FL

Foreign language

• Times article 

  • 25% speak english

    • 1.5 speakers worldwide

    • 1.1 mandarin

    • 600m hindi

    • 550m spanish

  • spanish successor

  • unis(uni of virginia cut Fl degrees, despite attempts of making their universities more global and claiming to prepare students for the real world.

  • Elite multilingualism -> wealthier individuals mastering multiple languages , often including english

  • korean growing in FL, others dropping in USA, Korean growing b/c of Kpop appeal

• Pew research article

  • european countries have national-level mandates for studying language in school

    • no standard like this in USA

    • most requirements set by state/district level

  • europe: 

    • studying first foreign language between age 6-9

    • studying FL for at least one year is compulsory in more than 20 euro countries

  • 92% of euro students learning language in school

    • study at least 1 foreign language in primary and secondary

    • 29 european nations , 24 have foreign language learning rate of at least 8-% , with 15 of those reaching 90% or more students enrolled in language courses

    • Luxembourg, malta, liechtenstein, - 100% reported learning a FL

    • most students learn at least 1 FL before completing secondary school

    • Belgium (64%) - learning another language , 

      • 90% belgian upper secondary school learning FL

      • 67% studying more than one 

    • portugal

      • 69% 

      • 90% of lower secondary school students are enrolled in 2 or more foreign language courses. 

    • 98% of students in netherlands are learning a foreign language by time they reach lower secondary (7th grade) 

      • 74% learning 2 or more languages

    • USA

      • 50 states

        • 20% of k-12 students enrolled in rl classes 

        • New jersey

          • 51% has most students learning a language

        • district of columbia 

          • 47% 

        • wisconsin 

          • 36% 

        • most states only have 25% participation

          • new mexico, arizona, arkansas only has 9% of students

        • spanish most popular language studied 

        • 10 states + DOC have foreign language graduation requirements that can be met either with foreign language classes or other non-language coursework

        • 16 states no graduation guideline for FL

        • 36% of Americans reported that knowing the flu was an important trait for workers to be successful in today's economy.

          • last out of 8 skills for workers.

• ELA

  • seal of biliteracy 

    • more likely to attend college and to enroll in a four - year university, according to recent research. 

    • seal of biliteracy is available in all 50 states and Washington DC and serves as a credential demonstrating a student's proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in two or more languages

  • earnings

    • Employers value multilingualism and reward employees. according to two research studies, multilingual individuals earn $2-3k more on average

      • ML allows employees to excel in their workplace by, for example, enabling them to communicate with more people, access a wider range of information, and create products that resonate with a large audience 

  • Employment opportunities

    • demand for bilingual employees is increasing

      • 2017 study found bilingual employment opportunities were concentrated in banking, healthcare, and telecommunications secrets. 

      • Over 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English,9 underscoring a need for multilingualism in the workforce. A few of the top occupations advertised for bilingual workers were customer service and sales representatives, retail salespersons, registered nurses, and financial services agents. Such languages as Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Korean were mentioned most often in job postings.

      • CAREER SPOTLIGHT: INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS Multilingual individuals can join the workforce as interpreters and translators, a career field that is projected to increase by 4% between 2022 and 2032 according to the HEALTHCARE Bureau of Labor Statistics.10,11,12 COMMUNICATION MEDIAN PAY: $57,090 in 2023—higher than the median wage for all workers EDUCATION: A bachelor’s degree NUMBER OF JOBS: Almost 69,000 interpreter/translator jobs in the country in 2022  

• USA rich in language

  • #  of people who spoke a language other than english at home tripled from 23.1 million (1 in 10) to 67.8 million (1 in 5) over 3 recent decades, according to census bureau

  • 350 and 430 languages are spoken in the US, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth, according to the nonprofit service translators without borders. Its figure is consistent with the Us census bureau's estimate of “more than 350 languages.” 

  • 78.4 % speaks only english at home, 21.6% of us households speak other language 

  • hispanics largest minority group

    • spanish most common non-english language 

    • 42 million people speak spanish at home

    • loanwords

      • part of the cultural history of english speakers that they always adopted loanwords from the languages of whatever cultures they have come in contact with.

