Language News

AAAS Commission on Language Learning Releases Preliminary Report on Languages

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The report, which includes research and analysis from Dr. Davidson and the American Councils research team, provides a statistical portrait of the nation’s current language capacity.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) formed the Commission on Language Learning in 2015 in an effort to evaluate the state of foreign language learning in the US for the first time in over 30 years. As a direct response to a bipartisan request from the US Congress, the Commission was formed to gather and analyze research on the benefits of foreign language learning for all age groups starting at pre-school and extending through secondary, higher education, and lifelong learning levels in an effort to inform future policy-making decisions around language learning in the United States.

American Councils President Dr. Dan E. Davidson currently serves on the 17-member Commission on Language Learning, chaired by Columbia University's Paul LeClerc, to evaluate the landscape of foreign language learning in the US The Commission's efforts have come to fruition as the group just released the first comprehensive report on foreign languages in decades: The State of Languages in the US: A Statistical Portrait.

The report, which includes research and analysis from Dr. Davidson and the research team at American Councils, provides a statistical portrait of the nation's current language capacity, focusing on the US education system. The disparity between the number of citizens who can thrive in the 21st-century and the nation's current capacity in languages will be the subject of a forthcoming report with policy recommendations and next steps from the AAAS Commission on Language Learning, anticipated in early spring 2017.

Read more about the formation of the Commission on Language Learning here.

Interview Requests
To request an interview with Dr. Dan E. Davidson, contact Mikayla Holland: mholland@americancouncils.org 202-833-7522.

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