Dive Brief:
- The United States has moved away from a commitment to foreign language education, in part because of accountability systems focused exclusively on math and reading test scores, but research shows bilingualism improves students’ brains and it could help the U.S. internationally.
- Quartz reports foreign language classes were introduced to elementary schools in the 1960s as a way to make U.S. students globally competitive, and while there are more dual language immersion programs now than there were decades ago, they often serve just a single classroom in a school.
- U.S. graduates lag far behind their European counterparts when it comes to second language acquisition, and a Michigan State University survey of hiring trends showed an 11% increase in companies’ interest in hiring foreign-language majors from 2014 to 2015.
Dive Insight:
Congress created the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs during the Jimmy Carter administration, creating a federal emphasis on serving students who do not speak English fluently. The George W. Bush administrated converted the office to the Office of English Language Acquisition with passage of the No Child Left Behind law, creating clear new expectations for students learning English — they should leave their own language behind. In high school, though, these same students, along with their native English-speaking peers, are encouraged to take a foreign language.
Some school districts are recognizing the disconnect in these two strategies and shifting their programs for students whose first language is not English. Elgin Area School District U-46 in Illinois gained a national reputation for its Spanish-English dual language education program after scaling it to 29 elementary schools in the 2011-12 school year, offering Spanish-speaking students a chance to become bilingual and biliterate by middle school instead of losing their first language in traditional ESL classes.