Arabic Language A Tough Assignment

More Student Speakers Try to Fill Need

Five weeks into their intensive introductory Arabic course, and the words seemed to flow with ease around the classroom at George Washington University, the 16 undergraduates chanting together.

"Wahad ithnein thalatha arba'a khamsa sitta saba'a thamania tisa'a a'ashara. . . ."

"A'a-shara!" said their teacher, correcting their emphasis.

"A'a-shara!" they repeated.

Almost, he said. "Aachhh," he rasped again, craning his neck and touching his throat -- "a stronger one!"

"Aachhh-shara!" they said, and he smiled. They had done it: They had counted from one to 10.

Scenes like these have been playing out increasingly in classrooms across the country as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Iraq have spurred a growing interest in Middle East affairs -- and pointed out the need for fluent speakers of Arabic.

According to a survey by the Modern Language Association, the number of students at U.S. colleges enrolled in Arabic language courses nearly doubled from fall 1998 to fall 2002 -- the largest growth rate of any foreign language during that period. At Georgetown University, enrollment in Arabic courses is up by 300 percent since 2001. At George Washington, twice as many students applied as could be admitted into the new summer-long intensive Arabic program.

Many in George Washington's free-tuition honors class said they believe Arabic could help their careers. "I'm thinking about going into intelligence, and it's a really useful language to learn," said Katrina Loffelman, a junior from Bridgewater, N.J.

Yet despite the growth nationwide, the overall numbers remain tiny at a time when there is a critical need for experienced translators, analysts and diplomats. The 10,584 students said to be taking Arabic in 2002 accounted for less than 1 percent of all language students across the country. More than twice that number took Russian, and nearly three times that many took Latin, the survey found.

"From 5,000 to 10,000 -- so what?" said Richard Brecht, executive director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Language, a joint venture between the University of Maryland and the National Security Agency. "If you assume that one out of 10 will make it to some kind of working proficiency, that means we're turning out a thousand people, which is nothing to feel comfortable about, to say the least."

In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a report by the General Accounting Office found that a shortage of fluent speakers of Arabic and other Near Eastern languages in the Army, FBI, State Department and other agencies had "adversely affected agency operations and hindered U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, counterterrorism and diplomatic efforts." At the time, the FBI reported that it had thousands of hours of backlogged audiotapes waiting to be translated because of a lack of qualified linguists.

Brecht and others argue that the federal government has not done enough to bolster foreign language instruction. But even with additional federal funding, college-level Arabic programs "still have a very slim base to draw on," he said, arguing that grants should start with elementary and high schools to jump-start interest in language studies early that can take years to complete.

"Even if students start the language, they lose interest because it takes so long," he said. "That's why it needs some federal initiative."