Students watching the Olympics in Beijing last summer may have been interested in more than sporting events. Although the Tufts language requirement has always stimulated high enrollment in language courses, current events seem to heavily impact which languages students choose to study. The past few years have seen a dramatic rise in the number of students enrolled in Chinese and Arabic, languages spoken in regions that have received high media coverage in recent years.
According to a study by the Modern Language Association released in 2007, from 2002 to 2006, enrollment in 11 of the 15 most popular language classes grew faster than the overall 6.2 percent increase in the number of college students enrolled during that period. The same study showed that, on a national level, the two languages with the greatest increase in enrollment during that period were Chinese, which rose by 51 percent, and Arabic, which rose by 126 percent.
Tufts has not been immune to this national trend.
"Students are practical," said Professor Mingquan Wang, the language coordinator and a senior lecturer in the Chinese department. "They are going to enroll in courses that reflect economic and political development on the world stage."
Wang noted that the numbers of students in his classes have steadily increased each of the past 10 years that he has been at Tufts.
Professor Rana Abdul-aziz, a lecturer for the Arabic program, also noted a steady rise in student enrollment in Arabic courses.
"As long as international relations is a popular major at Tufts, current events will play a large role in what languages students choose," Abdul-aziz said.
However, such an increase in student interest can make it hard for departments to keep up.
The Arabic department lost two professors last year and only hired one, and with the demand for the classes continuously increasing, it has had to resort to larger class sizes. According to Professor Abdul-Aziz, while last year most classes had no more than 12 or 15 students, this year's classes were capped at 15 and there was overflow in several cases.
The Arabic and Chinese departments are not only seeing an increase in the number of students enrolling in introductory courses but also in the number of students continuing to study the language throughout their entire four years at Tufts. Wang confirmed that 70 students were placed into upper level Chinese classes this year, which is the highest number yet.
"One of the most telling indicators of the trend is that there are more students than ever enrolled in fourth and fifth year classes," Abdul-aziz said. "The language requirement only reaches to the third year, so after that you have students who are really committed. Some people decide they want to use it in their future career, and others are just pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoy it."
Senior Phaedra Brucato, who studied abroad last fall with Tufts-in-China, has studied Chinese for all of her four years at Tufts. She said that taking Chinese is one of the most important parts of her education since she believes it will play a role in her life after Tufts.
"I'm planning on traveling to China after I graduate, and hopefully [I] can use the skills I learned at Tufts and can get more out of my time there," she said.
This trend in retention means that both departments must now offer more high-level language and literature classes as well as culture classes. The Chinese department is offering 14 courses in Chinese literature and culture this semester, including "Martial Arts in Chinese Literature and Film" and "The Chinese Ghost Story." The Arabic department also includes literature and culture courses and hopes to continue to add courses taught in other Arabic dialects in addition to Modern Standard Arabic.
Unfortunately for Chinese language students, many Chinese culture courses are taught in English, which can make it hard to continue studying the language at the upper level.
"My experience this semester was that it was hard for me to find a course that fit my schedule. I wanted to take Chinese 123 or 125, but they were both at the same time and wouldn't fit into my schedule no matter what," Brucato said.
She added that although she could have completed an Independent Study program, the already overloaded faculty said they would not be able to offer her that option.
Despite both languages' growing popularity, Chinese and Arabic pose considerable challenges to English speakers. Both languages use entirely different alphabets and include unfamiliar sounds and tonalities. This often makes the classes difficult because it may take students longer to complete assignments with the new alphabet and sounds than those of other languages.
"[Arabic students] have the same amount of time in class to learn, but because there are more aspects of the language to learn initially, more time is required outside of class in order to obtain proficiency," Abdul-aziz said.
The departments have handled this issue in a variety of different ways. For example, the Chinese program offers a comprehensive online program with supplementary audio and video materials that allows students to get extra practice through listening, reading and even writing online.
For some students, excitement about learning a language makes all hurdles seem minor.
"Although I think learning Chinese involves vast amounts of memorization, the grammatical structures in romance languages are much more difficult to learn," Brucato said. "Furthermore, since I have a more visually-oriented brain, I found memorizing characters to be somewhat enjoyable".
