Continuance in College of High-School Foreign Language

Abstract

WHETHER a high-school course in foreign language is, in any fundamental sense, is questionable if relatively few of the pupils make use of their high-school work when they proceed to college. If the average college student does not continue the foreign-language course taken in high school, to what extent can the work be considered college beyond providing a ticket of admission to the university? The investigation reported in this article attempts to measure the extent to which high-school courses in foreign language are really preparatory as measured by the percentages of pupils who actually continue in college the foreign-language work taken in high school or who become college majors in the language which they began in high school. The data for this investigation were compiled from the students' high-school transcripts of record and their records of work at Stanford University as members of the class of 1930-34 (429 cases) or 1934-38 (668 cases). The findings are quantitative answers to questions proposed. What percentage of the pupils beginning a foreign language in high school continue the same language in college?-Of all the students included in this investigation who entered Stanford University with high-school credit in Latin, French, Spanish, or German, 27.1 per cent continued the language in college. In 1930, 32.1 per cent continued.