24, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 8-16 To the Editor Search

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THE MLA's 1987–89 survey of foreign language programs included a series of questions about current institutional language requirements and about the ways the requirements had changed since 1970. The following pages summarize the findings emerging from the responses to these questions.

The 1987–89 survey represents the MLA's first effort to collect information from the stratified random sample of foreign language programs established in 1988. The questionnaire for the survey deals with most aspects of postsecondary foreign language instruction. The topics covered, in addition to requirements, were characteristics of faculty members, the function of language coordinators, the faculty role in departmental and campus governance, curricula and course offerings, the fall 1988 enrollment figures, the number of majors in 1988–89, and the links between foreign language programs and other campus units. An overview of the findings will appear in the Winter 1993 issue of the ADFL Bulletin.

Because of its length, the 1987–89 survey was divided into two parts, with the first sent to department chairs in the spring of 1989 and the second in the fall. Eventually, after extensive telephone follow-up, by the MLA's research staff, 607 language programs—85% of those in the sample—responded, with fully 80% returning both parts of the questionnaire. Given the volume of information requested, this response rate is very high. While the final response sample comprises 23% of all college and university foreign language programs in the United States and 20% of all institutions in the country that have foreign language programs, this group educated 36% of the students enrolled at colleges and universities with foreign language programs in the fall of 1986—a statistic that reflects the oversampling of large institutions. All major sample subgroups are well represented among responding programs, but two-year college programs are somewhat less numerous than might be ideal, as are four-year programs granting no degree higher than an MA and those lacking a major (i.e., programs offering foreign language courses but not foreign language degrees). ¹

In contrast to survey questions that focus on aspects of foreign language programs and curricula that may differ from program to program at the same institution, those concerned with institutional language requirements should receive identical responses from programs at the same institution. Accordingly, since the sample includes several programs from some institutions but only one from others, using all the responses to these questions might introduce biases. The findings on language requirements, therefore, are based on a special “institutional” sample that includes only one language program from each institution in the response sample. ²

In the assessment of variations among institutions with and without language requirements and with different types of requirements, several characteristics were routinely considered: source of funding, institutional type, institutional size (as measured by the number of full- and part-time students in the fall of 1986), academic calendar, type of program (i.e., multiple specialized language programs vs. an inclusive program responsible for all language instruction offered). Institutional type involves a twofold distinction: between two- and four-year institutions and among three kinds of four-year institutions (baccalaureate institutions with liberal arts programs leading to the bachelor's degree; comprehensive institutions that primarily educate undergraduates but offer master's and professional degrees in some fields, although not necessarily in languages; and doctorate-granting institutions with multiple graduate programs). Only those characteristics that proved significant for each aspect of language requirements considered below are discussed in this report.

Characteristics of Language Requirements

Survey responses indicate that 64% of the institutions in the sample have language requirements for one or more of their bachelor's associate degree programs in the arts and sciences, while 36% do not. Of those with requirements, 40% mandate them for all students and 60% for some majors only. ³ When responses to the two questions are combined, one finds that 36% of the institutions in the sample have no language requirement, 39% have a requirement for some arts and sciences majors, and 25% have a requirement for all bachelor's degree students. The meaning of these percentages for the sample as a whole is limited because they combine widely different figures for two- and four-year institutions. The last column of table 1 indicates that just over three-quarters of the four-year institutions in the sample have language requirements, compared with fewer than a third of the two-year colleges. Further, in nearly half (45%) of these four-year institutions the requirements apply to all students, while they almost never do in two-year colleges.

Table 1 compares the figures just summarized, which refer to the 1988–89 academic year, with similar figures from two other studies: the MLA's 1987–88 census of graduation requirements and the 1987 American Council on Education (ACE) sample survey of international studies activities at the institutions in its Higher Education Panel. Of the three studies, the MLA census presents the most reliable data because it does not use a sample to estimate national figures. Although both the ACE survey and the MLA census studies report that 42% of all institutions have language requirements, their figures for two- and four-year institutions diverge. Since the MLA census was done a year later, these findings suggest that the ACE study overestimated the prevalence of language requirements at four-year institutions. ⁴

