Reporter's Notebook

Washington

The nation's leaders ought to support schools in helping language-minority students maintain and strengthen the languages they speak at home—especially at a time when the United States has a high demand for bilingual employees.

That was the opinion often expressed by some of the 300 panelists and educators who attended the second national Heritage Languages in America conference, hosted here this month by the Center for Applied Linguistics and National Foreign Language Center.

The organizers used the term "heritage-language speakers" for children or adults living in the United States who speak a language other than English at home but haven't necessarily received a formal...