Evanston Township High School students already have a wide variety of languages they can study: French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Latin, Japanese, American Sign Language or an independent language study.
But soon they may be able to learn Arabic, Swahili or Yoruba as well. ETHS is considering adding an African language to its curriculum, which would make it one of the only public high schools in the country to do so.
ETHS will survey ninth- and 10th-grade students, as well as Evanston/Skokie District 65 pupils, to determine interest in adding a language.
“We offer seven or eight languages,” ETHS board member Helen Walker said. “I have no problem offering another one. I just hope we find a sufficient number (of students) who are interested in taking it, and that it can be taught well.”
Board member Jane Colleton said she pushed for an African language so ETHS would be more representative of its minorities. She said an African language would complement ETHS’ African history class.
“We have a strong European presence in our languages and nothing that represents the heritage of 43 percent of our students,” Colleton said.
Northwestern Swahili professor Richard Lepine, who was consulted by ETHS about creating the program, said there are practical reasons for studying an African language such as foreign aid and economics. But he said there also is a cultural argument for the language.
“Any number of people with African heritage who decide to learn some foreign language might say, ‘Let me study an African language’ as opposed to some other language,” Lepine said.
The ETHS school board requested at a fall meeting that the school’s world languages department research the necessary steps for incorporating an African language into the curriculum.
In addition to having enough student interest, ETHS must find a qualified teacher and materials suited for high school students. Most materials are designed for post-secondary programs.
“Because the idea is coming from outside the school, we have to try to design the curriculum, find a teacher and get enrollment simultaneously,” said Kathleen Pino, chairwoman of ETHS’ world languages department.
The department still needs to decide which African language to teach, though the choices have been narrowed to Arabic, Swahili and Yoruba.
Lepine said from more than 1,000 different languages used in Africa, these are the ones that are written and spoken widely. He said none of the languages spans the whole continent, but some — such as Arabic and Swahili — cover large areas.
Berkeley High School in California is the only public high school that currently has an African language program. West High School in Madison, Wis., taught Swahili once, but the program was discontinued because of a lack of student interest.
ETHS’ department is interested in the addition because students should have access to as many languages as possible, Pino said. But the quality of the teacher and materials for the program are also important.
“Even an established program can cease to exist or diminish in quality without a capable teacher,” Pino said. “You can’t just speak a language and then teach it.”
