07, no. 2 (November 1975): 37-42 To the Editor Search

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IN SEPTEMBER 1975 the foreign language research staff of the Modern Language Association completed work on its fall 1974 Survey of Foreign Language Registrations in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education, the twelfth in a series of surveys conducted since 1958 under contract with the U.S. Office of Education. ¹ Data for the survey were obtained from a questionnaire sent to the registrars of the 2,498 two-year and four-year institutions listed in the MLA's computerized files, plus 150 additional institutions—primarily seminaries—listed in the Education Directory (Part 3, Higher Education) published annually by the National Center for Education Statistics. Replies were received from all but four of the institutions canvassed, giving the MLA a response rate of 99.9%. Among the respondents, 2,313, or 87.4%, reported registrations in one or more foreign languages. ²

The 1974 survey shows a total of 946,635 foreign language registrations—a drop of 6.2% since the last published report in 1972. The 1970 survey report was the first in the series to show any decline at all: about 1.4% below the peak enrollment year of 1968. The 1972 survey showed a further decline of 9.2%. The results of the most recent investigation suggest that the rate of decline may have begun to level off.

As was the case in 1970 and 1972, the downward trend in college foreign language enrollments is especially serious in the light of continuing growth of college enrollments in general, since it means that the role played by foreign languages in the U.S. college curriculum is diminishing even more rapidly than the absolute number of students taking language courses. Table 1 compares total college enrollments (as reported by the Office of Education) with MLA's figures for modern foreign languages, giving a percentage ratio for each of the years in which the MLA conducted its survey.

Table 2 shows the results of the 1974 enrollment survey, with a breakdown by language for the seven most commonly taught languages, plus an aggregate figure for the “other” languages, tallies for two-year college and graduate registrations, comparative totals from the 1972 survey, and a figure showing percentage change in the language totals between 1972 and 1974. As the table shows, the decline in enrollments was not uniform in all languages and segments of the higher education community. Thus, the decreases in French and German enrollments were more severe than those in Russian, and Italian and Spanish enrollments managed to hold steady. Italian has now displaced Russian as the fourth most widely taught foreign language. Enrollments in Ancient Greek and Latin enjoyed a significant increase.

Five languages—French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish—accounted for 88.0% of the total registrations in foreign languages in the colleges and universities covered in the survey; Latin and Ancient Greek accounted for an additional 5.2% and the remaining 6.8% were distributed among 109 additional languages, ancient and modern. Spanish, having displaced French from its “leadership position” in 1970, is still the most widely taught foreign language in U.S. colleges and universities, as it has been in secondary schools for many years. Spanish is the leading language in registrations in 36 states; French holds first rank in 11 states and the District of Columbia; German leads in two states; and Japanese is the most popular language in one state (Hawaii).

Spanish now accounts for 43.4% of the total registrations in the five leading modern languages. In 1960, Spanish had only 30% of the total, and French had 38.4%. Table 3, based on the registrations in the five leading languages, shows the percentage of the total in each language from 1960 to 1974. Table 5 depicts growth trends in the five leading modern languages between 1960 and 1974.

Foreign Languages in the Junior Colleges

As junior and community colleges in the United States continue to grow in size and number, they become increasingly significant in enrollment studies. In 1960, 455 two-year colleges reported foreign language registrations; by 1972 the number had grown to 899. In fall 1974, foreign language offerings were reported by 835 two-year colleges, fewer than in 1972, but their language enrollments had increased by 1.9% since 1972. Spanish, with 56.4% of the language enrollment in the junior and community colleges, is the leading language in this category; French is in second place, and German in third.

Russian, Chinese, and “Other” Languages

After a sharp decline (11.1%) between 1968 and 1970 figures, enrollments in Russian improved to the point that they were able to hold steady (0.6% increase) between 1970 and 1972. This improvement, taken together with the rapid growth of enrollment in Chinese during the same period (from 6,238 to 10,044, or 61.0%) gave clear evidence of a direct connection between language enrollments and external events—in this case the strengthening of political and commercial ties between the U.S. and both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The downward turn of Russian enrollments between 1972 and 1974 suggests, however, that the effects of the apparent renewed interest in Russian were short-lived.

The growth rate for the so-called “other” or less commonly taught languages continues to be encouraging. In the aggregate, they grew 7.7% between 1972 and 1974 and several of them—most notably Norwegian and Arabic, grew at even faster rates during this period. Table 4 shows enrollment trends in the ten most widely taught “other” languages. ²

Full Survey Report

The full report of the MLA's Fall 1974 Survey of Foreign Language Registrations in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education will consist of an introduction, a series of tables, and an institutional directory. The tables will present total foreign language registration figures by language and state, with special tables for two-year colleges, graduate registrations, and “other” languages, plus a series of “trend tables” giving comparative registration figures for 1965, 1970, 1972, and 1974 for all states and for each of the five most commonly taught modern languages. The final report will also be processed into the national ERIC system and will available in both microfiche and hard copy through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service. Inquiries concerning the contents and findings of the survey should be addressed to the MLA-ADFL Research Staff, 62 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.

The author serves on the MLA staff as Director of Foreign Language Programs.

¹ For detailed reports of the two previous surveys, see R.I. Brod, “”Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Colleges—Fall 1970,“ in ADFL Bulletin , 3, 2 (Dec.1971), 46–50; and R. I. Brod, ”Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Colleges—Fall 1972,“ in ADFL Bulletin , 5, 1 (Sept. 1973), 54–60.

² Most of the data in the MLA's foreign language enrollment surveys are obtained from college and university registrars. Although instructions on the questionnaire request figures of registrations in foreign language courses, it is reasonable to assume that some registrars will not exclude courses conducted in English from the totals, especially if such courses bear the name and number of a language department.

© 1975 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.

ADFL Bulletin 07, no. 2 (November 1975): 37-42

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