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Study says language enrollment hits record high

STANFORD, Calif. - In an era of increasing global consciousness, multinational companies and technological diffusion, college students studying a second or even a third language are no longer just International Relations majors.

Pre-med, engineering, anthropology and art history students often study a second language related to their field of expertise, Stanford University Language Center Director Elizabeth Bernhardt said.

Bernhardt cited as examples the trend of many engineering students pursuing Japanese, anthropology students studying Spanish and art students learning Italian.

"It's a general recognition of how important an international perspective is," Bernhardt said.

"Another tool that students have is a foreign language."

A Modern Language Association report released in The Chronicle of Higher Education last week said that enrollment in foreign language courses in two- and four-year institutions in the United States is at a record high, having increased 4.8 percent since 1995.

"These new numbers are good news for those of us who believe in the value of language study," Executive Director of the MLA Phyllis Franklin told the Chronicle. "In addition to giving students a practical advantage in a global economy, language study provides an inside look at other cultures."

The new figures reverse findings from the most recent survey conducted in 1995, concluding that language enrollment had actually declined by 3.8 percent in the previous five years.

According to the report, Spanish, which attracts 656,590 students, continues to claim three times as many students as the next most popular language, French.

With an increase of 8.3 percent since the 1995 survey, Spanish accounts for 55 percent of all students studying foreign languages, the report said.

Bernhardt said that Stanford mirrors this national trend.

"We have experienced a 20-percent increase in the number of students enrolled in first-year languages and also a 20-percent increase in second-year enrollment [this year]," Bernhardt said.

Because the university requires all undergraduates to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language equivalent to one year of instruction, the increase in the number of students studying second-year languages was more significant, she said.

"I interpret the figures as Stanford students committed to the language that they know," Bernhardt said.

But some languages not traditionally taught in high schools are also on the rise.

The MLA survey said enrollment in Arabic and Korean has increased 23.9 percent and 34 percent, respectively. American Sign Language has experienced the biggest growth at 165 percent from 4,304 students in 1995 to 11,420 last year.

Bernhard said Stanford's ASL program has become more popular.

"We've always had a popular ASL program," she said. "It has experienced increases, just like Slavic languages has."

Berhardt said the Language Center has been offering language classes with a more practical component.

"We offer a Spanish conversation course that is linked to the feminist program so that students are more familiar with the issues in their courses," she said.

Students can also take Portuguese, Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese courses with a focus on business.

"We have a much more sophisticated curriculum and a much more sophisticated set of offerings," Bernhardt said.