German Language Instruction at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Future of German in (African) American Higher Education

A survey administered to 53 African American freshmen at Hampton University (Virginia), a private historically black institution, gathered information on attitudes toward the learning of foreign languages in general and toward German second language learning specifically. Only two respondents had studied two or more years of German in high school, but all had studied some language before college enrollment. German was the fourth most frequently cited language they felt should be taught in college, ranking behind Spanish, French, and Japanese; Latin was the fifth most cited language. Of the five languages, German was ranked least enjoyable to learn and next-most difficult. Respondents reported little background knowledge about German culture, and what they had was based on their knowledge of World War II. Perceptions of the German people were largely negative and stereotypical. The students felt it was relatively important to know a foreign language for their overall education, but relatively unimportant to know German. Improved recruitment for German enrollment among the African American population is recommended. Contains 13 references. (MSE)