With secondary language acquisition, people educated in the United states lag behind people educated in Asia (including the Middle East, Central Asia, South and East Asia), Europe, and Latin America. In order to approach the monolinguistic epidemic in the United States, it is important to know what the root causes of the issue are.
Not Starting Early Enough Because of a lack of emphasis on the importance of other languages in the United States, less money and attention is put into language programs. In most other countries in the world, secondary language learning begins at a much younger age than in the United States, and is often mandatory. only 20% of K-12 students study a second language. New Jersey, America's state with the highest percentage of students studying a second language- has 51% of its students enrolled in a foreign language class. Comparing this to Belgium, the European country with the lowest percentage of students enrolled in a secondary language class, and Belgium is still 13% higher than New Jersey.
The Societal Status Quo & Stigma “We have never had a compelling reason to interact with the rest of the world, we have been isolated geographically, and haven’t had that urgency [to learn other languages] that Europeans have had.” says Marty Abbott , former executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. According to the various sources and interviews I have conducted, many people seem to agree that there the cultural and social traditions of the United States discourages multilingualism.
English As The Dominant Lingua Franca Some Argue that it is unnecessary for Americans to learn any language other than English-- the reasoning for that being that English is one of the largest franca linguas (meaning bridge or trade language) in the modern world. Because of this, it is more convenient to know english for science, politics, interacting with people in other parts of the world, etc. People who make this argument feel that there isn’t a strong necessity for native English speakers to put in the effort of learning another language-- since they have won the “linguistic lottery” by growing up in an English speaking country.
The World Is Changing Another side argues that since the world is changing, English will not be the franca lingua of the future (and that perhaps Americans should put an emphasis on learning Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, etc). The people who offer this argument believe that whether the linguistic demographics of America change over time, or the global power shifts out of the United States (english speaking) power to a non-English country, it would be greatly beneficial to the American people to be prepared to interact and navigate throughout a world that isn’t centered around English or America.
The Scientific Approach Some people focus less on the political and economical sides to the debate, focusing on the cognitive benefits of bilingualism. Studies show that dual language immersion is linked with academic success. Students enrolled in dual language learning showed to be a year ahead of monolingual students with reading English.