Abstract
The U.S. government encourages the study of critical languages spoken in geographic areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security and the global economy through a variety of discretionary grants and scholarship programs. U.S. students are traditionally underrepresented in the study of these languages; however, many of our nation’s K–12 English learners (ELs) enter U.S. schools already speaking these critical languages as home or heritage languages. A federally funded consensus study reported that without school or home support, attrition of these home languages can occur as soon as 12 months after exposure to the dominant language.
Topics
Data and Demographics