Empowering Global Citizens

Linguistics (CAL) (Rhodes 8C Pufahl, 2009) found a 6 percent decline in
elementary schools and a 17 percent decline in middle schools offering
foreign languages between 1997 and 2008. While Spanish was the most
commonly taught language (in 88 percent of elementary schools and in 93
percent of secondary schools), the teaching of French, German, Japanese,
and Russian decreased during this period at both the elementary and sec—
ondary levels. About 4 percent of all elementary and secondary schools
offered the study of Chinese. There was a stark increase (14 percent) be—
tween 1997 and 2008 in the percentage of uncertified foreign—language
teachers at the elementary school level. This statistic is not alarming, giv—
en the recommendation to master languages such as Mandarin, Arabic,
Russian, and Korean, which are difficult for native English speakers to
learn (Longview Foundation, 2008).

Between 2005 and 2008, there was a 200 percent increase in the number of
schools teaching Chinese, and forty—four states now offer Chinese language
programs (Asia Society, 2008). The Longview Foundation (2008) points
out that there is virtually no pipeline of recent high school graduates who
have studied the less commonly taught languages such as Mandarin, Arabic,
Russian, Korean, and Hindi/ Urdu, which are increasingly important to the
strategic security and economic interests of the United States. While there
is a recognition that schools are expanding their foreign—language offer—
ings, the unilateral thrust to offer Chinese in classrooms is also driven by
the Chinese government’s initiative of sending Chinese teachers across the
world to teach about the country’s culture and language and paying part of
their salaries, thereby minimizing the expenditure incurred by schools in the
United States. (Dillon, 2010).

The Wyoming legislature passed a law requiring that k—8 students be given
the opportunity to study a foreign language and in 2004 channeled $5 mil—
lion into funding the development of a k—6 language program to be piloted
in fifty Wyoming elementary schools for five years (Asia Society, 2008). New
Jersey executed a four-year pilot program (2009—2013) to improve language

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