US Department of Education Classification

[Benjamin Rifkin]

Dear SEELANGers:

For those interested in the response to the question from Joe Peschio of the
U of Wisconsin ­ Milwaukee:

The United States Department of Education does not classify Russian as a
LCTL (less commonly taught language), for the purposes of FLAS (foreign
language & area studies fellowship). LCTLs are defined as everything BUT:

Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish

According to the 2002 MLA Foreign Languages enrollments survey

(available as a pdf at
http://www.adfl.org/projects/index.htm)

These languages are the top 8 languages (with Latin) and account for
1,213,747 students studying foreign languages at US universities and
colleges in 2002.  The total number of students studying foreign languages
at UW universities and colleges in 2002 is 1,397,253. In other words, 86.9%
of all students of foreign languages in US universities and colleges study
one of these seven languages (not including Latin, which actually has more
enrollments than Russian.)

You can see the breakdown by language by downloading and reading the survey
at the ADFL website.

Sincerely,

Ben Rifkin


*************
Benjamin Rifkin
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor and Chair, Slavic Dept.
1432 Van Hise, 1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-1623; Fax (608) 265-2814
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic

Director, Title VI Center for Russia, E. Europe & Central Asia (CREECA)
210 Ingraham Hall, 1550 Observatory Dr.
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-3379; Fax (608) 890-0267
http://www.wisc.edu/creeca

 




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