Foreign Language Learning in the US

Foreign language learning in the US

Is it true that Americans do not like to learn foreign languages?

Often people say that Americans do not like to learn foreign languages and that their attitude is based on the thought “I do not need to learn a foreign language since everyone speaks English”. The aim of this article is to evaluate on this topic and think about it in a critical way. Is it really true that Americans do not want to learn a foreign language?

Demographics

To answer the above-mentioned question, this part will firstly introduce the demographic facts of the United Stated of America to get a broad overview of the people living there. The national motto of the US is not without a reason “E pluribus unum”, which translates to ‘out of many, one’. Undoubtedly, it emphasizes the diversity within America, the promise of equal opportunity and also the promise of freedom for all Americans. Barack Obama once said, ”[…] our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.”. This quote demonstrates that shows how diversity and multiculturality are very important characteristics for the American society. Some might even go thus far and say that America is the nation of immigrants and as a matter of fact, in the year 2010 America reached a foreign-born population of 40 million people, which makes nearly 13 percent of the total population. However, there was a shift concerning the origin of the foreign-born population: in 1960, 75 percent of them came from Europe, in 2010 on the other hand, most of them, that is 53 percent, came from Latin America, 28 percent came from Asia and only 12 percent came from Europe. In 2010, most of the Latin Americans in fact came from Mexico, El Salvador and Cuba, whereas most of the Asians came from China, India and the Philippines. In 1960, the majority of the foreign-born people came from Germany, the UK, Poland and also the Soviet Union. And where did they settle? In the 1960 they mostly settled in California, the Southwest, Florida, around the metropolitan area of Washington D.C. and New York, but also around the Great Lakes. In 2010, this did not really change, it included the West, the Midwest, the whole Sun Belt, especially Texas and Florida, the Rust Belt, the metropolitan area of D.C and New York, and additionally Alaska, Hawaii, as well as Washington state. Moreover, these numbers are estimated to keep on rising, because in 2018 the share of immigrants living in the US nearly reached the all time high of 14.8 percent from the 1890s and it was projected that the immigrants share of the population will reach 78.2 million people by 2065. But is it true, that the educational attainment of these immigrants is very low? Particularly the immigrants from Mexico, Central America and maybe the Caribbean in 2018 were likely to be less educated, but the rest, especially people from South and Central Asia, Europe, Canada, as well as Middle East and North Africa mostly have a higher degree of education.

Languages Spoken

This paragraph will now focus on the languages which the immigrants have brought with them and evaluate in how far they are important for the US. In fact, in 2011 nearly 61 million people of the total population (nearly 292 million) who are five years old or over spoke another language than English at home. Not very surprisingly Spanish and Spanish Creole were spoken by nearly 38 million of those immigrants, which makes up 62 percent of the total population speaking another language than English. Their English-speaking abilities are not very well, only 56 percent of them said that they spoke English “very well”. Compared to other European immigrants like the French-speaking communities, only about 1.3 million people, of whom 79 percent said that they spoke English ”very well” or the German-speaking community, only 1 million speaker, of whom 82 percent said that they spoke English “very well”, the Spanish-speaking ability seems very low. On the other hand, compared with the Russian speakers, about 1 million, the Chinese speaker, nearly 3 million, the Korean speakers, about 1.2 million, and the Vietnamese speakers, nearly 1.5 million, whose rates of speaking English “very well” are under 45 percent, Vietnamese under 40 percent. Surprisingly, speakers of Tagalog, about 1.5 million, speakers of Indic languages, Hindu or Urdu, about 1.8 million people, and speakers of African languages, nearly 1 million, haver higher rates of speaking English “very well” of around 70 percent. This might be caused by the fact, that due to colonialism English is spoken in countries like India, the Philippines and African countries, for example Nigeria as a co-official language. Even though, most notably speakers of Scandinavian languages, only about 140,000, have really high rates of speaking English “very well”, namely 90 percent of them. And where are those languages spoken? Mainly in those regions already mentioned above, the West, the Sun Belt, the Rust Belt, the metropolitan areas of New York and D.C., as well as Hawaii.

School system

This part will first elaborate on the K-12 school system of the US and will afterwards show under which circumstances languages are being taught or learned in the different states. Usually, the school starts at the age of 3 with nursery schools or kindergartens, which they then leave at age 6 to go to elementary or primary school. After Elementary it gets interesting: some primary schools directly lead to High school at age 13. Other primary schools lead at age 9 to a middle school which then also leads to high school at age 13. Furthermore, there is the option to go to a junior high school at age 10, which leads to senior high school at age 14 or combined versions of these two. Finally, most students in the US graduate at age 17 or older, either at a high school, senior high school or at a combined senior, junior high school. So, what about language learning or teaching in this school system? According to the law, the responsibility for education lay in the hands of the individual states, which means, that there were not that many national nor federal policies, whatsoever. But in 1994 the GOALS 2000 initiative started, which included the Educate America Act, and the aim of this policy was to develop goals and standards in the core subjects, along with foreign languages. Shortly after, in 1996 the Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century by the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages and other professional language associations was published and finally expanded in 1999 and 2006. The most important points of these standards were to develop and assess a curriculum, also known as professional development, to find professional literature, to improve teacher education, teaching practices and methods of teaching, as well as a focus on the five C’s: especially communication, but also culture, communities, comparisons and connections. Surprisingly, no policy mentioned above was able to promote or improve foreign language teaching, because a research in 2017 showed, that only 20 percent of US students participate in language learning. Compared to the European average of 92 percent, this only emphasized, that either the students in the US are not required to learn another language like in most European countries or they do not have the possibility to do so. The first one is easily approved: 22 states, including Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, usually states where a lot of immigrants live and speak their languages, do not require any foreign language for high school graduation. Other states such as Alabama or California, offer multiple options, where students either can choose STEM, fine, visual, performing arts, programming, CTE or a foreign language. And even if there is a requirement for a foreign language, it is not more than 2-4 units, which is not very much. Concerning the question if students have the possibility to learn a foreign language, nearly every state offers at least some of the most important languages: For example, Spanish and French are being taught in every state, besides German and Chinese, which are being taught in 48 states.

