How Does One Explain the Significant Decline in Foreign Language Study in the United States?
Upon surfing the Internet, one will find many articles regarding the current stage of foreign language education in the United States. Such articles describe the alarming and significant yearly decrease in language learners throughout the last ten years. According to the Modern Language Association, foreign language instruction in colleges and universities started to decline in 2009. The MLA states that, "only 7.5 foreign language enrollments per 100 students enrolled in American colleges in 2016. That was down from 8.1 three years prior, 9.1 in 2006 and figures over 10 in the 1960s and 1970s,” indicating a serious trend.
This decline of language learners is not limited to higher education. In high schools, students are becoming less and less interested in taking foreign language classes. According to the National K-12 Foreign Language Enrollment Survey report published in June 2017, “foreign language enrollments account for approximately 20% of the total school age population. Only 11 states have foreign language graduation requirements; 16 states do not have foreign language graduation requirements; and 24 states have graduation requirements that may be fulfilled by a number of subjects—one of which is foreign languages”. On average, only 20% of K-12 students are enrolled in foreign language classes. In California, only 13.91% of school students take foreign language classes. The situation with language studies is completely the opposite in Europe, where 92% of kids are enrolled in foreign language courses.
https://theatlas.com/charts/Syjd57DSX
How can someone possibly explain the fall of foreign language learning under the modern conditions of globalization, intercultural exchange, and economic interdependence? Economies around the globe are increasingly becoming more international, with the latest trends in the world economy being the following: “The global economy is shifting away from the English-speaking world. Since 1975, the English-speaking share of global GDP has fallen significantly and will continue to fall. The Chinese economy will surpass the US economy in size soon after 2030. Latin America (Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) and South Asia (Hindi- and Urdu-speaking) are growing strongly as well. Exports have accounted for half of post-recession US economic growth, and future US growth will increasingly depend on selling US goods and services to foreign consumers who do not necessarily speak English.”
https://studenttravelplanningguide.com/global-trends-in-foreign-language-demand-and-proficiency/
Another important change in human life around the globe is global tourism. Global tourism has increased exponentially following the Second World War. In 2018, there were a record 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals, which is a rise of 6% compared to 2017.
The number of United States residents traveling abroad has also increased tremendously in the past ten years. In 2010, there were 28.51 million people who traveled overseas. In 2018, this number became 41.77 million people. The number of American students who go to study abroad has more than tripled in the past two decades.
Given all of these trends taking place in the world and in the United States, the US should show a proportional increase in the number of Americans studying languages in all types of educational institutions, and should demonstrate a huge increase in interest in language learning across the country. However, the opposite process is taking place in the United States. The number of languages learners are dropping every year across all types of institutions. How can one explain such perplexing statistics?
While many articles state this surprising phenomenon, none of them dig into the true reasons for why fewer and fewer Americans learn languages and why the overall number of learners has been going down in the last ten years. The main reason for this phenomenon is economical. The fall in language learning coincides with the end of the Great Recession, which had a significant economical impact on the United States, particularly on younger generations.
Difficult economic conditions have caused the changes in preferred major for college students. Inside Higher Ed reported that “every 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate led to a 3.2 percentage point shift in major choices for men and a 4.1 percent percentage point shift for women. When the economy was bad, students were less likely to major in sociology, education, and literature and languages. Women were most likely to shift into non-finance business majors, followed by nursing.”
Overall, Millennials (also known as generation Y) have been facing financial challenges. Older millennials were most strongly impacted by the Great Recession. They also have the heavy burden of immense student debt and have been facing increasing living costs throughout the country. Some articles describe millennials as the “lost generation”.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/millennials-are-new-lost-generation/609832/
To sum it up, all of these statistics suggest that young Americans simply do not have the economic luxury of learning foreign languages because they are mostly concerned with survival. In other words, the decline of language learning sadly demonstrates that, at least economically, millennials are much worse off than their parents were because as the American middle class shrinks, these young people are left without the financial means to invest in foreign language studies.
Olga Sylvia, PhD