Foreign language courses boom in US
Foreign language courses are booming on American college campuses, a new study finds, with enrolment in Arabic more than doubling from 2002 to 2006.
By Agencies |
BOSTON: Foreign language courses are booming on American college campuses, a new study finds, with enrolment in Arabic more than doubling from 2002 to 2006.
The latest figures from the Modern Language Association of America, released Tuesday, reflect a major push toward internationalisation on college campuses, more government support for language study and simply more interest from students. Over four years, total enrolment in language courses has grown 12.9%.
Spanish remains the most popular subject, with more than 823,000 students enrolled - up 10.3% since 2002 and nearly four times higher than No 2 French. But Arabic is the fastest-growing major language, breaking the top 10 for the first time with just under 24,000 enrolments, compared to about 10,600 in 2002. The number of institutions offering Arabic has nearly doubled to 466, including both two-and four-year colleges.
Between 2002 and 2006, Arabic enrolment jumped from 222 to 482 at Georgetown University, from 37 to 156 at Boston College and from 65 to 184 at Arizona State.
Enrolments in languages such as Russian and Arabic have traditionally spiked with world events, but Karin Ryding of the MLA and a professor of Arabic at Georgetown said she thinks these increases will stick.
“Young people today understand that the world is truly and inevitably smaller, and they’re coming to the study of Arabic with serious, professional goals in mind,” she said.
More traditional languages, while growing at slower rates, have held their own. Overall, foreign language enrolment (excluding Latin and ancient Greek) stands at about 1.5 million, or about two-and-a-half times higher than in 1960.
Besides growing interest in global affairs, the MLA and other experts point to several factors. Many schools have reinstated language requirements after dropping them during the 1960s and ‘70s. More students are also arriving with a head start from high school.
Emily Pollokoff, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, is typical of the new generation of language learners. The second-year student from Chicago is in her first year of Arabic and second year of Hindi, and plans to start Sanskrit next year. “My interest in language comes from just wanting to understand people better,” she said. “There are so many ways to connect with people - music, food, smiling. But language being a specifically human phenomenon makes so much possible.”
Pollokoff said her Hindi class is full. Some students have Indian or Arab heritage and want to connect with their own cultures and families. Others have no ethnic tie but are studying subjects ranging from business to politics to environmental studies and believe they’ll need language skills to succeed.
Colleges are offering more kinds of instruction. Dan Bayer, executive director of the language centre at the University of Southern California, said that after introductory courses students there used to have few options besides literature courses.
The latest figures from the Modern Language Association of America, released Tuesday, reflect a major push toward internationalisation on college campuses, more government support for language study and simply more interest from students. Over four years, total enrolment in language courses has grown 12.9%.
Spanish remains the most popular subject, with more than 823,000 students enrolled - up 10.3% since 2002 and nearly four times higher than No 2 French. But Arabic is the fastest-growing major language, breaking the top 10 for the first time with just under 24,000 enrolments, compared to about 10,600 in 2002. The number of institutions offering Arabic has nearly doubled to 466, including both two-and four-year colleges.
Between 2002 and 2006, Arabic enrolment jumped from 222 to 482 at Georgetown University, from 37 to 156 at Boston College and from 65 to 184 at Arizona State.
Enrolments in languages such as Russian and Arabic have traditionally spiked with world events, but Karin Ryding of the MLA and a professor of Arabic at Georgetown said she thinks these increases will stick.
“Young people today understand that the world is truly and inevitably smaller, and they’re coming to the study of Arabic with serious, professional goals in mind,” she said.
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More than 200 less-common languages - everything from Nepali to Macedonian to Native American languages like Crow and Blackfeet - are now taught on college campuses. Enrolment in those courses is up one-third in the four years that the MLA studied.More traditional languages, while growing at slower rates, have held their own. Overall, foreign language enrolment (excluding Latin and ancient Greek) stands at about 1.5 million, or about two-and-a-half times higher than in 1960.
Besides growing interest in global affairs, the MLA and other experts point to several factors. Many schools have reinstated language requirements after dropping them during the 1960s and ‘70s. More students are also arriving with a head start from high school.
Emily Pollokoff, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, is typical of the new generation of language learners. The second-year student from Chicago is in her first year of Arabic and second year of Hindi, and plans to start Sanskrit next year. “My interest in language comes from just wanting to understand people better,” she said. “There are so many ways to connect with people - music, food, smiling. But language being a specifically human phenomenon makes so much possible.”
Pollokoff said her Hindi class is full. Some students have Indian or Arab heritage and want to connect with their own cultures and families. Others have no ethnic tie but are studying subjects ranging from business to politics to environmental studies and believe they’ll need language skills to succeed.
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Colleges are offering more kinds of instruction. Dan Bayer, executive director of the language centre at the University of Southern California, said that after introductory courses students there used to have few options besides literature courses.
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