Languages in the U.S. Educational System

The overall picture of foreign language instruction at the elementary and secondary levels in 2008 showed few, if any, improvements over the past two decades. There is serious concern about the limited number of long-sequence K-12 language programs needed to achieve proficiency in a foreign language. There is also a wide gap between the haves and the have-nots. A signifiant number of elementary and middle school students, especially in rural and low socio-economic schools, do not have access to foreign language instruction at all. The results of the National Survey of Foreign Language Teaching in U.S. Schools conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 revealed the following:

The 2006 MLA Foreign language Enrollment Survey identified 219 languages taught at U.S. institutions of higher education in 2006. Out of a total enrollment of 17,648,000 students, only 1,522,770 (8.6%) took foreign language courses.

In 2006, Spanish (52%), French (13%), German (6%), Italian (5%), and the classical languages (4%) accounted for 80% of the total language enrollments. In contrast, only 10% of students studied Japanese (4%), Chinese (3%), Russian (1.5%), Arabic (1.5%), Portuguese (1%), and Korean (0.5%) all of which are considered to be critically important.

( U.S. Institutions of Higher Education in the Fall of 2002 and 2006 )

According to the 2006 MLA Foreign language Enrollment Survey, overall enrollments in languages other than English rose by 12.9%. In both two- and four-year colleges Spanish remained the most taught language. The number of students studying Spanish far surpassed French, the second runner-up, and German, the third most studied language. American Sign Language surpassed French and ranked second at two-year institutions. As opposed to the modest increases they have shown in four-year colleges, in two-year colleges French, German, Russian, Latin, Hebrew, and Ancient Greek saw a drop in enrollments in 2006. The largest increases at four-year colleges between 2002 and 2006 were in Arabic (126.5%) and Chinese (51.0%). However, even with with these significant increases, the total number of students studying these languages remained very small.

The differential in enrollments between lower and upper-level courses in U.S. institutions of higher learning was quite dramatic. For instance, for every eight students enrolled in first- and second-year Arabic, there was only one student enrolled in an advanced Arabic course. Chinese did somewhat better with a ratio of 9:2, whereas Spanish and Japanese posted a ratio of 5:1. When all institutions of higher learning are considered together, upper-level classes constituted over 20% of all undergraduate student enrollments in just five languages: Russian, Portuguese, German, French, and Korean. When only four-year colleges and universities are considered, eight languages have 20% or more of enrollments in upper-level courses in Chinese,French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

According to the 2006 MLA Foreign language Enrollment Survey, only 2% of students enrolled in language courses studied the other 204 languages taught at U.S. institutions of higher education. These languages are commonly referred to as the Less Commonly Taught Languages, or LCTLs. Only 45 LCTLs had enrollments of more than 100 students. Only 9 LCTLs had enrollments over 1,000, and only 27 of the 45 LCTLs were taught at 2-year institutions. A mere handful of students studied the critically important languages of the Middle East such as Persian (2,053), Turkish (624), Hindi/Urdu(2,683), Dari (4) and Pashto (103). The table below lists LCTLs with enrollments of 100 or more. Languages with enrollments of 1,000 or more are highlighted.

There is a shortage of language professionals in the U.S. diplomatic corps, military, and intelligence agencies. The national deficiency in the languages and cultures of critical areas around the world is compromising American security and business interests at home and abroad. However, unless foreign languages are incorporated into the core curriculum, and unless the learning of foreign languages becomes a priority in the K-12 curriculum, it is unlikely that the American educational system will produce graduates who can communicate effectively in a foreign language. As the need for advanced competency in a wide range of languages becomes more pressing, it is increasingly apparent that advanced proficiency in a foreign language requires an early start and sustained study over long periods of time, from K–12 through college and graduate school, both in domestic and in study-abroad programs.