Compared with the MLA census, the 1987–89 survey also overestimates the prevalence of language requirements. Thus, the sample appears to include an unusually high percentage of institutions with language requirements, particularly at the two-year level, where almost twice as many institutions have language requirements as the MLA census would lead one to expect. The finding that requirements at two-year colleges almost always apply to some students rather than to all is congruent with the ACE's report, but not the finding that language requirements frequently apply to all students at four-year institutions. ⁵ (Undergraduate programs in schools of engineering, for example, which rarely have language requirements, are included among all bachelor's degree programs at an institution but not among those in colleges of arts and sciences.) Undoubtedly, the proportion of institutions requiring languages in the 1987–89 survey sample represents a bias. While this is a drawback in efforts to estimate the national prevalence of language requirements, it is of little consequence for the issues focused on here: the interrelation between institutional characteristics and various aspects of the language requirement.

Institutional Variations in Types of Language Requirements

A key determinant of whether institutions had language requirements in 1988 is whether they had had them in 1980. Of those in the sample with requirements in the earlier year, 95% still had requirements in 1988. In contrast, only 33% of the institutions without requirements in 1980 had them in 1988. Thus, factors that help determine whether institutions had requirements in 1980 help determine whether they had requirements in 1988 as well. Regression analysis shows that the type and size of institutions affect the likelihood of their having had language requirements in 1980. Requirements were far less likely at two-year institutions than at four-year institutions (21% vs. 61%) and were also less likely at smaller institutions: ⁶

Table 2 indicates that whether language requirements existed in 1988 and whether they applied to all or some students vary by the requirement policy in 1980, institutional type, and the type of language program. As noted above, institutions with requirements in 1980 were more likely than those without them to have requirements in 1988. In addition, institutions with 1980 requirements were more likely to have requirements applying to all students. Among institutions with specialized language programs, almost half had requirements for all students, compared with a fifth of those that had inclusive language programs. Similarly, just over a third of all four-year institutions had language requirements applying to all students, whereas virtually none of the two-year colleges did.

The factors affecting the type of language requirements institutions had in 1988 vary for two- and four-year institutions. Among two-year institutions, only the presence of a requirement in 1980 plays a role (program type is ruled out because almost all two-year institutions have inclusive programs); 91% of the few institutions with requirements in 1980 had requirements in 1988. Such requirements almost never applied to all students or to students other than those in the arts and sciences (97% of the two-year colleges with language requirements confined them to this group). Students in business, health sciences, and data-processing programs were subject to language requirements in only an institution or two.

At the four-year level, both the presence of requirements in 1980 and the program type help structure the character of 1988 language requirements. As table 3 indicates, four-year institutions with requirements in 1980 and with specialized language programs were more likely than others to have language requirements in 1988 and to have requirements that applied to all rather than to some students. When requirements apply to some students only, as they do in 42%, or 121, of the four-year institutions in the sample, they most frequently apply to students in the major categories of arts and sciences, as the following figures indicate:

At least half the institutions with language requirements for some students have them for majors in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Requirements are far less common for the four preprofessional majors listed above or for specific majors within the humanities or social sciences. ⁷ Of the specific majors, only English was mentioned often enough to merit a separate category. (“Other” majors mentioned with some frequency include music, art and art history, and international relations or studies.) The ACE's 1987 report on international studies activities gives an essentially identical picture: among institutions in which foreign language requirements apply to some students only, they apply to humanities, social science, and natural science majors in at least two-thirds of the institutions with relevant programs, while the four preprofessional programs listed above are affected in no more than 35% of the institutions with appropriate programs (Andersen 2–3, 18).

Table 4 indicates that among institutions whose language requirements apply to some students only, those with specialized language programs are more likely than those with inclusive programs to have requirements that apply to social science, natural science, and preprofessional majors and also somewhat more likely to have requirements affecting all humanities majors. Institutions with inclusive programs are more likely than those with specialized language programs to have language requirements that apply only to specific humanities or social science majors, such as English majors.

Courses Satisfying Language Requirements

Not all language courses count toward fulfillment of the foreign language requirement, as the following figures indicate:

Clearly, literature-in-translation courses rarely qualify, whereas language courses almost always do. Further, to count toward fulfillment of the requirement, successive language courses must generally be in the same language. Only 9% of the responding institutions with language requirements accept courses in different languages. Further, two-year colleges are no more likely than four-year institutions to permit such combinations.

Two- and four-year institutions do differ, however, in their acceptance of specific types of courses for the language requirement. As table 5 indicates, language courses almost always qualify at four-year institutions, and literature courses frequently do. Approximately 20% of the four-year institutions with language requirements accept culture courses; at two-year colleges, in contrast, only language courses commonly satisfy the requirement. Literature courses do so in almost a third of the two-year institutions with requirements, but other types of courses rarely do. These findings must be interpreted with some care, however, since the degree to which courses can be used to fulfill language requirements depends on the frequency with which they are offered and the language of instruction. Thus, at two-year colleges, for example, literature courses in the target language may often fail to satisfy the requirement because they are infrequently offered. Similarly, at four-year institutions culture courses may not satisfy the language requirement in most cases, even though they are offered by 90% of the programs in the sample, because they are not always offered in the target language and do not fulfill the requirement on that count.

High School Courses and College Language Requirements

Approximately four-fifths of the sampled institutions with language requirements allow students to use high school courses to satisfy language requirements. While 46% accept high school credits only if students pass a placement test, 33% make no such stipulation. The remaining 22% do not accept high school language credits with or without a placement test. Four-year institutions are a good deal more likely than two-year colleges to accept high school credits (82% vs. 59%), ⁸ but they are also more likely to require placement tests (60% of the four-year institutions accepting high school credits vs. 40% of the two-year colleges). The tendency of four-year institutions to accept high school course work is in keeping with efforts on some four-year campuses to define elementary language instruction as the province of secondary education (see Lambert 64).

Language Requirements through Time

In addition to asking about the sample institutions' current language requirements, the 1987–89 survey asked what language requirements, if any, the institutions had in 1970, 1975, and 1980. The respondents indicated that language requirements were most frequently dropped in the early 1970s and most frequently added during the 1980s. These findings are in keeping with well-documented trends. ⁹

When changes in language requirements through time were examined, eight discernible patterns emerged:

Only 12 of the 379 institutions for which complete information was available displayed patterns of language requirements different from those outlined above. (These few exceptions were not considered in more detailed analyses.)

The eight response patterns are listed in pairs of related patterns. Thus, the first pair characterize institutions that have consistently had language requirements, while the second describe institutions that temporarily dropped their language requirements during the late 1970s or early 1980s but have since reinstituted them. The next pair refer to institutions that introduced language requirements during the 1980s and the last pair to institutions that have not had language requirements since the early 1970s. Institutions with consistent language requirements (44%) and those with no requirements (35%) clearly represent the dominant patterns. Only 14% of the institutions in the sample introduced language requirements during the 1980s, and 7% temporarily dropped their requirements during the last half of the 1970s. The apparent consistency in language requirements through time is striking, but its significance must be assessed with care. Since most of the relevant data are retrospective, this consistency may be due in part to respondents' hazy or imperfect memories of past language requirements. Further, respondents in institutions whose language requirements underwent frequent change during the last two decades were probably the least likely to respond to the question about past language requirements. (Information on current language requirements was available for all but 3% of the institutions in the sample, while information on past requirements was unavailable for 7%.)

The predominance of major patterns of language requirements varies by a number of characteristics. Differences between two- and four-year institutions are the most pronounced. The top rows of table 6 indicate that close to three-quarters of the two-year institutions in the sample have had no language requirement since 1970, while over half the four-year institutions have had one. The type of language program also affects the requirement pattern, as the bottom rows show. Most institutions with specialized language programs had language requirements throughout the 1970–88 period, while institutions with inclusive programs are as likely to have had a consistent requirement as to have had no requirement.

Several characteristics of four-year institutions also distinguish patterns of language requirements through time. The top rows of table 7 reveal that doctorate-granting institutions are more likely than baccalaureate or comprehensive institutions to have had consistent language requirements, considerably less likely to have had no language requirement since 1970. In addition, baccalaureate institutions are somewhat more likely than doctorate-granting institutions to have instituted language requirements during the 1980s. Finally, as the lower part of the table indicates, the percentage of respondents reporting consistent language requirements increases with institutional size, while the percentage reporting no language requirements decreases.

Length of Language Requirements

Consistency of language requirements through time is matched by consistency in the length of requirements. Once institutions introduce language requirements requiring a certain amount of course work, they rarely seem to change this aspect of the requirement. Of the institutions with language requirements in both 1980 and 1988, 60% had two-year requirements in both years and 20% had one-year requirements. For the 1975–80 period the figures are 69% with two-year requirements and 25% with one-year requirements, while those for the 1970–75 period are 71% and 19%. ¹⁰ Thus, the length of language requirements has not varied for more than 20% of the sampled institutions that have requirements. Insofar as it has changed through time, it has usually decreased.

