US: Enrollments in Foreign-Language Courses Continue to Rise, MLA Survey Finds

Mon Nov 19 15:40:08 UTC 2007

 http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i13/13a01301.htm
>>From the issue dated November 23, 2007

Enrollments in Foreign-Language Courses Continue to Rise, MLA Survey Finds
By JENNIFER HOWARD

Enrollments in foreign-language courses at American colleges and
universities have jumped 13 percent since 2002, with Arabic and
Chinese showing the most-dramatic increases, according to a report
released last week by the Modern Language Association. The number of
students studying Arabic soared 126.5 percent between 2002 and 2006,
while the number studying Chinese grew by more than 50 percent. Korean
also rose in popularity, with a 37.1 percent rise in enrollments.
"From the MLA's perspective, there's a lot of good news in the
report," Rosemary G. Feal, the association's executive director, said
during a telephone news conference. "Students who know a foreign
language well are going to have a competitive edge in the world, and
they're going to be better representatives of American culture, which
is, after all, a culture of many languages."

Many of the survey's findings, Ms. Feal said, undercut the stereotype
of "the tongue-tied American." "Heritage learners," or students who
want to learn the language and culture of their parents and
grandparents, account for some of the uptick in enrollments, according
to Ms. Feal. Even more students have realized that being able to speak
a language besides English opens the door to a range of professional
opportunities in an era whose watchword is globalization. Study-abroad
opportunities have also sparked interest in language classes, while
the Internet has given students access to virtual language communities
that didn't exist a decade or two ago. The teaching of foreign
languages has evolved, too, as more professors incorporate the
everyday material of other cultures into language instruction (The
Chronicle, November 9).

A Decade of Enrollment Gains

Based on enrollment data for the fall of 2006, collected from 2,795
American institutions of higher learning, the MLA survey documents an
upward trend that has been evident for the past decade. In 1998 the
MLA counted only 5,505 enrollments in Arabic at two- and four-year
institutions. By 2002 that number had swelled to 10,584. Last year it
hit 23,974. Chinese had 28,456 registered enrollments in 1998, 34,153
in 2002, and 51,582 in 2006.

Although students are drawn to a broader range of languages than they
were a decade ago, the big three — Spanish, French, and German — still
account for about 70 percent of foreign-language enrollments,
according to the report, "Enrollments in Languages Other Than English
in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2006." Spanish
continues to be the most-taught language in the country, with a
combined total of 822,985 enrollments in 2006 — an increase of more
than 10 percent since 2002. It leads by what the report calls "a
substantial margin" at two-year colleges as well as at four-year
institutions. French remains the second most-taught language but, with
206,426 registered enrollments last year, attracts far fewer students
than Spanish does. German holds third place, with 94,264 enrollments.

With Arabic, Chinese, and an array of other languages showing
significant increases in enrollment, however, the dominance of
Spanish, French, and German "is slowly decreasing," the report said.
American Sign Language, or ASL, made a strong showing. It came in
fourth over all, jumping from 60,781 enrollments five years ago to
78,829 last year — a growth rate of almost 30 percent. The report
notes that ASL now holds second place, behind Spanish, at two-year
colleges.

The gains extended to less commonly taught languages as well. The
absolute number of students taking African and Middle Eastern
languages other than Arabic remains small — 8,011 in 2002 — but that
figure represents a growth rate of 56 percent since 2002. Among less
frequently taught Asian and Pacific languages, Vietnamese is the
leader, with 2,485 enrollments in 2006, a rise of more than 11 percent
over five years. Hawaiian remains the most studied Native American
language, with 1,654 enrollments in 2006, but Ojibwa rose faster — up
more than 134 percent since 2002.

The classics also posted gains. Latin enrollments rose to 32,191, up
almost 8 percent since 2002. Ancient Greek grew by about 12 percent,
with 22,849 enrollments in 2006. In less-positive news, the survey
found "dramatic" differences between enrollments in lower-level and
upper-level courses, which has implications for how proficient today's
language students are likely to become. The MLA has been collecting
data on foreign-language enrollments since 1958, but the new survey
represents its first attempt to compare numbers for introductory and
higher-level courses. "For every eight enrollments in first- and
second-year Arabic," the survey found, "there is only one enrollment
in an advanced Arabic course." For Chinese, the ratio was 9 to 2.
Spanish and Japanese did better, with one enrollment in an upper-level
course for every 5 at beginning levels.

"Retaining students in upper-level courses is a challenge many fields
share," the report concluded, "and is made more acute by the growing
curricular choices now offered to students in fields that did not
exist a few decades ago."

Shortage of Teachers of Arabic

During the news conference, Karin C. Ryding, a professor of Arabic at
Georgetown University and a member of the MLA's Ad Hoc Committee on
Foreign Languages, talked about how the supply of teachers hadn't kept
pace with student demand. "This is a real challenge for Arabic," she
said. More students are clamoring for courses, but "the number of
people available to undertake teaching has remained basically the
same."

The profession is taking steps to accelerate teacher preparation, she
said: "It has been a strain on our small resources, but we're doing
our very best."

Ms. Ryding expects to see enrollments continue to climb. "I don't
think this is just a temporary spike," she said. "It indicates a real
shift of interest on the part of American students. They're coming to
Arabic and other languages with serious professional goals in mind."

Set the 2006 numbers against those of 40 years ago, however, and the
overall picture looks less rosy. "Although there is growth in absolute
numbers of enrollments in modern languages," the report states,
"because of the phenomenal expansion of students attending
institutions of higher learning, in 2006 enrollments in the
most-taught languages have not reached the proportion they reached in
1960-65."

Since that high point, it continues, "enrollments in languages have
fallen substantially in proportion to the expanding numbers of
students."

To put it statistically, in 1965, for every 100 students, there were
16.5 enrollments in foreign-language courses, according to Ms. Feal.
The 2006 figure was half that — about eight enrollments. Ms. Feal said
that the MLA planned to do a study of colleges' language requirements
and how those have shifted over time.

"Do I think that enough American students are studying foreign
languages?" Ms. Feal responded when asked about the 1960 versus 2006
figures. "No. We do have a ways to go."

http://chronicle.com Section: Research & Publishing Volume 54, Issue
13, Page A13

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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