Language by the Shrinking Numbers

[reineke]

Language by the Shrinking Numbers

Language education is dwindling at every level, from K-12 to postsecondary, and a diminishing share of U.S. residents speak languages other than English, according to a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait” is a precursor to another forthcoming report from the academy about how the U.S. might build language capacity to meet the needs of the increasingly global economy and otherwise “shrinking world.”

“While English continues to be the lingua franca for world trade and diplomacy, there is an emerging consensus among leaders in business and politics, teachers, scientists, and community members that proficiency in English is not sufficient to meet the nation’s needs,” the new report says.

John Tessitore, senior program adviser at the academy, helped compile the statistical portrait based on existing data on second-language learners and speakers in the U.S. for the academy’s Commission on Language Learning. He said the commission believes that foreign language should be of a higher priority throughout the American education system -- not at odds or competing with other priorities, such as science and math, but alongside them.

“This is about increasing access and making language learning available,” he said. “Every student should have access and should be able to learn a language over the course of their educational life, whether they go to college or not.”

National Snapshot
According to U.S. Census Bureau data included in the report, more than 60 million residents over age 5 -- or about 20 percent of the population -- speak a language other than English at home. But other research suggests that just 10 percent of the population speaks a second language proficiently, and most are "heritage speakers," the report says. Of those who speak a language other than English at home, 57 percent were foreign born.

Nearly two-thirds of foreign language speakers speak Spanish, but the remaining one-third represent incredible linguistic diversity -- some 350 languages, according to the report. Those include 169 Native American and indigenous Alaskan languages, which are listed as vulnerable or critically endangered by UNESCO. A number of projects are dedicated to their revival.

The Modern Language Association and other groups have highlighted the need for providing more opportunities for heritage language learners, and one study included in the new report demonstrates why. The study, in Southern California, found that even in an era with a very high percentage of non-English speakers, language proficiency declines precipitously with each generation. More than 45 percent of immigrants who arrived before age 13 were able to speak and understand a non-English language well, even if they weren’t literate in it. But by the third generation, fewer than one in 10 were able to communicate well in their heritage languages.
Early exposure is best when it comes to language learning, most experts say, yet fewer and fewer elementary schools, especially public ones, offer such opportunities...

Rosemary Feal, executive director of the MLA, helped prepare both reports as a member of the commission. A major takeaway of the first, she said, is that "we have about 20 percent of people in this country who are basically bilingual or very fluent in another language, but virtually all of them are from heritage speaking backgrounds. So as a nation we are far behind other countries in having students acquire advanced language proficiency through education." Part of the problem is lack of opportunities for language study, particularly in public schools in the early grades..."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/201 ... n-language

[lavengro]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I note the promising statement excerpted from the report: “The data indicate that most students can learn a language successfully, given proper instruction and adequate support.”

The report itself appears to support the proposition that advanced or professional levels of proficiency in a foreign language can be obtained by American students by the time they graduate from college by enrolling in standards-based language courses at their home university together with a year of integrated study abroad, and then goes on to discuss programs which offer opportunities for an "overseas capstone year."

The statement that "most students can learn a language successfully" in the report is set out squarely in the context of the overseas education conversation on page 18. I don't know from direct experience, but assuming the US is similar to Canada in this respect, the opportunities to spend an overseas year as part of one's education are really quite limited. If that is the case, I wonder if the conclusion more properly should be: "most of the smaller percentage of students who have the good luck to be able to swing an overseas education year are able to learn a language."

[nooj]

But by the third generation, fewer than one in 10 were able to communicate well in their heritage languages.

This is true everywhere, no? Perhaps not to this extent, but if you go to France, I'm sure children of immigrant backgrounds do not speak the language of their grandparents, whether that be Portuguese or Arabic or Wolof.

We need a complete turnaround in how we consider language in heavily monolingual states, if we want true multilingualism, so that it is no longer considered normal or desirable to be monolingual.