The typical language requirement mandates two years of course work, as the following figures indicate:

One-year requirements appear to have gained ground during the 1980s. Of the 61 sampled institutions that introduced language requirements between 1980 and 1988, 56% introduced one-year requirements, 40% adopted two-year requirements, and 5% adopted three-year requirements.

There was also a mix of one- and two-year responses to the question about how many terms of course work were required by 1988, but these responses cannot be considered independently of the academic calendar in use. 11 Not unexpectedly, institutions on the quarter or trimester system generally require one more term of course work than do those on the semester system; the means are 3.02 for the semester calendar and 3.77 for institutions on the quarter system. Thus the average requirement in both is between one and two years.

Two factors affect the length of institutions' current language requirements: the type of language program and the type of four-year institution. The top half of table 8 indicates that institutions with specialized language programs tend to require somewhat more course work than do those with inclusive programs. Further, as the bottom half of the table indicates, doctorate-granting institutions tend to require more terms of course work than do baccalaureate institutions.

Credits Allotted to Introductory Language Courses

Although most sampled institutions that have language requirements accept high school course work in partial fulfillment of the requirement, the postsecondary course work required for completion of the requirement does not appear to be considered remedial. Most institutions allot first- and second-year language courses 3 or 4 credits each. Of the 235 sampled institutions that require language study, 37% give 3 credits to each course and 23% give 4. Only 2% give fewer than 3 credits for a course, and 8% give 5 or 6. The remaining 30% allocate a different number of credits to first- and second-year courses, with the second-year course usually receiving fewer credits; only 2% of the institutions with language requirements allot more credits to the second course than to the first. Of the 70 institutions that give the courses different credits, 64% allow 4 credits for the first year and 3 credits for the second.

The number of credits given varies by type of academic calendar used, though the differences are minimal for first-year language courses:

Among the quarter-system institutions with language requirements, 81% give the first-year course the same number of credits as they do the second, and 17% give the first-year course 1 credit more. Institutions on the semester system are more likely to give fewer credits to the second-year course; 30% do so, while 68% give the same number of credits. ¹² Because of this variation in the way institutions on semester and quarter systems handle second-year courses, the difference between the average numbers of credits given is greater for second- than for first-year courses.

The number of credits given to first-year courses varies by institutional size and type of language program. These differences are evident, however, only among institutions on the semester system: ¹³

The above figures indicate that, on average, the number of credits given for first-year language courses is higher at very large institutions than at smaller ones (4.1 vs. 3.6). Further, the number of credits given is somewhat higher at institutions with inclusive language programs than at institutions with specialized programs.

The number of credits allotted second-year language courses depends largely on the number allotted first-year courses, as the following figures indicate:

This close relation is hardly surprising in the light of the preceding discussion.

The findings discussed in the previous pages suggest that language requirements differ markedly at two- and four-year institutions. Just over three-quarters of the four-year institutions in the sample had requirements in 1988; most of them also had requirements in 1980. When these requirements apply to some students rather than to all, as they usually do, they are likely to apply to majors in one or more of the three large disciplinary groupings identified: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Language courses count toward fulfilling the language requirement at nearly all four-year institutions, literature courses in the target language count at about a half, and culture courses at a fifth. In 4 out of 5 four-year institutions students can use high school courses to help fulfill the language requirement, though they generally have to pass a placement test as well.

Fewer than a third of the two-year colleges in the sample had language requirements in 1988. Of these, the vast majority also had requirements in 1980, and almost all mandated the requirements for some students only. The students affected were generally enrolled in arts and sciences; more specialized fields (e.g., business, data processing) almost never had language requirements. At all two-year colleges with language requirements, language courses fulfilled the requirement. Literature courses did so considerably less frequently, presumably because they are not always offered. Probably the same reason applies to other types of courses (e.g., culture courses) that are rarely taught at two-year colleges and thus not listed as fulfilling the language requirement. Despite these limitations, 14 out of the 34 two-year colleges requiring language study do not accept high school work as partial fulfillment of the requirement, perhaps because they view such training as inadequate.

Language requirements vary by type of language program as well as by institutional type. Institutions with inclusive language programs were less likely to have language requirements in 1988 than were those with specialized language programs, though the majority of both types had requirements. Institutions with inclusive programs required fewer terms of study, on average, than did institutions with specialized programs, but gave more credit for the first-year language course. In addition, institutions with inclusive programs were somewhat less likely than those with specialized programs to accept high school courses in fulfillment of the language requirement. This pattern of findings implies that institutions with specialized language programs, which are disproportionately doctorate-granting institutions with large student bodies, ¹⁴ have more stringent language requirements than do those with inclusive programs. Thus, on average, they require more terms of course work and give fewer credits for the first-year course. At the same time, their somewhat greater willingness to accept high school course work suggests that these institutions may be the most likely to view elementary language knowledge, like basic writing skills, as something students should acquire before entering college.

Bettina J. Huber is Research Director of the Modern Language Association.

Notes

¹ Data-collection procedures and subsample response rates will be discussed in more detail in the Winter 1993 ADFL Bulletin.

² When several programs from the same institution were part of the sample, the one chosen for the institutional sample was the one whose responses to the requirement questions were the most nearly complete.

³ This finding must be interpreted a bit cautiously, since respondents were not always accurate in specifying whether language requirements applied to some students or to all.

⁴ The ACE study also appears to underestimate the prevalence of language requirements at two-year institutions, but the difference between its figure and the MLA's may simply be due to changes in the year separating the studies. The discrepancies between their findings are not due to differing definitions, since the two articulated their questions about language requirements in similar ways. The MLA census gathered data on the number of institutions that had “college-wide foreign language requirements” for students completing baccalaureate or associate degrees, whereas the ACE study asked about “foreign language requirements for the completion of” a bachelor's or an associate degree.

⁵ The discrepancy, however, may be due to a difference in the information requested: the ACE study asked about requirements for all bachelor's students, whereas the 1987–89 survey asked only about requirements for students in the arts and sciences. It is also possible that the 1987–89 survey simply overestimates the percentage of four-year institutions in which requirements apply to all students. As noted earlier, responses to this question did not always seem accurate.

⁶ In tabulations throughout this report the number of responses used to calculate percentages and mean numbers is designated by the letter N.

⁷ None of the institutions with language requirements applying to English majors has requirements applying to all humanities students. Many respondents did not indicate whether or not degree programs were offered at their institutions. Thus, part of the reason requirements were infrequently cited for preprofessional programs may be that these programs are not universally offered.

⁸ Institutions with specialized programs are also somewhat more likely than those with inclusive programs to count high school courses as fulfilling the language requirement (88% vs. 76%).

⁹ According to data on language requirements collected by the MLA, 77% of all four-year institutions had graduation requirements in 1970–71, 53% had requirements in 1974–75, 47% had requirements in 1982–83, and 58% had requirements in 1987–88 (table 1 in Brod and Lapointe).

¹⁰ A few institutions reported three-year language requirements, but the number did not exceed the four reporting such a requirement for the 1970–75 period.

¹¹ For the purpose of longitudinal comparison, responses articulated as terms of course work were divided by 2 or 3, depending on the academic calendar in use, and thus translated into years of course work. Just over four-fifths of the institutions in the sample operate on the semester system, with 16% operating on the quarter system and 2% on the trimester system. Accordingly, the few institutions that operate on the trimester system are combined with those operating on the quarter system for the purposes of more detailed analysis.

¹² Of all institutions giving fewer credits to the second-year course, 81% give 1 credit less.

¹³ The lack of difference among institutions on the quarter system may simply indicate that there are too few of them to yield reliable percentages.

¹⁴ Of the institutions with specialized language programs in the sample, 52% are doctorate-granting, 24% enroll between 5,001 and 15,000 full- and part-time students, and 45% have more than 15,000 students.

Works Cited

Andersen, Charles J. International Studies for Undergraduates, 1987: Operations and Opinions. HEP Report 76. Washington: ACE, 1988.

Brod, Richard, and Monique Lapointe. “The MLA Survey of Foreign Language Entrance and Degree Requirements, 1987–88.” ADFL Bulletin 20.2 (1989): 17–41. [Show Article]

Lambert, Richard D. International Studies and the Undergraduate. Washington: ACE, 1989.

© 1992 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.

ADFL Bulletin 24, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 8-16

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