Foreign Language Learning

A central question is how do Americans learn foreign languages? First, there are huge differences between the states on how foreign languages are learned and taught. According to a report by the American Councils for International Education from 2017, only 20 % of K-12 students take foreign language classes. The highest enrollment numbers can be found in New Jersey, the District of Colombia and Wisconsin. The lowest numbers are found in New Mexico, Arkansas and Arizona.

The following diagram shows which languages US students learn:

Based on Fall 2006 Enrollments in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education

In the diagram, we can see that Spanish is the most commonly learned language by US students followed by French, German, American Sign Language and Chinese.

Further, it is really important to investigate when Americans start learning foreign languages because there is a huge difference compared to Germany. In America, it is common that students start learning their first foreign language in middle or high school. Unfortunately, depending on the state students are living in, there is no possibility to learn a foreign language. In Germany, the first foreign language is normally learned in primary school. Of course, this language learning is not really effective because it is only based on some basics of the language like dates, times or body parts. Foreign language education in German primary schools only consists of one or two hours a week. Additionally, it is compulsory to learn a second or even third language in secondary school in Germany. The second one is French or English and third language is often Latin or Spanish.

Interview with a Native Speaker

For our article, we interviewed an American girl. Her name is Annalise and she lives in Wisconsin. “I” means Interviewer and “A” stands for Annalise.

I: How many languages did you learn in school? Which were the options you could choose from?

A: In elementary school (ages 7-11) I learned French because it was my only option. From the age of 12+ I learned Spanish and could choose between Spanish, French, and German.

I: Are foreign languages important to you? Do you think they are important for your future?

A: Foreign languages are important for me and I do think they are important for my future. I think more and more people are deciding that they don’t matter because “everyone will speak English”, but I think that is not true and that attitude is very ethnocentric and selfish for some people.

I: When did you learn your first language?

A: I began learning French when I was eight but it was small lessons in school once or twice a week so I don’t really know any French. I would say I started my first foreign language when I was twelve.

I: What is your attitude towards foreign languages?

A: I believe learning foreign languages is a very useful way of connecting with other people. I personally love to travel and look into other cultures and I think language is an important part of the culture. Also, learning languages is good for your brain, good for getting jobs, and good for your self-confidence! I think everyone should learn a foreign language and I plan on learning many.

Our interview with Annalise does not support the idea of the stereotypical American not willing to learn foreign languages. We can see that there are Americans that like foreign languages and think that they are important for their future.

Three Reasons why Americans speak no other language than English

1) Poor Language Curriculum

One of the main reasons why Americans do not speak a foreign language is the poor language curriculum. Often, there is no continuous language study in the states, so foreign languages are only learned for two years which is clearly not sufficient. Another massive difficulty is that the states do not follow a national agenda for foreign language learning. Every state creates its own language schedule. Also, schools often create schedules which place foreign language classes at the same time as other important classes for the students. Naturally, students cannot attend the foreign languages classes.

2) Teacher Shortage

Another problem why Americans do not speak foreign languages is a nationwide teacher shortage in the US. In 44 states there are not sufficient teachers for foreign language instruction. Clearly, this is followed by too many unqualified teachers and an unstructured and unproductive language instruction. The reason why there is such a lack of teachers is that in the US, unlike Germany, teachers have bad working conditions and a relatively low income. Therefore, not many students choose to become a teacher after their graduation which results in an enormous teacher shortage.

3) English as a lingua franca

English is a language spoken all over the world, so many Americans do not see a need to learn a foreign language. English is used for international communication and is the first language spoken in many professions. Often, a foreign language is not required for future jobs, therefore, many students decide against foreign language learning.

Attempts to improve Foreign Language Learning in the US

The American government makes various attempts to improve the foreign language situation in the US. First, they try to improve the Standards for Foreign Language Learning which include the five C’s which were already mentioned in the beginning of the article. Another possible solution would be the introduction of a dual-language instruction, which means that subjects such as history or biology are taught in a foreign language.

Conclusion

Overall, the stereotype that Americans do not like to learn foreign languages is not true as we can see by the example of our interview with Annalise. However, the lack of foreign languages spoken by Americans is a massive problem. Due to the fact that every state makes its own regulation on foreign language education, there is still no standard in language education. If America achieves language-specific standards and can change the overall attitude towards language learning, Americans might be more motivated to learn foreign languages.

For a look at another aspect of US education system, check out this article.

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