Foreign Languages in the usa: A National Survey of American Attitudes and Experience

Abstract

speak any language but English, half of them wish they could. The survey also reports that three-quarters of all Americans believe languages should be taught in elementary school, though seventy percent of them never had the opportunity to study a language in school. The Michigan Survey Research Center conducted a telephone poll of a nationally representative sample of 962 respondents to discover the attitudes and experience of Americans with regard to the study of foreign languages. The study was ordered by the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, with funding from the u.s. Office of Education, the Ford Motor Company, the Hewlett Foundation, the Joint National Committee for Languages, and the Modern Language Association of America. The survey gathered information in five areas: the language spoken in the home during childhood; the experience of Americans in learning foreign languages; the current use of foreign languages by Americans; their attitudes toward the worth of foreign language knowledge; and opinions about foreign language requirements at all levels of education. The survey indicated that, for nine out of ten Americans, English was the language of the home during childhood. Only two percent reported growing up in a home where English and another language were spoken equally. Of this group, slightly more than half spoke Spanish and English in their childhood home. Other languages mentioned were Polish, German, Italian, Czech, and Dutch. The predominant use of a language other than English was found in four percent of American homes, with Spanish the language most frequently cited. Other languages used exclusively at home and included in this low percentage were Italian, German, Czech, French, Norwegian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and American Indian. Of the 962 in the sample, 384 (forty percent) claimed to be familiar with one or more languages other than English, yet only 289 (thirty percent) studied a foreign language in school. Familiarity with Spanish is claimed by the greatest percentage of those with any claim to foreign language knowledge, with French and German next in order of famil-