Spanish-Language Enrollments

Spanish Language Programs

Nancy Rhodes and Lucinda Branaman reported that in 1987, 68% of elementary schools teaching a language reported teaching Spanish. This proportion increased to 79% in 1997. In 1987, 1% of elementary schools reported teaching Spanish for Spanish speakers. This proportion grew to 8% in 1997. This growth pattern is unlike the rest of commonly taught modern languages, such as French and German, which experienced declines during the same period. A similar pattern was reported by secondary schools. In 1987, 86% of schools reported offering Spanish, and in 1997, 93% offered Spanish. In addition, 9% of secondary schools reported offering instruction in Spanish for Spanish speakers. No data exist for Spanish for Spanish speakers in 1987.

Spanish instruction was not confined to any particular region; Rhodes and Branaman reported that Spanish instruction was commonplace throughout U.S. elementary schools offering modern language instruction. The lowest proportion reported was 77% in the Northeast and the highest was in the Southwest (95%). The region reporting the next highest proportion was the Pacific Northwest at 89%. At the secondary level, 100% of Northeast schools offering modern languages reported offering Spanish, followed by the Pacific Northwest (95%), the Southwest (94%), the central states (91%), and the South (89%).

Program types at the elementary level include Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES), Intensive FLES, Foreign Language Experience/ Exploration, and Immersion. Of particular interest is the immersion type, which when situated in bilingual communities can be a useful tool for developing bilin-gualism for language minority students and for native speakers of English.