Stability, crisis, and other reasons for optimism

This article presents a brief overview of the state of university language education in the United States. Despite the impact of the world economic crisis on university language education in the United States, the profession has not yet been impacted to the extent many believe it has. Current scholarly debates allow for both a sober assessment of and an optimistic perspective on the field's trajectory in recent years. A brief summary is offered of recent enrollments in university courses in languages other than English, which shows that enrollments have indeed remained stable, though even these stable numbers point toward shortcomings in the place of language education in academia overall. The key points of the 2007 Modern Language Association Ad Hoc Committee Report, 'Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world', are then presented, along with some scholarly responses to it. The report, and especially the academic debate it sparked, point toward a period of transformation in university language education; an increased attention to crucial links between theory, curriculum, research, and pedagogical practice; and an encouraging mood of advocacy for language education that transcends the defensive response to program reductions and eliminations.

Modern Language Association, 2007

With the continuous support of grants from the Department of Education, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has since 1958 gathered and analyzed information on enrollments in languages other than English as reported to us by United States institutions of higher education. This latest and twentyfirst survey examines trends in enrollments for individual languages for fall 2006. The information gathered was added to our database from previous surveys, thus allowing for comparative studies and historical depth. In the fall 2006 survey, we instituted a new level of detail by asking for a breakdown of enrollments between first-and second-year classes and upper-level language courses to have a more realistic view of the possible competency levels of students in each language. Registrars, institutional research officers, and other school representatives were contacted to provide us with the enrollment data of their institution. Using procedures developed from our previous surveys, we solicited information by mail, by telephone, and electronically, asking for the number of enrollments in credit-bearing courses in languages other than English. Registrars were initially contacted in October 2006 and requested to complete the survey either on the Web site or on the survey card provided. We sent out three subsequent mailings, in November 2006, February 2007, and April 2007. From February until the end of July 2007, we called and e-mailed the remaining nonresponsive institutions. As a new procedure in the 2006 survey, we invited specialists in about fifteen languages and language groups to review our completed data. 1 In August, under the advice of these consultants, we contacted omitted programs, recontacted some institutions, and corrected data when necessary. The data collection process was closed on 22 August 2007. As in previous years, we have no way of knowing with certainty whether the information provided to us is accurate or complete. In view of the very high rate (99.8%) of return, however, minor discrepancies would not influence beyond an acceptable range the results of this survey. We contacted 2,851 United States postsecondary institutions using the MLA database of all institutions that teach languages (fig. A; all figures and tables appear at the end of this report). We supplemented the MLA list of institutions with data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), to make sure that all eligible (i.e., accredited, not-for-profit) institutions were accounted for. 2 Fifty institutions proved ineligible, reducing the total number of eligible institutions to 2,801. Of these 2,801 institutions, six did not return the survey. These six together enroll approximately 9,600 students, representing 0.05% of all students in United States institutions of higher education in 2006. In the end, the results presented in this report were collected from a total of 2,795 AA-, BA-, MA-, and PhD-granting colleges and

ADFL bulletin, 2004

THE " changed world " indicated in the title of the 2007 MLA report " Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World " marks a shifting affective reality for foreign language educators. Suddenly, with the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the ensuing United States military engagements, there was a heightened recognition at federal levels that the United States had a deficit, a crisis, in language and international expertise, especially in key critical languages needed desperately for defense. The authors of the report could not have anticipated that less than a year after its publication, the United States would be hit by another crisis—the recession in 2008. As state legislatures embraced a rhetoric of austerity and many universities followed suit, the need to validate our role in the enterprise of the university was felt keenly by those of us in the modern language and humanities departments across the country. This state of systemic crisis has become a defining narrative for foreign language, literature, and culture departments in the United States. The combined pressures of a language deficit and an economic crisis have created a narrative in which there is this phenomenon, a " language crisis, " which looms because of the potentially precarious positioning of American graduates in tomorrow's world, which is primarily shaped by defense initiatives and the global market. The logical conclusion drawn from these converging narratives of crisis is that foreign language departments must optimize their curricula so that they can provide access to the language and culture resources students will need in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible—or risk downsizing and closure. The morals of the crisis narrative align well with the " regimes of anticipation " that pervades postrecession university culture (Adams et al. 247); indeed, a wide range of laudable efforts and initiatives in foreign language education have been developed in response to these pressures. However, advocating for the study of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures from an affective position of perpetual crisis all too often results in what Berlant describes as " cruel optimism " : " a relation of attachment to compromised conditions of possibility " (21). The modes of prediction , optimization, and instrumentality preferred by regimes of anticipation differ importantly from the kinds of needs analysis and backward design familiar to those of us in language pedagogy because they are tethered to preordained interests and value sets—perceived immediate threats to national security, an imagined corporate world within which students will need to compete. Securing the best possible future risks becoming less about education in any transformative sense and more about checking off boxes and shoring up skill sets. Even more cruelly, arguments grounded in globalization and optimization more often than not lead to conclusions that

