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The problems of mastering Arabic,
English or French language are
of growing concern nowadays.
Students graduate at the university
level and their ability to write, in any
language, is minimal. In the past, no
matter what the major, a graduate
used to enjoy good writing skills in
at least one, and sometimes in more
than one, language.
Today the growing problem is that
graduates do not care any more
about their ability to write. The lack
of proper expression is a common
denominator of today’s degree holders
whether in arts or in sciences, in
Business or in Engineering, in
Political Science or in Media
Communication. Who takes the
responsibility? How to solve this
problem? What academic plans do
we have to remedy this situation in
the short term and in the long term.
Needless to say, all this is true not
only for one language; it is equally
true for Arabic, for French, for
English or for any other modern lan-
DR. AMEEN A. RIHANI, V.P.
Sponsored Research
and Development,
adds his comments.
Mr. Mortimer’s allusions in his article to the “yob” and “yuppy”
cultures reveal a very basic problem related to the mastery of
language in any culture, whether in Lebanon, Britain, the United
States or any other countries around the world.
guage. One of the major reasons, as I
see it, for the acuity of this problem
is the fact that we do not take the
language, any language, as seriously
as it needs to be taken for the ability
and mastery of writing.
As long as we think that writing is
not any more necessary for an engineer,
a businessman, a scientist, a
philosopher, a journalist, an economist,
a psychologist, a historian, a
theologian, or even a literary critic,
the mastery of a language becomes
unfortunately secondary.
To express oneself, one has to know
and practice the rules of the game,
i.e. the rules of written expression.
To excel in a certain field or in a certain
field of knowledge is to express
properly what you know in such a
way as to make it easy for the reader
to understand, reciprocate, interact,
and later on to use the knowledge
acquired in a productive way. Isn’t
this the role of a university? How
can our students excel without being
able to express their excellence?
Without being able to write?
If language is the vehicle of knowledge
while traveling to ourselves,
then our personal and individual
language is the vehicle for each of us
while traveling to the other. Inability
to use a language is the inability to
drive our car in order to reach the
other person, the colleague, the
friend, the companion.
This means that a major responsibility
falls on the university, any university,
in order to have its students
graduate with a strong command of
the written language regardless of
their major or field of study. How
can we reach this intellectual and
cultural objective?
Postscript: if anybody disagrees or
wants to make a remark about any
of the points raised, we shall be
glad to publish their letters,
reserving however the right to
answer them. –Ed.
60 NNU SPIRIT