Foreign Language Enrollment Trends Trendy Languages Dennis Looney Modern Language Association Vanderbilt University Center for Second Language Studies

Language Enrollments by Year, Excluding Latin and Ancient Greek Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Modern Language Association Total Enrollments, MLA Surveys of Foreign Language Enrollments, 1990–2013

Modern Language Association Undergraduate Enrollments, MLA Surveys of Foreign Language Enrollments, 1990–2013

Modern Language Association Postgraduate Enrollments, MLA Surveys of Foreign Language Enrollments, 1990–2013

Enrollments in Spanish Compared with Those of All Other Languages Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Modern Language Association

Enrollments in French, ASL, German, and Italian Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Enrollments in Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Latin, and Russian Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Enrollments in Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Portuguese, and Korean Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Undergraduate Language Course Enrollments in Four-Year Colleges (Languages in Descending Order of 2013 Totals) Language % Change % Change Spanish265,179274,375276,900290,215314,861391,972434,507473,269522,398587,212615,326580, French209,632203,745205,477223,411228,803221,862168,642165,384164,425169,940176,146163, German127,639113,301106,578106,812101,314110,19880,63874,81976,69079,01181,19875, Italian26,62526,75928,25431,32133,77840,65736,27541,25651,89864,35866,12759, ASL* ,29722,77234,34839,40756, Japanese7,0637,8898,52112,34117,96634,63533,94532,62838,72348,87453,79651, Chinese8,3287,6879,04810,84014,08715,09021,01422,54627,03441,72549,64151, Arabic1,6142,4462,8622,5552,6802,8743,8073,9028,20518,63327,94626, ,541.7 Latin23,54323,02123,72722,85723,73926,31124,04324,45427,79830,18929,99625, Russian29,01825,08421,77627,73230,90439,29121,40520,64720,50921,64523,53619, Portuguese4,5124,2114,1923,8754,4415,4215,3595,9587,1749,0339,87111, Korean ,1882,9433,5464,0455,6657,01810, ,116.4 Greek, Ancient18,64020,06217,10614,28012,91211,41611,80911,82414,25216,34715,3399, Hebrew, Biblical** 2,4252,4215,6489,0088,5018,5337, Hebrew, Modern** 6,1286,4016,1207,6838,4427,4986, Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Enrollments in the Fourteen Leading Languages Language % Change Spanish179,892363,389378,952534,143606,286649,245745,215822,094861,008790, French229,640386,694248,303273,116205,351199,064201,985206,014215,244197, ASL*-- 1,6024,30411,42060,78179,70892,072109,577-- German146,950215,883127,015133,59496,26389,01391,10094,14795,62886, Italian11,08430,73234,79349,82443,76049,28763,89978,17680,32271, Japanese1,7544,32211,51645,83044,72343,14152,23865,40372,35966,7403,705.0 Chinese6795,06111,36619,42726,47128,45634,15351,38159,87661,0558,891.9 Arabic ,4713,6834,4445,50510,58423,98734,90832,2866,169.1 Latin**--34,08425,01928,17825,89726,14529,84132,16432,44427,192-- Russian31,12241,28023,98744,47624,72923,79123,92124,77026,75321, Hebrew***3,8399,20119,29012,96613,08315,80722,77423,72922,05619, Greek, Ancient**--19,17822,13216,41416,27216,38120,37622,83120,04012,917-- Portuguese1,0344,0484,8946,1186,5316,9268,38510,31011,27312,4151,100.7 Korean ,3753,3434,4795,2117,1468,44912,2297,179.2 Total606,6771,114,860911,1031,171,7461,121,4571,168,6601,370,4631,541,8601,632,4321,522, Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Percentage of Total Language Course Enrollments for the Fourteen Most Commonly Taught Languages in 2013 Language Spanish French ASL German Italian Japanese Chinese Arabic Latin Russian Hebrew* Greek, Ancient Portuguese Korean Other languages Total percentage100 Total enrollments1,124,021924,3371,185,4651,138,7721,395,8071,575,7151,673,5431,562,179

Graduate Language Enrollments Excluding Latin and Ancient Greek Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Percentages of Introductory and Advanced Undergraduate Enrollments in the Top Fifteen Languages, 2006, 2009, and 2013

Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Percentages of Introductory and Advanced Undergraduate Enrollments in the Top Fifteen Languages, 2006, 2009, and 2013

Modern Language Enrollments per 100 US College Students Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Number of Institutions Reporting Enrollments in Arabic, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, by Level

Number of Institutions Reporting Enrollments in Arabic, by Level Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Undergraduate Enrollments in Arabic Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Graduate Enrollments in Arabic Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Number of Institutions Reporting Enrollments in Japanese, by Level Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Modern Language Association

Number of Institutions Reporting Enrollments in Korean, by Level Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Number of Institutions Reporting Enrollments in Spanish, by Level Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Undergraduate enrollments--68.9% increase, 1974 to 2013 Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Graduate enrollments--17.0% decline, 1974 to 2013 Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Percentage of Programs with Decreasing, Stable, or Increasing Enrollments, 2009–2013 Program Level % Change in Enrollments Decreasing Enrollments Stable* Enrollments Increasing Enrollments Stable or Increasing Enrollments Arabic All Levels– Graduate– French All Levels– Graduate– German All Levels– Graduate– *The percentage of programs with stable enrollments includes those with changes of plus or minus 2 enrollments. Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Selected LCTLs Selected Years (MLA) Armenian* Dakota/Lakota* Greek* ,323 1,982 1,157 Hawai'ian ,890 1,687 1,654 2,006 2,419 Navajo Norwegian* 722 1,084 1, Pilipino/Filipino/ Tagalog* ,142 1,569 1,360 1,323 Polish , ,053 1,381 1, Ukrainian Vietnamese ,010 2,236 2,485 2,712 2,095 Yiddish Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

Two-Year and Four-Year LCTL enrollments Language Armenian 2-year year ASL 2-year 1,1403,3946,96037,88844,59251,83050,871 4-year ,29722,77234,34839,40756,065 Farsi/Persian 2-year 4-year ,5281,7992,044 Hawai'ian 2-year year ,2551,3441,0141,0781,3511,663 Korean 2-year ,0551,2441,0791,377 4-year ,1882,9433,5464,0455,6657,01810,195 Navajo 2-year year Vietnamese 2-year ,1851,2031,4651,079 4-year ,0031,2611,2311,007 Yiddish 2-year year1,0611, Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

US Decennial Census (ACS in 2010) Armenian* 37,270 38, , ,694202,708223,914 Dakota/Lakota* 15,400 17,720 Greek* 180, , , ,260365,440321,144 Hawai'ian26,607 Navajo 170,717178,020169,988 Norwegian* 152,687 94,365 34,903 80,723 40,637 Pilipino/Filipino/ Tagalog* 73, , , ,4431,224,2451,542,118 Polish 581, , , ,483843,251604,234 Ukrainian 106,974 96,635 70,117 96,568129,180134,506 Vietnamese 197, ,0691,009,6251,292,448 Yiddish 503, , , ,064178,945154,433 Source: Language Enrollment Database, 1958–2013. Modern Language Association.

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