Current trends and issues in second language education are summarized to provide background data for discussion in these areas: language use patterns in Canada and in the world; language education in Canada, with a focus on Alberta's situation (federal and provincial roles in multicultural education and second language study throughout Canada, and language enrollments and program designs in Alberta); international perspectives on language education, in particular in Europe, the United States, and Australia; languages and economic development in Alberta; post-secondary level language programming and enrollment in Alberta; availability of and research on technology-assisted language learning; and research on language acquisition, particularly learning processes, subject matter instruction in a second language, age of acquisition, and time required to develop proficiency. Contains 100 references. (MSE)