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Transatlantic Knowledge Transfer Session Reporter: Brigitte Erbe William Anthony, Ph.D. Study Abroad: A U.S. perspective. Current trends and future prospects. Harald Dertinger. Ways to guide young adults to thinking in international dimensions. Susan J. Duggan, Ph.D. Opportunities for growth in a knowledge-based global economy. Antje Scheidler. Language: An obstacle to integration? Experiences in the U.S. and German school systems. All four papers in this session addressed inter-cultural exchanges, and thus the mission of the organizations that have come to sponsor this conference. The different dimensions of cultural exchanges discussed included a historical perspective of study-abroad programs, with emphasis on the German-American student exchange (Anthony); a description of an German-US exchange program for youths who have finished apprenticeships; a discussion of the importance of literacy in foreign languages and cultures in the knowledge-based economy; and, finally, an analysis of the problems and potential foreign-language students who are residents of Germany and the US. William Anthony, Ph.D. Study Abroad: A U.S. perspective. Current trends and future prospects: 1. German is a vanishing language in American high schools and colleges, though it is still the 4th most frequently spoken language in the home in the United States. 2. The U.S. has a "foreign student" deficit: It receives about 500,000 annually, though only 100,000 American students study abroad. (Among foreign students studying in the U.S., German students are the 12th largest group.) 3. American students tend to study abroad only for short periods, one semester or one summer at a time. 4. The motivation to study abroad among American students has shifted from learning new cultures and getting to know one's heritage to more career specific goals. 5. Impediments to studying abroad among American college students are the high cost of college, the time required, loss of academic credit, and the lack of scholarship support. American institutions will be at a disadvantage because there will not be enough citizens familiar with the languages and cultures of foreign nations to provide input into decision-making. College counselors must find ways to interest American students in meaningful foreign exchange programs, and to communicate the importance of the knowledge and experiences gained through such exchanges. Harald Dertinger. Ways to guide young adults to thinking in international dimensions: Mr. Dertinger participated in an exchange program after completing his apprenticeship in Germany (the Bundestag/Congress Programm, or the Parlamentarisches Patenschaft Programm). This program is for young people who have finished their vocational training, and who are not pursuing academic degrees. The emphasis of the program is cultural, with participants staying with families. He emphasized the importance of the goals of this program. To encourage other German to participate, he encourages past participants to become ambassadors for this type of cultural exchange. He recommends visiting schools, particularly vocational schools, to talk about positive experiences in the program and to explain the advantages of this type of cultural exchange for future participants. Susan J. Duggan, Ph.D. Opportunities for growth in a knowledge-based global economy: Susan Duggan makes a very strong case for foreign exchange programs in her presentation, and delivers some of the arguments that the college counselors discussed in William Anthony's paper can use to persuade students to study abroad. She demonstrates that it would, indeed, be in students' career interest to become familiar with a foreign language and a foreign culture. Her arguments are as follows: 1. The current economy is based on knowledge: the exchange of expertise, paradigms, new ideas, and research interest. Combined with the Internet, access to knowledge is global, and knowledge crosses international boundaries with ease. 2. As a result, outsourcing of a great variety of tasks and jobs commonly crosses international boundaries. This requires employees with multi-lingual, multi-cultrual skills. 3. As knowledge now doubles every five years, employers are challenged to find employees that are capable of learning, that have a variety of experiences, that have demonstrated flexibility, and that are capable of sharing knowledge on a cross-cultural basis. For all of these reasons, and the maturity gained by living abroad, employers prefer to hire persons who have lived abroad. 4. Governments need to facility the knowledge exchange by creating appropriate systems of organization, including systems for regulating the Internet. Support for foreign exchange programs is also needed. Antje Scheidler. Language: An obstacle to integration? Experiences in the U.S. and German school systems: Antje Scheidler's presentation focuses on language-minority students in the elementary and secondary schools of Germany and the United States. Between 1980 and 1999, the number of foreign students in German schools has almost doubled. The largest percentage of these students is Turkish. Language problems have prevented the integration of these students into the mainstream of German culture. Due to residential segregation, there are schools in urban areas of Germany that are 80% non-German. Non-German speaking students have a high drop-out rate, and they attend lower-level schools than native German speaking students. Schools have not developed programs to overcome these problems, and there is lack of training for teachers who work with students speaking a foreign language. Antje Scheidler makes the following recommendations: 1. Use foreign students as a resource in the multi-cultural, multi-lingual education of German students. 2. Provide programs of continuing teacher education that focus on the problems of foreign students in German schools. 3. Learn from the practices, problems and solutions of bilingual education in the United States. Schools in the United States have more experience with integrating foreign students, and there are many models of educating bilingual students. 4. Support a teacher exchange of German and American teachers between schools with a high percentage of foreign students. 5. Create Internet networks to allow teachers to communicate about bilingual education, and to share successful models. |