List of most commonly learned second languages in the United States
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The tables below provide a list of second languages most frequently taught in American schools and colleges. They reflect the popularity of these languages in terms of the total number of enrolled students in the United States.
Lists
[edit]K-12
[edit]Below are the top second languages studied in public K-12 schools (i.e., primary and secondary schools). The tables correspond to the 18.5% (some 8.9 million) of all K-12 students in the U.S. (about 49 million) who take foreign-language classes.[1]
Rank | Language | Enrollments | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Spanish | 6,418,331 | 72.06% |
2 | French | 1,254,243 | 14.08% |
3 | German | 395,019 | 4.43% |
4 | Latin | 205,158 | 2.30% |
5 | Japanese | 72,845 | 0.82% |
6 | Chinese | 59,860 | 0.67% |
7 | Russian | 12,389 | 0.14% |
Others[2] | 489,356 | 5.49% | |
Total | 8,907,201 | 100% |
Colleges and universities
[edit]Below are the top foreign languages studied in American institutions of higher education (i.e., colleges and universities), based on the Modern Language Association's census of fall 2021 enrollments.[3]: 49
Rank | Language | Enrollments |
---|---|---|
1 | Spanish | 584,453 |
2 | French | 135,088 |
3 | American Sign Language | 107,899 |
4 | Japanese | 65,661 |
5 | German | 53,543 |
6 | Chinese | 46,492 |
7 | Italian | 45,182 |
8 | Arabic | 22,918 |
9 | Latin | 19,472 |
10 | Korean | 19,270 |
11 | Russian | 17,598 |
12 | Greek, Ancient | 11,433 |
13 | Hebrew, Biblical | 10,442 |
14 | Portuguese | 7,684 |
15 | Hebrew, Modern | 4,125 |
Less Commonly Taught Languages | 31,302 | |
Total | 1,182,562 |
List of top five most commonly learned languages by year
[edit]Grades K-12
[edit]Year | Languages | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | % | 2 | % | 3 | % | 4 | % | 5 | % | ||
2004–2005 | Spanish | 72.9 | French | 15.0 | German | 4.2 | Latin | 2.6 | Japanese | 0.7 | [1] |
2007–2008 | Spanish | 72.1 | French | 14.1 | German | 4.4 | Latin | 2.3 | Japanese | 0.8 | [1] |
Higher education
[edit]Year | Languages | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
1960 | French | Spanish | German | Russian | Italian | [4] | ||||
1968 | French | Spanish | German | Russian | Latin | |||||
1980 | Spanish | French | German | Italian | Latin | |||||
1990 | Spanish | French | German | Italian | Japanese | |||||
1995 | Spanish | French | German | Japanese | Italian | |||||
1998 | Spanish | French | German | Italian | Japanese | |||||
2002 | Spanish | French | German | Italian | American Sign | |||||
2006 | Spanish | French | German | American Sign | Italian | |||||
2009 | Spanish | French | German | American Sign | Italian | |||||
2013 | Spanish | French | American Sign | German | Italian | |||||
2016 | Spanish | French | American Sign | German | Japanese | |||||
2021 | Spanish | French | American Sign | Japanese | German |
See also
[edit]- Language education in the United States
- Less Commonly Taught Languages
- French language in the United States
- German language in the United States
- Italian language in the United States
- Spanish language in the United States
- World language
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Foreign Language Enrollments in K–12 Public Schools" (PDF). American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). February 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 17, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
- ^ "Others" includes (in order of quantity) Native American languages, Korean, Filipino, Arabic, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Turkish, Swahili and Hindi.
- ^ Modern Language Association (2023). "Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in US Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2021" (PDF). Modern Language Association. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
- ^ Looney, Dennis; Lusin, Natalia (February 2018). "Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Summer 2016 and Fall 2016 Preliminary Report" (PDF). Modern Language Association. Retrieved July 2, 2018.