Robert’s email discussing scope and sequence with his district World Languages representative continues:
C. The time necessary for true mastery far exceeds the time available in the school setting. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” postulates that a minimum of 10,000 hours are needed for true mastery of any given subject or activity. He shows how Bill Gates and others had access to those hours before their breakthrough moments. The Foreign Service Institute has published their beliefs about the number of hours needed for “General Professional Proficiency” in various languages. The “easiest” languages (Spanish and French) require 600 class hours at the Defense Language Institute. Exposure to the language outside the classroom (3-4 hours per day) is required at the institute but is not included in the 600 class hours. This additional time takes the exposure hours to well over 1,000 for these “easier” languages. Other important parameters to consider include: language study is all the participants do each day (they don’t have other classes); they are mature (about 40); they have shown an aptitude for learning foreign languages (have already learned at least one foreign language); they are motivated (or they don’t stay in the program); they have classes of no more than six students. Does this sound like any high school situation you know?