The head of a national foreign language advocacy organization fears K-12 instruction in French, Spanish, and other tongues is on the endangered list as districts across the country make room for new requirements like computer science, financial literacy, and career and technical education.
Amanda Seewald, executive director of the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), called the situation a “crisis” considering U.S. immigration levels, multinational business growth that impacts the American workforce, and diplomacy needs in the Middle East and Asia. She will speak on the topic at a July 30 congressional briefing in Washington.
“Foreign languages are too often pushed to the side as a ‘special’ or an elective,” Ms. Seewald said in an interview with The Epoch Times on July 26.
“Our government and nation as a whole need to understand what’s at stake here.”
Two federal lawmakers who introduced legislation supporting public school foreign language instruction—Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.)—will also speak at the briefing.
In Michigan, a 2020 state law cuts the foreign language graduation requirement in half, allowing students to substitute a CTE or arts (performing or visual) for the second year of foreign language instruction. In Oklahoma, ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year, foreign language instruction was removed as a public school requirement, according to the updated graduation requirements bill signed into law on May 15. And at West Virginia University, administrators last year eliminated degree programs in the world languages department to close a budget gap.
“When that happens at a university,” Ms. Seewald said, “it has a horrible downward trend.”
K-12 foreign language curriculums vary across the country, with some states allowing local districts to decide if instruction should be required and for how many years. Many schools can’t afford more than one foreign language teacher, so Spanish is often the only option. There’s a national shortage of language teachers at a time where there is also a growing need for instruction in Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, and the Slavic languages of Eastern Europe, Ms. Seewald said.
Another problem is the lack of proficiency. States or districts may require a minimum amount of immersive foreign language instruction where English can’t be used for a particular portion of the class period. But those requirements are rarely enforced, especially if administrators who expected to observe classes periodically are not multi-lingual, Ms. Seewald said.
“Immersion should be the standard,” she said, “but that can’t happen without support from administrators.”
Ms. Seewald acknowledged that millions of U.S. students completed multiple years of a required foreign language without ever reaching a level anywhere near fluency and never tried to speak it again after high school graduation. And yet, those same students probably also met a foreign exchange student who was fluent in two or three languages as a teenager.
“It’s a much more divisive element in the United States,” she said, adding that this country could at least make slow progress in foreign language education if states pushed immersion and looked to more rigorous dual language programs in Utah, Delaware, and the city of Portland as examples.
Students could have access to a longer list of foreign languages if districts shared the costs of hosting online classes, said Ms. Seewald, who is fluent in four languages. The high school she attended in New Jersey taught Spanish but did not offer French or Japanese, so she took it upon herself to learn French at a community college after school and take an evening class in Japanese at Rutgers University. She doesn’t think kids with a hunger for learning other tongues should have to make the same sacrifice.
Two pieces of legislation that will be discussed by federal lawmakers in the fall would fund foreign language teacher training programs, Ms. Seewald said. Previously funded foreign language programs, including one administered by the U.S. Department of Defense that assisted public schools near military bases, “showed incredible achievements.”
As challenging as it is to preserve existing public school offerings and mandates across the country, Ms. Seewald said there is also a need to introduce foreign languages at a much younger age, which is common overseas. She cited research that proves pre-pubescent students have an easier time learning a new language and said a more recent study indicates that knowledge and use of multiple languages fend off Alzheimer’s.
Ms. Seewald said the future of foreign language instruction in public schools is a bipartisan topic that should be widely discussed in the coming legislative session.
“We have to reverse the narrative. It’s not about memorization anymore,” she said. “There’s more focus on interpersonal communication, content, world perspective, and how to use it to make an impact.”
