The M.L.A. survey collected data on foreign language enrollment from fall 2002 from 780 colleges and universities.
A second explanation for anemic language enrollment may be that students are taking the easy way out.
At the University of Rochester, where the language requirement has been dropped, sign-language enrollment has remained strong.
A survey by the Modern Language Association released yesterday found a 13percentt increase in language-course enrollments between 2002 and 2006, with a 127percentt increase in the number of students taking Arabic.
All data will be organized according to students' age, grade, race, ethnicity, sex and any special education or English-language program enrollment, and will be available online.
Written informed consent was sought from accompanying legal guardians in a locally appropriate language prior to enrollment.
While nobody seems to track the number of Americans who are studying a foreign language, private language school enrollments reflect the trend.
Undergraduates also responded to demographic questions, including gender, enrollment status, major, native language, current Introductory Biology course enrollment, and previous Introductory Biology courses completed.
Even so, enrollment in foreign-language classes grew 6.6 percent from 2006 to 2009 — compared with 12.9 percent from 2002 to 2006 — according to the report, "Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2009".
The only open-enrollment Japanese language program in the city's high schools will no longer exist.
