NEWS UPDATE: Preliminary results from a Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) survey confirm what many educators already know: the elementary foreign language programs that are supposed to be preparing children to be 21st century global citizens have instead decreased in number over the past decade, particularly in public schools. See Report
Recent controversy over whether our children should be learning Spanish and political debates, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, the English Only movement, and the immigration issue have created a climate of doubt and xenophobia over the learning of a second language, and in particular, the Spanish language.
The Department of Education states its position clearly: "American students must master critical-need foreign language skills for our nation to remain competitive and continue the progress in securing our nation." (stated on the department's Web site).
So why is there so much fear and confusion over the issue? And why is it that less than one quarter of public elementary schools in the U.S. report teaching foreign languages?
There is so much research and experience proving the importance of raising children bilingual and multilingual in the global world we now live in. In addition, there are many reasons why today Spanish is the most important language for american children to learn.
FACT SHEET: WHY AMERICANS SHOULD LEARN SPANISH
• Learning to speak Spanish is becoming a top mandate for the American government because it is necessary for the country’s workforce to be competitive in global economics. As countries in Latin America are strengthening and expanding their economies, they are becoming increasingly more important as trade partners. Many countries in Latin America have signed or are expected to sign on to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was originally implemented by the United States, Canada and Mexico. This should act to further strengthen trade and business ties among these countries and the United States - making the Spanish language an even more important asset for Americans in the business world.
• Native Spanish speakers total 350 million worldwide, making it the primary language for more people than English; only 340 million people are native English speakers, according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005).
• The entire continent of South America speaks primarily Spanish (aside from Brazil), as does just about all of Central America, Mexico and Latin America. Spanish is the official language for 22 countries in all.
• Within the United States, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language after English. According to the U.S. Census, the estimated number of Hispanics in the United States as of 2005 was 42.7 million. This figure means that the United States has the fifth-largest Hispanic population worldwide. Of this group of more than 42 million people, more than three quarters of them identify Spanish as their primary language.
• In the past, the workforce has needed to be educated to keep up with technology following industrialization. Today, people increasingly need to be educated in language to keep up with the digital information world. According to the Web site Internet World Stats, Spanish is in the top three of languages used on the internet, with approximately 8.7 percent of Internet users speaking Spanish.
