28, no. 2 (Winter 1997): 55-61 To the Editor Search

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IN AUGUST 1996 the Modern Language Association finished compiling the figures from its fall 1995 survey of foreign language registrations in United States institutions of higher education. The latest survey is the eighteenth in a series conducted since 1958 with the support of grants from the United States Office of Education and from its successor, the United States Department of Education. The following pages present fall 1995 registrations for individual languages and examine trends through time; a report summarizing differences in registrations by a number of institutional characteristics will appear in a future issue of the bulletin.

Following procedures developed for previous surveys, the MLA sent a questionnaire to the registrars of 2,772 two- and four-year institutions, soliciting information on credit-bearing registrations for fall 1995 in all language courses other than English, ¹ The questionnaire was not distributed until mid-October 1995, to ensure that the figures provided were final, rather than beginning-of-term, registrations. Additional responses were gathered through a second follow-up mailing in late November 1995, a third in mid-February 1996, and a series of follow-up telephone calls begun in late April.

All but 65 of the institutions receiving the initial survey mailing (97.7%) eventually responded. Among the respondents, 2,399, or 88.6%, reported fall 1995 registrations in at least one language other than English. Of these responses, 897, or 37%, are from two-year colleges and 1,502 are from four-year institutions. Two-year colleges were less likely to report foreign language enrollments than four-year institutions; 17% of the two-year colleges responding reported that no language courses were offered at their institutions during the fall 1995 term, compared with 7% of the four-year colleges and universities.

Fall 1995 Registrations

Table I summarizes the results of the 1995 survey and compares the fall registrations in the 12 most commonly taught foreign languages with those in 1990, the year of the MLA's most recent previous survey. The table also shows an aggregate count for the 124 other languages for which enrollment data were reported (registrations in these less commonly taught languages are listed in table 6). Although the total number of registrations recorded in fall 1995—1,138,772—is almost 4% lower than the 1990 total, it exceeds the 1986 total of 1,003,234 registrations by 13.5% and the 1980 total of 924,837 registrations by 23%. Total registrations in fall 1995 are also larger than any recorded by MLA Surveys carried out during the 1960s and 1970s. The languages included in table I can be ranked in order of total fall 1995 registrations as follows: Spanish; French; German; Japanese and Italian; Chinese, Latin, and Russian; Ancient Greek and Hebrew (Biblical and Modern); Portuguese; and Arabic. Languages whose registrations differ relatively little are grouped together, so that the list does not exaggerate small differences in numbers.

The percentage change figures in the right-hand column of table 1 indicate that registrations in specific languages moved in different directions during the 1990–95 period. Registrations in Russian, French, and German are noticeably lower in 1995 than they were in 1990, while registrations in Italian and Latin declined to a lesser extent. Largely unchanged are registrations in ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Japanese. After more than a decade of remarkable growth, enrollments in Japanese may have stabilized. Registrations in both Spanish and Portuguese increased modestly between 1990 and 1995, while Arabic and Chinese have substantially higher registrations in 1995 than they had in 1990. The large group of other, less commonly taught languages also shows substantially higher registrations in 1995 than in 1990. Increased registrations in four languages account for three-quarters of the net increase in this group: American Sign Language, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hawaiian. ²

Table 2 presents the data for fall 1995 broken down by level. The first column shows foreign language registrations in two-year colleges, while the remaining three show registrations in four-year institutions. The bottom row of the table indicates that enrollment declines during the 1990–95 period are confined to undergraduate language courses in four-year institutions. Registrations in graduate courses are 8% higher in 1995 than in 1990, while two-year college registrations, which account for one-fifth of the 1995 total, increased by 4%, reaching a new high. In contrast, registrations in undergraduate courses in four-year institutions are 6% lower in 1995 than they were in 1990. Registrations in only three languages ran counter to this downward trend: 1995 registrations in Chinese and Arabic are approximately 40% higher than they were in 1990, while those in Spanish are 10% higher. ³ At the graduate level, enrollment growth was more widespread, with registrations in five languages increasing by at least 25% between 1990 and 1995: Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. During the five-year period, graduate enrollments in Portuguese more than doubled and those in Japanese increased by 58%. Among two-year colleges, the overall growth in enrollments between 1990 and 1995 is due to a 22% increase in registrations in Spanish (from 133,823 to 163,217). If this increase is excluded, a decline of 22% is evident for the 1990–95 period, and only Chinese and Portuguese show any growth. ⁴ Registrations in Spanish accounted for 69% of all 1995 foreign language registrations in two-year colleges, compared with 50% of undergraduate registrations in four-year institutions and 28% of graduate registrations. In addition to being concentrated in Spanish, two-year foreign language registrations represent a smaller percentage of all enrollments than foreign language registrations in four-year colleges and universities. In 1990 and 1995; 4% of all students enrolled in two-year colleges were registered for foreign language classes compared with 10%–11% of all students enrolled in four-year institutions.

Trends in Language Registrations, 1960–95

Figure 1 shows trends through time in total foreign language registrations. Registrations grew strongly during the 1960s, declined during the 1970s, and rebounded during the 1980s. As a result, the two surveys undertaken during the 1990s show higher overall registrations than at any other time during the last 35 years. Despite rapid growth during the 1960s, foreign language registrations did not grow as strongly as total college enrollments during the latter part of the decade; therefore, the number of registrations in modern foreign languages per 100 college and university students declined. As foreign language registrations declined during the 1970s, the number of college students continued to grow, and the disparity in the two growth rates was exacerbated, as is evident from a comparison of the two indexes of growth presented in table 3 and the figures shown in the right-hand column of the table. Since 1977, as growth in the number of college students leveled off and foreign language registrations began to expand again, registrations in modern foreign languages per 100 college students have held fairly steady, ranging from 7.3 to 8.2.

Table 4 presents trends in registrations in the 10 most commonly taught modern foreign languages between 1960 and 1995. In addition to listing numbers enrolled, the table shows percentage-change figures for four periods: 1960–70, 1970–80, 1980–90, and 1990–95. Chinese and Japanese enjoyed the greatest and most consistent growth in enrollment during the 1960–95 period; between 1970 and 1995 registrations in Japanese increased nearly sevenfold, while those in Chinese are more than four times greater in 1995 than they were in 1970. Enrollments in Arabic have grown considerably as well, though the percentage-change figures for this language are inflated because of the small number of students enrolled in Arabic courses in 1960 and 1970. In addition to the three languages just mentioned, registrations in Italian and Portuguese grew fairly consistently throughout the 1960–95 period, with particularly sharp increases evident during the 1960s.

The percentage-change figures in table 4 suggest that growth in Spanish registrations was relatively modest compared to that for the Asian languages. This misleading impression is a consequence of the greater frequency with which students took Spanish courses in 1960; even then, it was the second most frequently taught language. Thus it is striking that enrollments in Spanish more than doubled between 1960 and 1970 and that they increased yet again by more than half during the intervening years. Figure 2 contrasts registrations through time in Spanish with those in all other modern foreign languages. Registrations in the latter are lower in 1995 than they were in 1968, despite a spurt of growth during the 1980s. Spanish registrations, in contrast, have increased consistently since 1960, showing particularly strong growth in the 1960s and late 1980s. As a result, registrations in Spanish have progressively accounted for an ever greater percentage of all registrations. Table 5 indicates that Spanish enrollments were 32% of all registrations in 1968 but are 53% in 1995. French and German combined accounted for the majority of all registrations in 1968 but account for only 27% in 1995, while Japanese and Chinese, despite their remarkable growth, together account for only 6% of all 1995 registrations.

Figure 3 shows trends through time in the number of registrations in the six modern foreign languages other than Spanish that were taught most commonly in 1995. The trends in French and German are similar: strong growth during the 1960s and equally strong decline during the 1970s. Registrations in both languages declined further during the first half of the 1990s. Registrations in Russian have been the most volatile, declining steeply during the 1970s and early 1990s, but growing strongly during the 1960s and particularly the 1980s. In contrast, registrations in Italian, Chinese, and Japanese grew consistently during the 1960—90 period; those in Japanese increased almost fourfold during the 1980s. During the first half of the 1990s, however, registrations have followed different courses in the three languages: growing in Chinese, leveling off in Japanese, and declining in Italian.

Less Commonly Taught Languages

During the early 1960s, the languages now designated “less commonly taught” were labeled “critical” or “strategic” by the MLA, the United States Office of Education, and other organizations. The line between commonly and less commonly taught languages is arbitrary, and previous MLA survey reports drew it below the seventh language listed in descending order of registrations. Until the 1986 survey, the 7 most commonly taught languages in United States colleges and universities were Latin, ancient Greek, and the 5 “leading” modern foreign languages—French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. In 1986, however, Japanese became the seventh most commonly taught language; in 1990 it was one of the six most commonly taught languages and in 1995 one of the five most commonly taught. The 1995 survey shows Chinese to be among the eight most commonly taught languages. To provide useful comparisons with past figures, tables 1, 2, and 5 present data for the 12 most commonly taught languages.

Taken together, the less commonly taught languages—that is, all languages other than the 12 named in tables 1, 2, and 5—have experienced considerable growth in recent years. In 1968, the total enrollment in these languages was 8,111, compared with 13,618 in 1972, 13,576 in 1986, 17,544 in 1990, and 24,918 in 1995. Thus, enrollments in these languages have increased threefold between 1968 and 1995 and grown by 84% since 1986. Table 6 lists the 124 languages not identified in other tables and provides enrollment data by level and type of institution (two-year or four-year). Of the 124 languages, 28 are indigenous to Europe, 30 to the Middle East or Africa, 41 to Asia or the Pacific, and 25 to North or South America.

The authors are Director of Special Projects and Director of Research for the Modern Language Association. Data were compiled and verified by the Project's research assistant, Judy Strassberg, with the assistance of Neil Balavram of the MLA Computer Center staff.

Notes

¹ The MLA asks registrars to provide enrollment figures for all language courses but has no way of ascertaining whether the information provided is complete.

² Registrations in American Sign Language increased from 1,602 in 1990 to 4,304 in 1995 and account for fully 37%, of the net gain in the other languages category. Only one language, other than the four listed above, had more than 1,000 registrations in 1995: Swahili had just over 1,200 registrants in 1990 and 1995. Of the languages with more than 1,000 registrations in 1990, only Swedish had lower registrations in 1995 (726).

³ In addition, four-year undergraduate registrations in the less commonly taught languages grew in the aggregate by 23% during the 1990–95 period.

⁴ Graduate registrations in all languages but Spanish grew by 3% between 1990 and 1995, while the equivalent undergraduate registrations in four-year institutions declined by 18%.

Figure 1:
Modern Foreign Language Registrations by Year

Figure 2:
Registrations in Spanish and All Other Modern Foreign Languages by Year

Figure 3:
Registrations in Six Commonly Taught Modern Foreign Languages in Selected Years

© 1997 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.

ADFL Bulletin 28, no. 2 (Winter 1997): 55-61

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