Foreign-language study in US declines for first time in 20 years

Here in Ridgefield as we continuously think of ways to keep the high rating for our schools, yet we fail to consider languages entirel. Focus is on science and english. Hence German was cut (despite a full enrolled freshman class) and ccording to numbers presented at BOE meeting Chinese had same enrollment numbers, and right after that in declining numbers is French! The US is well understood to be the world’s leading international study destination. Less commonly known is the fact that it is also a major source of internationally mobile students, with 289,408 American students having studied abroad for academic credit in 2012/13. Indeed, there are substantial initiatives underway to double the number of US students abroad to 600,000 students by 2017/18. Foreign-language competency is an important enabler of study abroad for all students and so the findings of the latest Modern Language Association (MLA) enrolment survey – showing that US enrolment in foreign-language studies has slipped in recent years – have caught the attention of international educators around the world. The following table provides an overview of percentage growth for the most-studied languages in the US from 2002 through 2013. The languages are listed in the table in descending order based on 2013 enrolment. Interestlingly German is third highest enrolled language!!!