New MLA Language Survey shows Arabic up 127% and Chinese 51%

Interest in language study at American colleges and universities has increased broadly and significantly since 2002, according to a comprehensive new survey, Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2006, released today by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) and funded by the United States Department of Education. The survey found significant increases in enrollments in nearly all of the most popular languages studied on American college campuses. Language enrollments on United States campuses are at their highest since the 1960 MLA survey.

Interest in language study has been increasing steadily since 1998. While the study of the most popular languages, Spanish, French, and German, continues to grow and together represents more than 70% of language enrollments, their dominance is slowly decreasing in the face of growing interest in languages such as Arabic (up 127%), Chinese (up 51%), and Korean (up 37%). Enrollments in American Sign Language increased nearly 30% from 2002, making it the fourth most studied language on college campuses, slightly ahead of Italian.

The more than doubling of Arabic enrollments moved the Middle Eastern language onto the top 10 most studied list for the first time. The number of institutions of higher learning offering Arabic has nearly doubled since the last survey, from 264 in 2002 to 466 Arabic programs offered in 2006.

“This significant growth in language study, and the diversity of languages being studied, is very good news for education in the United States,” said Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the MLA. “Students increasingly see their futures taking place in a multilingual world, and they want language preparation to help them function in that world. Students recognize that having the ability to function across cultures and languages is an enormous advantage.”

The new MLA survey includes data from 2,795 colleges and universities measuring enrollments in the study of 219 languages other than English, from the most popular, including Spanish, French and German, to less commonly studied languages such as Navajo, Farsi, and Welsh.

If you are interested, see the full report: Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2006