美国外语教育状况与“高度受限”的联邦政府外语政策  

Foreign Language Education in the United States: Federal Planning and its Implementations

作　　者：许小颖[1] Xu Xiaoying

机构地区：[1]北京师范大学文学院,北京100875

出　　处：《语言战略研究》2018年第5期46-60,共15页Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning

摘　　要：近10年来,美国的外语政策成为中国学界评介的热点。很多研究指出美国的外语教育受到联邦政府的高度关注,国家采取积极措施加强外语教育,美国外语政策"凸现了自上而下席卷全国的以国家安全为取向的战略性特征"。但我们基于最长达120多年的美国外语教育发展历时材料以及俄克拉何马州个案研究发现,美国外语教育整体发展缓慢,州际差异显著,美国普遍缺乏对外国文化和语言的了解。其主要原因在于,美国教育地方自治制度决定了联邦政府的外语政策虽然具有"国家安全至上"的特点,容易得到关注,但在制度上"高度受限"。教育的决策权力不在联邦政府,而在各州和地方,联邦政府不能以行政手段"强烈干预"外语教育,只能以财政援助和技术援助等方式实施加强外语教育的政策,且联邦政府专门用于外语教育的经费比例极低,这是联邦政府外语政策未能有效推动美国外语教育发展的制度制约因素。In the past decade, many Chinese articles on foreign language policies in the United States point out that the fed- eral government has attached great importance to foreign language education in the U.S., and it has taken active measures to reinforce foreign language education. The U.S. foreign language policy has higlighted the strategic characteristics of national security orientation and swept across the country from top to bottom. Based on a survey of data concerning American foreign language education and the specific case of foreign language programs in Oklahoma, this paper examines how foreign language education in the U.S. is constrained by federal and local forces. It is found that American foreign language education is devel- oping slowly, with significant differences among the 50 states, there has been a general lack of understanding of foreign culture and languages. The analysis further shows that although the foreign language policy of the federal government is justified by national security concerns, the implementation of the policy at the local level is highly circumscribed. Since the states have constitutionally-granted right to control their own education systems, it is difficult for the federal government to intervene in foreign language education at the state level by administrative means. In practice, the federal policy of strengthening foreign lanaguage education can only be implemented by means of financial and technical assistance. However, the funding for foreign lanaguage education provided by the federal government to the states is extremely low. These institutional and economic reasons can ex-plain why the federal government＇s foreign language policy has not been effective in promoting foreign language education in the U.S.

关 键 词：美国外语教育状况 教育地方自治制度 联邦政府外语政策 

分 类 号：H002[语言文字—语言学]