The demographics of heritage and community languages in the United States

Abstract

In an attempt to document the linguistic profile of the United States (U.S.), this chapter addresses the linguistic demographic diversity of the country based on current and historical U.S. Census data, while noting the strengths and limitations of such data. It also references data from several major national surveys of foreign language (FL) education in an attempt to assess whether the country's efforts to promote education in languages other than English are improving or declining over time, and the extent to which educational programs are tapping into the vast pool of multilingualism within U.S. families. The chapter notes that the failure to adequately appreciate and tap into the nation's internal diversity represents a missed opportunity to build on its linguistic resources. In discussions regarding language diversity in the U.S., diversity is often presumed to be a problem or even a threat to linguistic unity and the hegemony of English (Wiley, 2004, 2005). Meanwhile, others decry what is perceived to be a FL learning crisis in this country, where the percentage of those learning FLs has declined. On closer analysis, language diversity within the country's population is often depicted as menacing, whereas the learning of FLs, initially by monolingual speakers of English, is seen to be a positive individual achievement (Wiley, 2007b). The chapter concludes by revisiting guidelines (Spolsky, 2011) for a national language policy that would recognize and build on the country's language diversity.