    • The top five non-English languages  spoken in U.S. households also include Chinese (spoken by 3.49 million in U.S. homes, or 5.2% of such households); Tagalog (1.7 million, or 2.6%); Vietnamese (1.5 million, or 2.3%); and Arabic (1.2 million, or 1.9%).

• American Bilingualism: what the data tells us

• Main concepts: 

  • American bilingualism: surprising truth is that the US has high level of bilingualism 

    • us ranks in the middle of european nations in terms of bilingualism percentage byt surpass them in total number of bilinguals due to large population

• data + facts

  • bilingual population: 

    • 23% of americans are bilingual

  • Comparaison w/ euro countries

    • Sweden - 60%

    • France - 20% bilingual

    • US - 76 bilinguals , but only 23% is actually bilingual (large population)

  • total number of  bilinguals 

    • US has 3 times as many bilinguals as germany , 5 times as many as france

    • 76 million bilinguals in US , germany 25 million, france 13 million

  • Olympic analogy:

    • Size of a country's population determines its success in bilingualism as it determines the pool of bilinguals. US with large population, large amount of bilinguals

  • Primary languages

    • english-spanish bilinguals - ⅔ of bilingual population in US

    • tagalog, mandarin, vietnamese, cantones, korean

  • Super 7 languages

    • spoken by over 1 million speakers in US

      • Spanish 

      • French

      • German

      • Tagalog

      • Vietnamese

      • Mandarin

      • Cantones

      • Korean

  • Towering 35

    • 35 languages spoken by 100,00- 1 million in US

      • Portuguese, hindi, arabic, russian, italian, farsi, greek, hebrew, romania, dutch 

  • Carnegie Hall 93

    • 93 languages spoken by at least 3000 bilinguals in the US, including: 

      • native american languages

        • hawaiian, hopi, chippewa, 

      • Swahili, hungarian, swedish, icelandic

  • Historical and societal factors

    • Immigration & linguistic diversity

      • 1965 immigration and nationality act (hart-celler act) 

        • increased bilingualism by opening immigrants to more diverse range of people

        • Prior to 1960, immigrants were pressured to abandon their heritage languages in favor of english. post 1960 - there was a shift, due to changing attitudes toward bilingual, increased international job opportunities. 

  • immigration waves

    • first wave of immigration - mid-1800s w/ europeans arriving by sailing ships

    • second wave - 1875 and ww1

    • third wave - post 1965 , brought diverse immigrant populations from all over the world

• Economics and cultural impacts

  • Soft power by enabling US to build stronger relations globally

  • International diplomacy , business and cross-cultural communications

    • English is enough myth

    • english speakers dont need 2nd language misconception

      • limits opportunities

  • bilinguals in soft power

    • bilingual americans foster relations world-wide , operate in multiple language important

• Challenges & opportunities for US bilingualism

  • monolingual majority

    • 74% of americans monolingual 

  • france 20% bilingual 

  • sweden 60% bilingual 

  • 76 million bilinguals

• bilingual breakthrough - increased receptiveness to different perspectives that occurs when someone gains command of a second language 

• availability bias

  • rely on readily available memories - false perception that all europeans speak multiple languages

• analogy

  • bilinguals like nations average fitness level , number of bilinguals is pool from which top linguistic actors emerge

• monolingual population: 74%

• multilingualism in US

  • US has always been multilingual, even before euro

  • waves of immigration

  • early 20th century assimilation policies promoted english- only ideologies

  • language often lost within 3 generations of immigrant families

  • theodore roosevelt believes in one nation one language

  • favor of english

    • families not able to maintain native language , lack of support

  • english only movement 

  • transnational families and globalization increase motivation for bilingualism

  • dual language immersion schools and seal of biliteracy provide structure support

  • pattern of language loss is likely to persist

  • 20 percent speak 2 or more in US

  • chinese disappear faster

  • obama and biden admin, multilingualism as national priority