher Education Act provides the most comprehensive
civilian program of established resource centers for area and language
studies. With a current funding level of $26 million, 93 centers representing
all geopolitical and linguistic areas of the world are supported at many
university campuses both to provide resources for information and to train
area specialists. In recent actions in the Senate, with the work of
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Senators Simon, Stafford, Quayle, and Dodd, an additional $10 million has been
added to this program and a new initiative has been included for intensive
summer language institutes for secondary school language teachers and language
teachers at the college level. The bill goes before the full Senate next
month and a House-Senate conference is expected this summer. Provisions
mentioned above are expected to be approved. The language institutes are part
of the Simon Foreign Language bill (S. 1631). Other parts of S.1631 have been
included in the proposed Comprehensive Trade Reform Bill by Senator Hart.
While this is unlikely to pass, the inclusion of foreign language training
assistance in a trade bill is an acknowledgment of the importance of speaking
another language, and efforts will continue to include language training in
trade and other relevant legislation. The specifics of programs in the Hart
bill are block grants to states for improving language instruction at the
elementary and secondary level. A minimum of $225,000 would be provided each
state with additional funds based on population. Some of the larger states
under this formula would receive as much as $1 million.
5. Among the most far thinking programs in foreign language training are
those at the state level and in private industry. For example, Chase
Manhattan Bank has begun recruiting entry level professionals at schools of
international affairs and language schools rather than the traditional MBA
student. Business schools themselves are slowly moving to internationalize
their programs--Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is one of the
best examples where a student receives jointly an MBA and a Masters degree in
international affairs or foreign language.
6. The Chief State School Officers, representing all state school
superintendents, has just issued a report calling for internationalization of
elementary and secondary school curricula. At the same time, the Conference
of Southern Governors, under the direction of Virginia Governor Baliles, has
created a task force on foreign language education in the public schools.
Tightened college language requirements will induce states to broaden foreign
language offerings and requirements for high school students. The California
State University system, for example, beginning in 1988, will require two
years of language study for admission. At the end of the decade, New York
will have the same requirement for an academic high school diploma.
7. Other states are beginning experimental programs in foreign language.
Illinois authorized fundraising for an experimental public residential high
school in languages; individual school districts are implementing language
programs such as a Chicago elementary school which offers Japanese in grades
1-6. The economic incentives are clear. The recent contract for a new
Japanese motor plant in Rockford, Illinois, was decided, in part, because the
local high school offered Japanese language classes.
8. Efforts to include foreign languages in school curricula are coming
from two directions--top down and bottom up. With business choosing students
with language capabilities for jobs, the student is likely to pursue some
language training in college or graduate school. With colleges requiring
language training for entrance, high schools are encouraged to offer and
require languages for graduation. From the bottom up, involved parents and
individual schools with programs such as the Chicago Japanese elementary
school, will put pressure on high schools to continue the foreign language
training students begun at an early level.
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9. Projections for the future of Congressional actions fall into several
categories:
a. The Language Competent Embassy program, begun experimentally at
US Embassies in Uruguay and Senegal, will be continued either at the
direction of the State Department or through an amendment to the State
Department Appropriations bill. Expansion of that program which requires
all Embassy personnel to be conversant in the native language of the
country will be slow and steady.
b. Legislation to authorize and appropriate funds for the Simon
Foreign Language bill (S. 1631) will continue as amendments to existing
legislation. One section--summer institutes--has already been accepted.
Other sections will be considered over the next eighteen months.
c. Funding is being sought for an expanded exchange program between
US colleges and universities, and institutions in other nations. Among
possible sources are existing revolving funds in various education
laws--such as the College Housing Loan Program which totals between $27
and $30 million per annum in repayments. Repayments funds.from revolving
accounts are part of the portfolio of the Secretary of the'Treasury, and
there are legislative difficulties in tapping these funds. An initial
amendment to the higher Education Act offered in the Senate on March 19th
by Senator Simon was defeated. That amendment would have taken the
college housing loan repayments and redirected them to international
exchange programs.
10. The concept of using revolving accounts, however, is still the most
practical way to proceed. Because these items are "off budget", that is, they
do not fall under the various budget restrictions in Congressional Budget
Resolutions, they are the only source of funding that does not reflect "new
money". New initiatives will have an extremely tough time garnering approval
in a fiscally conservative climate. Among the more ambitious proposals which
will develop over the coming year is use of outstanding military sales credits
in the form of loan forgiveness in return for the debtor nation providing
student and faculty positions at that nation's national university. Repayment
would be in-country, in currency. Legislation developing this idea will be
prepared in the coming year. Outstanding credits have averaged about $13
billion a year, and reside in the portfolio of the Secretary of Treasury.
11. Direct implications for the Intelligence Community focus primarily on
language competent individuals produced by the school system and university
system before beginning a career. Training opportunities, however, can be
seen in an expanded educational system, particularly the proposed long-term
relationship with national universities of debtor nations.
12. When thanking Ms. Phillips for her presentation, the Chairman said
that the Executive Secretary would be pleased to act as a conduit for any
correspondence between Ms. Phillips and the FLC.
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