Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2002

Abstract

In September 2003 the MLA finished compiling the figures from its fall 2002 survey of foreign language enrollments in United States institutions of higher education. This latest survey is the twentieth in a series con ducted since 1958 with the support of grants from the United States De partment of Education (or from its predecessor, the United States Office of Education). The following report presents fall 2002 enrollments for indi vidual languages and examines trends through time. Using procedures developed for previous surveys, the MLA sent a questionnaire to the registrars of 2,781 twoand four-year institutions, soliciting information on credit-bearing enrollments for fall 2002 in all language courses other than English. Although the instructions on the questionnaire made it clear that the survey was seeking information on all language courses offered on the campuses of these institutions, the MLA has no way of knowing whether the registrars in all cases provided com plete information. The questionnaire was not mailed until mid-October 2002, to ensure that the figures provided would be final (or nearly so) rather than preliminary. A second mailing was sent in early December, a third in mid-February 2003, and a series of follow-up telephone calls was begun in April.