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Digest of Education Statistics
1998 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest

Table 58. -  Enrollment in foreign language courses compared with enrollment in grades 9 to 12 in public secondary schools: Fall 1948 to fall 1994 [In thousands]
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                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |Percentage change
                          |  Fall   | Fall | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  |_________________
         Language         |  1948   | 1960 | 1965  | 1968  | 1970  | 1974  | 1976  | 1978  | 1982  | 1985  | 1990  | 1994  |1976 to |1990 to
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |  1990  |  1994
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
            1             |    2    |  3   |   4   |   5   |   6   |   7   |   8   |   9   |  10   |  11   |  12   |  13   |   14   |   15
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
  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 |12,213 |  -20.8 |    7.7
                          |_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
 All foreign languages\2\ |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|   1,170 |2,522 | 3,659 | 3,890 | 3,779 | 3,295 | 3,174 | 3,200 | 2,910 | 4,029 | 4,257 | 5,002 |   34.1 |   17.5
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 |  41.0 |    --- |    ---
                          |=========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|========|========
 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 | 4,813 |   35.4 |   17.6
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 |  39.4 |    --- |    ---
                          |_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
         Spanish          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     443 |  933 | 1,427 | 1,698 | 1,811 | 1,678 | 1,717 | 1,631 | 1,563 | 2,334 | 2,611 | 3,220 |   52.1 |   23.3
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 |  26.4 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
          French          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     254 |  744 | 1,251 | 1,328 | 1,231 |   978 |   888 |   856 |   858 | 1,134 | 1,089 | 1,106 |   22.6 |    1.5
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 |   9.1 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
          German          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|      43 |  151 |   328 |   423 |   411 |   393 |   353 |   331 |   267 |   312 |   295 |   326 |  -16.2 |   10.3
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 |   2.7 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
         Russian          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |   10 |    27 |    24 |    20 |    15 |    11 |     9 |     6 |     6 |    16 |    16 |   46.6 |   -0.4
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  0.1 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 | (\3\) | (\3\) |   0.1 |   0.1 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
         Italian          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |   20 |    25 |    27 |    27 |    40 |    46 |    46 |    44 |    47 |    40 |    44 |  -11.4 |    8.5
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.3 |   0.3 |   0.3 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.4 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
       Japanese\4\        |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |  --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |    25 |    42 |    --- |   68.3
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   0.2 |   0.3 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
   Other modern foreign   |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
       languages\5\       |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|       1 |    9 |     9 |    18 |    15 |    23 |     9 |   176 |     3 |    18 |    15 |    59 |   73.0 |  296.1
Percent of all students ..|   (\3\) |  0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.2 |   0.1 |   1.2 | (\3\) |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.5 |    --- |    ---
                          |=========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|========|========
          Latin           |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     429 |  655 |   591 |   372 |   265 |   167 |   150 |   152 |   170 |   177 |   164 |   189 |    8.9 |   15.2
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 |   1.5 |    --- |    ---
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________

\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\Until 1990, student enrollment in Japanese courses was included in the Other modern foreign languages category.
\5\Includes students enrolled in unspecified modern foreign languages. In 1978, a relatively large number of students were not identified by field of study. Since 1990, enrollment in Japanese courses is reported as a separate category.
---Data not reported, not available, or not applicable.

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, Fall 1990, and Fall 1994. (This table was prepared February 1999.)


1998 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest