This coming semester, a committee of Faculty members will examine the language requirement at the College with an eye toward beefing it up--but as yet, the priorities of the changes are unclear.

Several leading language professors say the average Harvard student needs more exposure to a foreign language, but the professors cannot reach a consensus on just how to achieve that goal.

Gregory Nagy, Jones professor of classical Greek literature, brought the issue of the language requirement to the floor at the May 20 Faculty meeting on the Core.

He says discourse is necessary among Faculty members so they can transcend their differences and create a "united front" to bolster Harvard's language requirements.

"The wording of my motion is presented in the broadest possible terms, reflecting the common interests of the chairs and heads of foreign language programs at Harvard," Nagy wrote to several of his colleagues.

Nagy received unanimous approval from the Faculty for his proposal that "the Educational Policy Committee review the current language requirement for undergraduates and make a preliminary report on this matter to the Faculty no later than the December 1997 Faculty Meeting."

Nagy says he has no exact scheme for how to expand the language curriculum for every student.

"Basically, I'd just like to have more," Nagy says. "I think everybody is culturally disadvantaged--and more than that, impoverished--if there is not enough training on languages."

He says he wants every student to move beyond translation and grammar into "linguistic reasoning" and culture, calling language "the cornerstone of a Harvard education."

"You can't get at cultural diversity through translation alone," Nagy says, adding that he wants to provide students with "real cultural literacy."

Although Harvard professors of language are nearly unanimous in their desire for students to study languages longer, the Faculty simultaneously passed a motion to look into reducing the total number of undergraduate requirements.

This has created a situation that Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Culture Ali S. Asani calls "a very delicate balance."

"My feeling is that there are pros and cons of both," Asani says. "One year of language doesn't give somebody sufficient competency. But on the other hand, I realize that undergraduates have a lot of other requirements to fulfill."

How that tension is resolved will affect the curricular life of every incoming student.

Current Requirements