The Empirical Evidence of Foreign Language Study

Abstract

This article examines national transcript samples that were set up at different times with different samples and different rules. College transcript samples covering the period 1972-86 show a flat participation rate in foreign language study but increases occurred among business majors and at nonselective institutions. Trends across five high school transcript samples (from 1969 to 1990), on the other hand, leave too much to speculation. Data from the 1991 National Household Education Survey are used to conclude that foreign language study in adulthood is largely a matter of personal interest, not economic interest, and that participation rates are very low. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 allow us to examine the long-term relationships between foreign language study and adult life. Findings indicate that those who studied foreign language in college were more likely to be working in human service occupations at age 32 or 33 than those who studied no foreign language and that, in terms of earnings and unemployment, the benefits of foreign language study are negligible.

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References

1. See, for example, Allen H. Kassof , Report of the Task Force on National Manpower Targets for Advanced Research on Foreign Areas (New York: National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies, 1981).

2. Richard Lambert , “Report of the South Asia Panel,” in Report of the Task Force, by Kassof , p. 182.

3. Robert L. Morgan, E. Stephen Hunt , and Judith M. Carpenter , Classification of Instructional Programs (Washington, DC: Department of Education, 1991).

4. Clifford Adelman , A College Course Map: Taxonomy and Transcript Data (Washington, DC: Department of Education, 1990).

5. Peter Stowe , Estimates of 1985-86 Bachelor's Degree Recipients' Course-Taking Behavior (Washington, DC: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993). I am grateful to Samuel Barbett of the National Center for Education Statistics for running data on participation in foreign language education by gender and race/ethnicity that were not included in the Stowe report.

6. Laurie L. Lewis and Elizabeth Farris , Undergraduate Course Offerings and Enrollments in Humanities (Rockville, MD: Westat, Inc., 1990), p. A-18.

7. Of the original sample of 22,652 high school seniors in the NLS-72, we know for sure —via transcripts—that 5127 received bachelor's degrees by 1984. These degrees were awarded by 910 institutions. Using cell-weighting descriptions from the University of California at Los Angeles's Cooperative Institutional Research Project's annual reports for the years 1976-79, selectivity could be determined for 904 of these schools.

and (5) Stanley Legum et al. , The 1990 High School Transcript Study Tabulations: Comparative Data on Credits Earned and Demographics for 1990, 1987, and 1982 High School Graduates (Washington, DC: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993).

9. Patricia Dandonoli , “Report on Foreign Language Enrollment in Public Secondary Schools, Fall 1985,” Foreign Language Annals, 20(5):457-470 (Oct. 1987).

10.

10. For black students, the effects of foreign language study in secondary school in terms of postsecondary attendance and bachelor's degree completion is stunning. Among those in the NLS-72 who took three or more years of foreign language in high school, 49 percent both went to college and earned bachelor's degrees. For all other black students, the rate was 13 percent.

11.

11. Charles J. Anderson , International Studies for Undergraduates, 1987: Operations and Opinions (Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 1988), pp. 16-17.

12.

12. Clifford Adelman , Tourists in Our Own Land: Cultural Literacies and the College Curriculum (Washington, DC: Department of Education, 1992), p. 19.

13.

13. Ibid., p. 42.

14.

14. Clifford Adelman , Women at Thirty-something: Paradoxes of Attainment (Washington, DC: Department of Education, 1991), pp. 14, 15, 25.

15.

15. Richard Lambert , International Studies and the Undergraduate (Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 1989).

16.

16. Elizabeth G. Joiner , The Older Foreign Language Learner (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1981).

17.

17. Adelman , Women at Thirtysomething, p. 62.