Other Native-English Countries Ahead of United States
Governments promote learning of two or more languages in school.
Even as the focus on foreign-language instruction up north and Down Under has waned recently in the wake of renewed attention to reading, mathematics, and science instruction, countries outside the United States where English is the primary language have more than a decade’s head start in their language skills and public attitudes on the importance of language learning.
“How far behind is the United States compared to other countries? I think enormously,” said Alan Ruby, a former deputy secretary for the Ministry of Education in Australia and now a senior fellow in the graduate education program at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. “It’s almost impossible to gauge how much competitiveness the U.S. will lose because it doesn’t have the language skills.”
Australia instituted a national language policy in 1987 that is credited with expanding foreign-language programs in government schools and transforming public opinion about language education. Although students are not required to study a foreign...
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