A Brief History of Foreign Language Learning in the United States

Abstract

The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, but relatively few Americans speak a foreign language. Only 25% of Americans feel capable of holding a conversation in another language, but without recent immigrants and their children, this number falls to about 10%. This language paradox can be partly explained by the melting pot metaphor used to describe American society for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where assimilation and integration into the dominant English-speaking culture occurred simultaneously, as children of new arrivals attended U.S. public schools. Prior to the widespread availability of global travel and communication, the distance between the U.S. and other parts of the world formed a physical barrier, and isolationism has been a political theme at times. Even today, relatively few Americans are passport-holders. In this context, it is not surprising that foreign languages are not a priority in American education.