Lesley Chapman, OWLA Advocacy Chair 
French Teacher, Sycamore High School

By now, you have heard that Bowling Green State University has decided to cut its World Language Teacher Training program. I, like many BGSU alumni, am dismayed that not only another program in Ohio has been cut, but that it has happened to such a highly esteemed program. 

Clearly, this is a significant disservice to the teaching community, both in Northwest Ohio and throughout the state. We have a vast need for world language teachers, with approximately 400 vacancies statewide. However, there remain only a handful of universities where you can train to become a world language teacher. In Northwest Ohio, the University of Toledo discontinued its program last year, and now Bowling Green has planned a similar move. The University of Cincinnati and Miami University have also done away with their WL teaching programs. Currently, the only university in Ohio that offers a robust program, like the one BGSU always had, is The Ohio State University.

Apparently, the plan for many of these universities is to encourage those who wish to become a world language teacher to go the route of Alternative Licensure (AL). This is a watered-down program that the State of Ohio implemented a few years ago, where quite frankly, if you can jump through a few simple hoops, you can get a teaching license. These programs were intended as a stopgap, not an educational plan. What’s worse is that many AL teachers don’t make it past a few years in the classroom because they never learned keys to success such as WL methodologies, appropriate pacing, how to implement comprehensible input, and how to create valid assessments. 

If we don’t have teacher training programs for world languages, we won’t have teachers, and we will start to see programs in high schools (and then colleges) close. This is the opposite of what we, as educators in the 21st century, should be doing. The 21st-century skills, touted by all universities, include communication and collaboration. This ties directly into world language education. So the question remains: are we really interested in developing 21st century learners? It feels more like lip service at this point.

We are on the brink of a world language crisis in this country, and the closure of programs that train teachers to address these global challenges will exacerbate the crisis.

What can you do? Write letters to leaders at your local universities about the need to reinstate world language teacher training programs. Get involved with JNCL (Joint National Committee for Languages) whose purpose is to advocate for language education in the US. Write to Senators Husted and Moreno. The more we advocate for our profession, the more we will see positive change.