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The US has no national-level mandates for studying foreign language, and requirements are mostly set at the school-district and state level. According to a 2017 statistic, only 20% of American K-12 students are enrolled in a foreign language class. In contrast, most European countries have national-level mandates for formally studying languages in school. Across Europe, students typically begin studying their first foreign language as a required school subject between the ages of 6 and 9. Furthermore, studying a second foreign language for at least one year is compulsory in more than 20 European countries. Overall, a median of 92% of European students are learning a language in school. Check out the article to see the statistics--it really puts our monolingual nation to shame.

The writer discusses the benefits that one can gain from learning a foreign language in terms of money, and how even though the money gained is initially small, over time as those small earnings compound, the money gained from being bilingual can add up to about $100,000, depending on the language. He also discusses the benefits of investing more in foreign language so that countries can get more return and cut down on losses associated with not having enough language diversity within their native populations.

Learning a foreign language has many more benefits than you would think. This article highlights many of the cognitive benefits associated with learning a foreign language.

This article gives a rundown on 7 cognitive advantages of bilingualism: 1. You become smarter: speaking a foreign language improves the functionality of your brain by challenging it to recognise, negotiate meaning, and communicate in different language systems. 2. You build multitasking skills. 3. You stave off Alzheimer's and dementia. 4. Your memory improves. 5. You become more perceptive. 6. Your decision-making skills improve. 7. You improve your first language (L1)

In 2010, then CIA Director, Leon Panetta, urged renewed focus on the critical need for Americans to master foreign languages at a national summit that brought together policymakers, members of Congress, Intelligence Community officials, and leading language educators from across the country. "For the United States to get to where it needs to be will require a national commitment to strengthening America's foreign language proficiency," Director Panetta said. "A significant cultural change needs to occur. And that requires a transformation in attitude from everyone involved: individuals, government, schools and universities, and the private sector." He urged schools and universities to reach beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic to "the fourth R": the reality of the world we live in. Language skills are vital to success in an interconnected world, he said, and they are fundamental to US competitiveness and security.

This article talks about L2 acquisition in schools throughout the United States and how more schools are starting to offer foreign language classes to students. It talks about why it's important and beneficial to learn a foreign language.

The correlation of foreign accents with "bad" characters could have concerning implications for the way kids are being taught to engage with diversity in the United States. The most wicked foreign accent of all was British English, according to the study. From Scar to Aladdin's Jafar, the study found that British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains. German and Slavic accents are also common for villain voices. Henchmen or assistants to villains often spoke in dialects associated with low socioeconomic status, including working-class Eastern European dialects or regional American dialects such as "Italian-American gangster" (like when Claude in Captain Planet says 'tuh-raining' instead of 'training.') None of the villains in the sample studied seemed to speak Standard American English; when they did speak with an American accent, it was always in regional dialects associated with low socioeconomic status.

Recent History of Our Struggle to Make Foreign Languages Core Foreign language study is in the national education Goals 2000, which states: "By the year 2000 all American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign language, civics and government, arts, history, and geography..."

A connection has been found between students who study foreign language and higher SAT scores. For each additional year that students study a foreign language, they are expected to perform better on both the math and language portions of the SAT. Although the SAT is not a direct measure of intelligence by any means, this gives evidence to support that studying a foreign language helps develop both math and English language skills. I would be interested in seeing how foreign language study affects IQ Test scores.

A CEO of a company that runs about 32 charter schools around New York is cutting foreign language from the curriculum because "Americans don't learn foreign languages well".

Eva Moskowitz is the CEO and founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, responsible for about 9,000 students in 32 charter schools around New York City. Moskowitz sat down for an interview with the American Enterprise Institute this week, and talked about how to fit everything she deems important for students-coding, recess, science five days a week-into...

Answer by David Bailey, CEO of Spotnight, on Quora. I've learned several foreign languages as an adult. I was able to learn French to conversation fluency in 17 days using the following techniques. Note that I had previously learned Spanish to fluency so this was not my first foreign language.

It's often said that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Given the fact that many of the words we use in English stem from Latin and Ancient Greek words - in common with many other European languages - what is it about English that has attracted this reputation for being so fearsomely difficult?

Learning a foreign language is hard. Learning English as a foreign language is also very hard. Words in the English language that we speak, say and write without question might not make sense to foreigners because of the many "exceptions" that comes with the English language. This article discusses what makes English so challenging for foreigners to learn. In particular, it gives examples of pronunciation and spelling, emphasis, homophones, synonyms, idioms, and dialects.

This article started off talking about research that was done on people lying in a foreign languages and their own native language. There were two contradicting theories found, but when an experiment was conducted, it was found that lying is easier in a foreign language. This was due to the theory that a foreign language is less emotionally arousing, therefore making it a little easier to tell a lie.

A movement by parents and lawmakers to get computer coding classes to count toward foreign language credits in school. Supporters say that it will expose students to coding and will provide them with a valuable skill in the workplace.

A movement by parents and lawmakers to get computer coding classes to count toward foreign language credits in school hit a snag this month - but advocates aren't giving up. Sen.

Scientists from the Higher School of Economics (HSE) together with colleagues from the University of Helsinki have discovered that learning foreign languages enhances the our brain's elasticity and its ability to code information. The more foreign languages we learn, the more effectively our brain reacts and processes the data accumulated in the course of learning.

Columbia University linguist John McWhorter opines on the impact AI translation might have on second language learning. We already know that Americans and UK folx are the most monolingual populations in the world; fewer than one in 100 American students currently become proficient in a language they learned in school. McWhorter argues that AI might offer utilitarian practicality for casual users, e.g. translating useful phrases on the fly while traveling: "With an iPhone handy and an appropriate app downloaded, foreign languages will no longer present most people with the barrier or challenge they once did." Yet McWhorter also says, "I don't think these tools will ever render learning foreign languages completely obsolete. Real conversation in the flowing nuances of casual speech cannot be rendered by a program, at least not in a way that would convey full humanity." He also suggests that genuinely acquiring a language will still beckon a few select people, e.g. those relocating to a new country, those who'd like to engage with literature or media in the original language, as well as those of us who find pleasure in mastering these new codes: that language learning will become "an artisanal pursuit" of sorts.

Generalized benefits of learning a foreign language.

It is an honor to be here at the University of Maryland which has worked closely with the Department of Education for more than 20 years to advance the teaching of languages such as Hebrew, Farsi, Chinese, and Russian. As President Obama said on Monday: "Our generation's Sputnik moment is now."