‘World vs. foreign' in education

All references to “foreign” languages in Nebraska's school accreditation rules would be changed to “world” languages under a proposal before the State Board of Education.

If approved, schools seeking accreditation across the state would have to retitle their foreign language departments, and teachers would earn teaching endorsements in world languages instead of foreign languages.

Vickie Scow, director of world languages in the Nebraska Department of Education, said the intention is not to scrub Nebraska's rule book for political correctness but to “rebrand” the field of language study to be more inclusive.

The change would acknowledge English as a world language as well as Native American languages, she said.

“When we talk about foreign, that leaves us (English) out,” Scow said. “It also leaves out the indigenous languages that we have in Nebraska, because they sure don't think they're foreign, either, the Winnebago, the Omaha.”

Scow, who speaks English and French, said much of the country is making the change, though some states have replaced the word foreign with “international.”

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a national professional membership organization representing more than 10,500 language educators, including Scow, has not yet made the change.

But Scow said the organization is headed in that direction.

“They want to change it, they just haven't figured out how to keep their acronym,” she said.

A public hearing on the proposed change is set for December.

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444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com