Linguistics Head Blasts Language Departments

Lashing out at what he calls the "vested interests" of the language departments, Joshua Whatmough, chairman of the Department of Linguistics, said the "apathy of the faculty towards the entire language problem" will probably kill any change in the language requirement for the next few years.

His statement followed an announcement by the Student Council that a committee has been set up to study the requirement and present a report to the Administrative Board, probably within three weeks.

Robert S. Boil '53, member of the committee, said the report may advocate dropping the requirement altogether.

Vicious Cycle

Whatmough charged the departments with using the requirement "as a means of subsidizing graduate students by having them teach elementary courses. The whole problem," he said, "has become enmeshed in the toils of a vicious circle."

He made a similar statement in the form of a letter of to The New York Times last spring. The letter itself did not refer to the University, but bore Whatmough's title under his signature.

Charge Statement 'False'

Herbert Dieckmann, Chairman of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, called Whatmough's charge "entirely false."

"These graduate students are prepared by us for their teaching careers," he admitted, "but this does not mean we are at all concerned with providing jobs for these men as an end in itself."

Dieckmann singled out a statement by Whatmough urging the College to convert the present requirement into an entrance requirement, calling it "an example of entirely utopian thinking."

He said the teaching methods in his department, which embraces Spanish, Italian, Portugese, and French, are being re-examined, with an eye to technological aids. He said Whatmough, however, considers language solely a matter of learning grammar, forgetting entirely the student also absorbs the culture and literature of the foreign language.

The faculty reviewed the entire lan guage problem in the winter of 1949. At that time it approved a report from a special committee, headed by Dean Francis M. Rogers '39 of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which adopted a status quo approach.

"I was astonished," said Whatmough, and added, "t never came to a real fight."

Whatmough defended his letter to the Times yesterday, saying that if the colleges did require a language for entrance, "the parents who pay the taxes would see that their children would be ready to go to college."

Said Dieckmann, "Look at the magnitude of that if."

Secondary Point Attacked

Whatmough's letter also attacked the teaching system on another point. It said "there is the expensive paraphernalia of teaching elementary languages in college, employing a large number of young men who often see no future before them and, therefore begin to feel frustrated."

Dieckmann said his statements are personal, and do not necessarily represent the views of other men in the department