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The tables below provide a list of foreign languages most frequently taught in American schools and colleges. They reflect the popularity of these languages in terms of the total number of enrolled students in the United States . (Here, a foreign language means any language other than English , and includes American Sign Language.)
Lists
Below are the top foreign languages studied in public K-12 schools (i.e., primary and secondary schools). The tables correspond to the 18.5% (some 8.9 million) of all K-12 students in the U.S. (about 49 million) who take foreign-language classes.[ 1]
K-12
K-12 students (2007-2008)
Rank
Language
Enrollments
Percentage
1
Spanish
6,418,331
72.06%
2
French
1,254,243
14.08%
3
German
395,019
4.43%
4
Latin
205,158
2.30%
5
Japanese
72,845
0.82%
6
Italian
65,058
0.73%
7
Chinese
59,860
0.67%
8
American Sign Language
41,579
0.46%
Others[ 2]
255,825
2.87%
Total
8,907,201
100%
Colleges and universities
Below are the top foreign languages studied in American institutions of higher education (i.e., colleges and universities), based on fall 2013 enrollments.[ 3]
College & university students (2013)
Rank
Language
Enrollments
Percentage
1
Spanish
790,756
50.6%
2
French
197,757
12.7%
3
American Sign Language
109,577
7.0%
4
German
86,700
5.5%
5
Italian
71,285
4.6%
6
Japanese
66,740
4.3%
7
Chinese
61,055
3.9%
8
Arabic
32,286
2.1%
9
Latin
27,192
1.7%
10
Russian
21,962
1.4%
11
Greek, Ancient
12,917
0.8%
12
Hebrew, Biblical
12,551
0.8%
13
Portuguese
12,415
0.8%
14
Korean
12,229
0.8%
15
Hebrew, Modern
6,698
0.4%
Others
40,059
2.6%
Total
1,562,179
100%
List of top five most commonly learned languages by year
Grades K-12
Year
Languages
Source
1
%
2
%
3
%
4
%
5
%
2004-2005
Spanish
72.9
French
15.0
German
4.2
Latin
2.6
Japanese
0.7
[ 1]
2007-2008
Spanish
72.1
French
14.1
German
4.4
Latin
2.3
Japanese
0.8
[ 1]
Higher education
Year
Languages
Source
1
%
2
%
3
%
4
%
5
%
1960
French
37.9
Spanish
29.7
German
24.2
Russian
5.1
Italian
1.8
[ 3]
1968
French
34.4
Spanish
32.3
German
19.2
Russian
3.7
Latin
3.0
1980
Spanish
41.0
French
26.9
German
13.7
Italian
3.8
Latin
2.7
1990
Spanish
45.1
French
23.0
German
11.3
Italian
4.2
Japanese
3.9
1995
Spanish
53.2
French
18.0
German
8.5
Japanese
3.9
Italian
3.8
1998
Spanish
55.6
French
17.0
German
7.6
Italian
4.2
Japanese
3.7
2002
Spanish
53.4
French
14.5
German
6.5
Italian
4.6
American Sign
4.4
2006
Spanish
52.2
French
13.1
German
6.0
American Sign
5.1
Italian
5.0
2009
Spanish
51.4
French
12.9
German
5.7
American Sign
5.5
Italian
4.8
2013
Spanish
50.6
French
12.7
American Sign
7.0
German
5.5
Italian
4.6
See also
References
^ a b c "Foreign Language Enrollments in K–12 Public Schools" (PDF) . American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). February 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2015 .
^ "Others" includes (in order of quantity) Native languages, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hebrew, Polish, Swahili, Turkish.
^ a b Goldberg, David; Looney, Dennis; Lusin, Natalia (February 2015). "Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2013" (PDF) . Modern Language Association. Retrieved May 20, 2015 .
External links
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