Learning A Second Language
How many people are learning a second language in the US?
I wanted to know how many people are currently learning a second language in the US, particularly Chinese, Spanish and French.
I don’t really want to know if you are learning a language, I want to know how many people (in millions) are learning a second language, specifically Spanish, Chinese and French
There is no data on how many adults outside of public school are learning foreign languages. However, the Department of Education does keep track of enrollments in high schools. As of 2000 (the latest data released), 43.6% of students (13,514,000 total), grades 9-12 were enrolled in foreign language courses. 68% of those people (30% of all students) took Spanish, while 18% of all foriegn language students, 8% of all students took French and “Other languages”, which includes Chinese, were taken by 1.3% of all students and 3% of those taking a foreign language.
In postsecondary education, 17,848 people earned a degree in a foreign language in 2002-2003.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jun 19th, 2011. Comment. 
Spanish As A Second Language For Children
Is studying abroad something you can just ‘jump into’ after studying a language for six years?
Here’s the deal: I want to study abroad in Spain. However, I’m not quite confident enough in my spanish speaking abilities even though I’ve studied it for a long time. My solution to this is to spend some time in Spain before I actually have to start taking classes, possibly volunteering or working. Right now the front runner is taking a TOEFL class and teaching English as a second language to Spanish children.
Do you have any other ideas? Au Pairs don’t get paid very well and they have little job security, and it seems like anywhere else you go YOU have to pay THEM to work.
Maybe it seems as if I should just go straight into school but I want to be able to focus on my studies once I get there and not have to worry about understanding everything.
Let me know what you think!
Studying abroad IS something you can just ‘jump into’ after studying a language for six years. If you have studied for a long time, within a couple of weeks you’ll you’ll start to feel more comfortable with the language. I studied for a year in France 9 years after completing my degree in French and everything came back immediately. I also studied in a German language school with practicaly no prior formal German instruction. I knew other students thta had only studied the language one year and were able to survive in class.
Or as the person above suggested, you can always spend a summer, semester or year as an auditing student. it’s good practice before it really starts to count.
Filed under Uncategorized by on May 3rd, 2011. Comment.
English Second Language Course
Teaching English as a second language?
I am moving to Ecuador and I want to teach English. Does anyone know of an online certificate program that would not take a year to complete? Like a 120 hour course or 4 weeks?
Take a look at ICAL – http://icalweb.com which is one of the oldest and most respected online course providers around. You can also read their student forums and see what current students and graduates of ICAL are up to now and how they’ve got on with their teaching.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Mar 14th, 2011. Comment.
Spanish As A Second Language
Should more Americans be learning Spanish as a second language ?
Spanish is the 3rd most spoken language in the world next to English and Chinese. 21 Countries speak it as their primary language. 500 million people in total , approx. 44 million in the U.S ” and growing ” not to mention trade agreements withour neighbors to the south appears to be increasingly popular.
I definitely feel that learning Spanish is extremely important for Americans to do. I studied Spanish in school for many years. All students should have a second language and Spanish is most important for all the reasons you gave in the question.
I am sorry that we do not value the learning of Spanish at an earlier age than 7th grade. When chldren are very young they absorb so much so quickly and learn the correct sounds.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Mar 7th, 2011. Comment.