This report describes lower- and upper-level undergraduate and graduate course enrollments in languages other than English in summer and fall 2016 reported by 2,547 AA-, BA-, MA-, and PhD-granting colleges and universities in the United States. Between fall 2013 and fall 2016, enrollments in languages other than English fell 9.2% in colleges and…

Focusing on five initially committed learners of Chinese who decide to quit the language during their college freshman year, this study is a critique of the institutional structure that disengages foreign language education in American postsecondary schools. The findings reveal three structural issues that may contribute to the declining…

This paper considers the languages on offer in secondary schools in England and the possibility of enacting curriculum change with a view to reducing the dominance of French, Spanish and, to a lesser extent, German as a possible way to increase take-up of modern foreign languages post-14. Questionnaires were completed by 666 students aged 14-15,…

While there are many difficulties faced by world language educators, both teachers and students of certain languages--languages commonly identified with countries and cultures deemed to be hostile to the United States--often find themselves in uniquely paradoxical situations. This article begins with a brief anecdotal description of the personal…

The teaching of Chinese in Australian primary and secondary schools has a history of more than 40 years, but it has only been in the past two decades that it has become widespread. Nonetheless, until the last year, of the six most taught languages in schools, Chinese has had by far the smallest number of students. Several factors contribute to…

Chinese teaching arose in the United States in the 1870s, which was relatively early compared to other regions, but due to issues of politics and funding it was perennially marginalized. Chinese teaching in the United States did not see development until the early 1960s, when it began receiving funding from the U.S. government. Owing to the global…

Total enrollments (undergraduate and graduate) in languages other than English dropped by 9.2% between fall 2013 and fall 2016, as reported in the Modern Language Association's twenty-fifth language enrollment census. Despite the overall drop, there were gains in nearly half of all language programs (45.5%) that mitigate somewhat the downward…