As graduation approaches once again, seniors are looking for jobs. Students majoring in education or foreign languages should be able to find jobs without many problems because of the shortage in foreign language teachers throughout the United States.
“We are looking to fill positions for foreign language teachers,” said William Schaefer, superintendent for the Upper Arlington City Schools. “But, even with the universities that surround our district, we have to search nationwide in order to find teachers.”
According to a recent survey from Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., 73 percent of the school districts in the United States are in need of foreign language teachers. This number is expected to continue growing for a number of reasons, the most obvious being an expansion of foreign language education.
Many school districts in Columbus as well as nationwide are extending their programs to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. From 1987 to 1997, the number of programs offered has increased 10 percent.
There is a greater need for teachers nationwide than there are people to fill the positions. Many teachers are going into retirement, and there are not enough bilingual or multilingual graduates to replace them.
According to foreign language students and professors, there are many reasons for the lack of foreign language teachers.
“Salaries are unusually low and work load is high,” Fischer said.
“I want to be able to take care of my family and that isn’t possible on a teachers salary,” said John Antolino, a graduate student at OSU. “My father taught foreign language for several years, yet he was able to make more money selling insurance in one summer. There is no draw to that aspect of teaching.”
Not all foreign language students agree. Some say low salaries are not the only reason teaching is unattractive, but it is the result of the lack of importance placed on teaching foreign languages in the United States.
“I think that Americans do not consider it a priority to study a foreign language because English is spoken everywhere in the world,” said Sandra Pesoli, a graduate student at OSU and native of Rome.
“At high school in particular, foreign language studies are considered less important than areas such as reading and writing. People need to understand that foreign languages can only help as persons become literate,” Pesoli said.
To draw and retain more foreign language students into teaching, school districts like Upper Arlington are trying to offer incentives such as signing bonuses and better salaries hoping to make the profession of teaching more appealing.
Be the first to comment on this article!