The United States, heralded as a melting pot of cultures, is a largely monolingual nation. The US Department of Education (DOE) says that only 18% of US citizens can speak a language other than English at a conversational level. When compared to over 50% of Europeans who are proficient in at least two languages, according to surveys done by the European Commission, the US figure is embarrassing. An investigation into what the US is doing wrong is long overdue. To understand this unfortunate difference we need to look at our school system. Logically, it is there that most Americans should get the opportunity to learn a foreign language.
Foreign language instruction in our schools suffered a considerable decline in the first decade of the 21st century. According to the DOE’s own statistics, the percentage of middle schools offering foreign language classes dropped from 75% in 1997 to 58% in 2008. The chief agent of this decline was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which set ambitious goals for educational success. NCLB defined success in terms of students’ achievement on newly-created standardized tests. These standardized tests had high stakes, making school funding and teacher evaluation contingent on the students’ performance. Because these tests focused heavily on math and science, schools shifted their curricula in response, cutting offerings in the arts, athletics and, of course, foreign language.
Worse, NCLB did not affect all schools equally. Rural schools were more likely to experience harsh cuts and declines in the quality of education offered. Even before NCLB, schools in rural areas were barely half as likely to offer foreign language as their urban counterparts. Little wonder, then, that the US lags far behind Europe where over 50% of the population can speak at least two languages conversationally and mandatory foreign language instruction begins in primary school. This, however, is a far cry from a demand for compulsory foreign language education in the United States; it is easier than that. The option to take a foreign language in school must first be offered nation-wide.
The benefits of learning a second language far outweigh the negatives. From a cognitive standpoint, learning a foreign language at a young age enhances development and correlates to academic success. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), students who begin studying a second language in middle school or earlier are much more likely to become proficient than those who start in high school or later. Years of research by the ACTFL have demonstrated that learning more than one language makes students smarter overall by teaching them to think critically and creatively and to imagine worlds beyond their personal cultures, values and traditions. Language education helps students think across cultural bounds by teaching them to communicate and build relationships.
On a practical note, being multilingual in our increasingly globalized world is an asset. ACTFL studies have shown that multilingual people in the workforce are promoted at higher rates and considered assets to their companies. While the public school system does not exist solely to prepare students for the workforce, it is a part of its function—and one that it fails at with regard to language instruction.
Individuals who feel strongly about learning a foreign language do have options outside of school. There are numerous online and audio tools that allow for self-instruction, but this type of program is not ideal for every student nor is it as successful as a classroom experience that involves speaking, listening and reading comprehension exercises. Further, putting the onus on students to learn outside of school assumes that all students have both the means and time to do so, which is not a safe assumption. The public educational system needs to offer foreign language so students do not have to seek it out themselves. As it stands right now, the United States cannot legitimately claim to be an integral part of the global community if it educates students who are unable to imagine cultures beyond their own. Rather than declining, foreign language instruction should be on the rise in schools across the United States. Instruction needs to start now and with students as young as possible.