2018

In 1967, John Carroll produced a seminal research report that overviewed the proficiency levels of foreign languages majors at U.S. colleges and universities with the goal to capture and record the state of foreign language instruction in the United States at the university and college level. This chapter revisits the status of foreign language proficiency amongst majors with data from language majors from three large state universities. Data collected in areas of listening, speaking, and reading are compared with the data of Carroll. Fifty years later, a similar picture emerges with speaking and listening skills falling behind other skills. What is different, however, is the general picture of what it means to be a major, with the majority of students today declaring multiple majors as opposed to the single “language/literature” major of the past. A second area of investigation concerned the possible predictors of success amongst language majors. Heritage status, study abroad and i...

2018

This report is the first of two that will analyze the findings of the 2016 MLA language enrollment censuses. This preliminary report presents our findings in broad terms; the fine-grained analysis will follow in the full, second report. Between fall 2013 and fall 2016, enrollments in languages other than English fell 9.2% in colleges and universities in the United States; of the fifteen most commonly taught languages, only Japanese and Korean showed gains in enrollments (table 1). Methodology Beginning in October 2016, we contacted 2,669 postsecondary institutions in the United States, using the MLA database of institutions that offer languages other than English. We supplemented the MLA list of institutions with data from the National Center for Education Statistics and from the 2016 Higher Education Directory, to make sure that all accredited, nonprofit institutions were accounted for. Thirty institutions proved ineligible (this group includes institutions that merged, closed, or lost accreditation and branch campuses whose enrollment numbers were reported with those of the main campus), reducing the total number to 2,639. Over an eleven-month period, 2,547 AA-, BA-, MA-, and PhD-granting colleges and universities, or 96.5% of all eligible institutions, reported; 92 declined to participate. In addition, 20 institutions that held language courses in the summer only provided information about fall enrollments, making the summer 2016 response rate 95.8%. These response rates continue the high level of response that has been a goal of MLA language enrollment studies, allowing us to reaffirm that these numbers constitute censuses rather than surveys.2 Approximately one-third of the responses came from two-year colleges, and twothirds from four-year institutions. Of the 2,547 institutions that responded, 219 had

Maine Policy Review, 2019

The University of Maine Flagship Match program is designed to recruit students from neighboring states and offset enrollment declines. However, language faculty retrenchment at the university a decade ago, combined with the effective doubledegree programs with languages, STEM, and other subjects that other regional flagships offer and recent changes in New England's K-12 graduation options, makes it harder for UMaine to attract high-performing students. If the university wants to compete with others in New England and attract students who focus on global professional issues, it has an opportunity it cannot afford to miss. Adapting one of the language education models other universities have successfully implemented may be the way to move forward in the twenty-first century, making the University of Maine an important regional player. Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt (The limits of my language form the limits of my world)-Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Modern Language Journal, 1993

means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. end, AAUSC is pleased to present the first volume, Challenges for the1990s in College Foreign Language Programs. This volume presents papers in four key areas: 1) structure and articulation of language courses, 2) responsibilities of the language program director, 3) methodology courses and teaching assistant preparation, and 4) pedagogical materials. Seven articles are position papers; two are reports of innovative efforts at specific institutions; one is a research study; and the last is a comprehensive bibliography. Taken together, they represent the diverse interests of AAUSC, its members,

1999

There is no reference to language in either the American Declaration of Independence (1776) or the Constitution of the United States (1789). Hence by default the Constitution places responsibility for education in the hands of the individual states. There is, therefore, no federal policy on languages in education - the only exception being the 1990 Native American Languages Act, which states that it is the goal of the United States to preserve these languages. The United States education system is characterised by a high degree of local autonomy and decentralisation. Though there is a federal Department of Education, primary responsibility for education rests on the 'several states'. In just about every aspect of public administration there exists a long tradition of suspicion towards conceding power to the government in Washington. Indeed it is quite common to hear suggestions that the federal Department of Education be abolished, and a number of Republican candidates for P...