Enrollment in foreign language courses compared with enrollmentin grades 9 to 12 of public secondary schools: Fall 1948 to fall 1990

Table 56.

[In thousands]

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |     Percentage change
                                    |   Fall | Fall | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  |      in enrollment
              Language              |   1948 | 1960 | 1965  | 1968  | 1970  | 1974  | 1976  | 1978  | 1982  | 1985  | 1990  |_________________________
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |1976 to 1985|1985 to 1990
____________________________________|________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____________|____________
                 1                  |    2   |  3   |   4   |   5   |   6   |   7   |   8   |   9   |  10   |  11   |  12   |     13     |     14
____________________________________|________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____________|____________
  Total enrollment, grades 9 to 12 .|1/5,602 |8,589 |11,610 |12,718 |13,336 |14,103 |14,314 |14,088 |12,405 |12,388 |11,338 |      -13.5 |       -8.5
                                    |________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____________|____________
      All foreign languages2/       |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|  1,170 |2,522 | 3,659 | 3,890 | 3,779 | 3,295 | 3,174 | 3,200 | 2,910 | 4,029 | 4,257 |       26.9 |        5.7
Percent of all students ............|   20.9 | 29.4 |  31.5 |  30.6 |  28.3 |  23.3 |  22.2 |  22.7 |  23.3 |  32.2 |  37.5 |        --- |        ---
                                    |========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|============|============
      Modern foreign languages      |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    741 |1,867 | 3,068 | 3,518 | 3,514 | 3,127 | 3,023 | 3,048 | 2,740 | 3,852 | 4,093 |       27.4 |        6.3
Percent of all students ............|   13.2 | 21.7 |  26.4 |  27.7 |  26.4 |  22.1 |  21.1 |  21.6 |  21.9 |  31.1 |  36.1 |        --- |        ---
                                    |________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____________|____________
              Spanish               |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    443 |  933 | 1,427 | 1,698 | 1,811 | 1,678 | 1,717 | 1,631 | 1,563 | 2,334 | 2,611 |       35.9 |       11.9
Percent of all students ............|    7.9 | 10.9 |  12.3 |  13.4 |  13.6 |  11.9 |  12.0 |  11.6 |  12.5 |  18.8 |  23.0 |        --- |        ---
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
               French               |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    254 |  744 | 1,251 | 1,328 | 1,231 |   978 |   888 |   856 |   858 | 1,134 | 1,089 |       27.7 |       -3.9
Percent of all students ............|    4.5 |  8.7 |  10.8 |  10.4 |   9.2 |   6.9 |   6.2 |   6.1 |   6.9 |   9.2 |   9.6 |        --- |        ---
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
               German               |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|     43 |  151 |   328 |   423 |   411 |   393 |   353 |   331 |   267 |   312 |   295 |      -11.5 |       -5.3
Percent of all students ............|    0.8 |  1.8 |   2.8 |   3.3 |   3.1 |   2.8 |   2.5 |   2.3 |   2.1 |   2.5 |   2.6 |        --- |        ---
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
              Russian               |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    --- |   10 |    27 |    24 |    20 |    15 |    11 |     9 |     6 |     6 |    16 |      -46.7 |      174.9
Percent of all students ............|    --- |  0.1 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |  (3/) |  (3/) |   0.1 |        --- |        ---
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
              Italian               |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    --- |   20 |    25 |    27 |    27 |    40 |    46 |    46 |    44 |    47 |    40 |        3.1 |      -14.0
Percent of all students ............|    --- |  0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.3 |   0.3 |   0.3 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.4 |        --- |        ---
                                    |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
  Other modern foreign languages4/  |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|      1 |    9 |     9 |    18 |    15 |    23 |     9 |   176 |     3 |    18 |    40 |        --- |        ---
Percent of all students ............|   (3/) |  0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.2 |   0.1 |   1.2 |  (3/) |   0.1 |   0.4 |        --- |        ---
                                    |========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|============|============
               Latin                |        |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |            |
Number enrolled ....................|    429 |  655 |   591 |   372 |   265 |   167 |   150 |   152 |   170 |   177 |   164 |       17.6 |       -7.4
Percent of all students ............|    7.7 |  7.6 |   5.1 |   2.9 |   2.0 |   1.2 |   1.1 |   1.1 |   1.4 |   1.4 |   1.4 |        --- |        ---
____________________________________|________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____________|____________

1/Estimated.
2/Includes enrollment in ancient Greek (not shown separately). Fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in this language in each of the years shown.
3/Less than 0.05 percent.
4/Includes students enrolled in unspecified modern foreign languages. In 1978, a relatively large number of students were not identified by field of study.
---Data not reported, not available, or not applicable.

NOTE.--Because of rounding, details may not add to totals.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data survey; and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Enrollments in Public Secondary Schools, Fall 1989 and Fall 1990. (This table was prepared April 1992.)

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