"Scholars-in-training" in history and political science and their ability to use foreign languages in research

Abstract

This exploratory study surveys graduate students in History (n=25) and Political Science (n=25) on their ability to use foreign languages in research, and compares them to a group of graduate students (n=25) from 10 other Humanities and Social Science departments who reported having the ability to use multiple languages in their research. Respondents were asked how important knowledge of languages is to their field, what foreign languages they know well enough to carry out research tasks, and what advantages the language ability gives them in their work. The study found that: •Nearly two-thirds of respondents in History and 44% of the respondents in Political Science asserted that languages were “crucial” or “very important” to their field or subfield. • A third of the graduate students in History expressed frustration with departmental and university support for learning languages, while three of the graduate students in Political Science (12%) stated that they would like more support from the department and the university. •The median student in History and Political Science had learned one language well enough to discuss, while at the level of deciphering a text, the median History student was able to handle three languages and the median student of Political Science could handle two languages—compared to the median graduate student from the group with multiple research languages, who reported having learned five languages well enough to decipher a text. •The graduate students were exploiting related languages to increase the number of languages they could cover (History, 76%; Political Science, 44%), although to a lesser extent than the multilingual graduate students, of whom 92% knew two or more languages from a language family. •Most respondents said that the major advantages to their foreign language knowledge were access to otherwise inaccessible primary and secondary sources, and independence from possibly inaccurate translations. Based on respondents’ comments about departmental and university support of language learning, the study recommends more use of foreign language source materials in coursework, more courses in the home department and/or language departments devoted to developing relevant advanced language proficiency, and greater flexibility and financial support on the part of department and university to accommodate students developing language proficiency.