Modern Languages in Schools and Colleges

Elementary and Secondary Education

In a study conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), Nancy Rhodes and Lucinda Branaman report that in 1997, more than 4 million of 27.1 million elementary school students (slightly less than 15%) studied modern languages in U.S. public and private schools. At the secondary level, nearly 12 million young people studied modern languages in 1997. Of 8.2 million middle school/junior high school students, 3 million (36.5%) were enrolled in languages other than English. Of 13.5 million high school students, 7 million (52%) studied a modern language. Another 1.5 million students in combined junior/senior high schools studied a modern language.

Between 1987 and 1997, the incidence of modern language instruction in elementary schools increased nationwide by nearly 10%. In 1987, about one elementary school in five reported teaching a modern language. By 1997, the proportion had increased to nearly one in three. Spanish and French were the more commonly studied languages, though Spanish increased in popularity and French declined somewhat. German, Japanese, Latin, Hebrew, Italian, Sign Language, Native American Languages, Russian, and Greek each represented 5% or fewer of the elementary schools that offered modern language study during that period. Notable among this group of languages is Japanese, which no elementary school offered in 1987, but 3% of elementary schools offering a language offered Japanese in 1997. Representing less than 1% of schools teaching languages included Chinese, Chinese for Chinese speakers, Hawaiian, Cherokee for Cherokee speakers, French for French speakers, Russian for Russian speakers, Yaqui, Kutenai, Tewa for Tewa speakers, Arabic, Dutch, Filipino, Micronesian, Polish, Swedish, and Korean for Korean speakers. Most of these languages had small enrollments. Spanish was the exception. Between 1987 and 1997, Spanish for Spanish speakers increased from 1 to 8% of elementary schools offering modern language classes.

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