When it comes to speaking and understanding foreign languages, America is behind. In 2017, the National K-12 Foreign Language Enrollment Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, found that only 1 in 5 students were enrolled in a World language or American Sign Language. Yet, foreign language proficiency is a now considered a critical skill in children because it increases their verbal skills, strengthens communication with others, and increases their chances securing a job. Children who were fluent in another language other than english were found to have higher cognitive abilities and test scores than that of their monolinguals peers. “ It's a problem-solving, "knowledge-assembly" task in which children are required to pay greater attention to the context, interact flexibly with others, and decide over and over what is relevant and what is not[...]Given that, it's not surprising that research has indicated increased mathematical skill development in bilingual children as compared to monolingual children. “( “ Language “). Even so, there has been a down trend in students K-12 studying a foreign language. One reason, is due to the budget cut for foreign language programs. “ The president’s budget proposes eliminating the funding for language education in the Department of Education, which had already been cut by 43 percent in the Obama administration “( Eikenberry ). Because there is a relationship between studying a foreign language and increased academic achievement, cutting funds for foreign language programs will harm the students development.

Language is a special skill among humans. We are the only species that are capable of such complex sentences and conversations. Likely, there are undoubtedly many benefits of understanding multiple languages. Some of them include reducing the risk of developing mental disorders such as Dementia or Alzheimer's and even lower the chance of getting Depression. In children, it improves their mathematical and language composition. “ Within the standardized test culture, it was found that Elementary students who studied a foreign language scored higher on tests in reading, math, and language arts.” ( “Benefits” ). Because of the thorough process/ability an individual’s brain uses to understand and speak another language, it leads to children in K-12 often scoring higher in tests of reading, math and language arts than that of their monolingual peers. In like manner, these benefits also included showing more creativity and problem solving skills. “ Furthermore, people who have learned a foreign language show greater cognitive development in mental flexibility, creativity, problem-solving, conceptualizing, and reasoning.” ( “Benefits ). Though language acquisition is becoming a critical skill for children, the amount of kids K-12 enrolled in a foreign language has declined over the years.There are many obstacles that contribute, such as, low amount of qualified teachers, a negative perception towards specific languages ( For example, Arabic. This language has been looked down on since 9/11 ) and a budget cut that reduced the funding for many languages. This left many non-popular languages such as Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic and many others to stop being taught in schools. As Mitchell explains, “ The American Councils for International Education survey--which sought state-by-state data on enrollment in foreign language courses--estimates that 10.6 million K-12 students in the United States are studying a world language or American Sign Language. That's only one out of every five students. “ ( Mitchell ). As Mitchell puts it, there is a low amount of kids who are enrolled in a foreign language. Yet, the biggest factor for the loss of many unique language programs is the budget cut. “ They weren’t mentioned in the 2011 budget legislation approved by Congress in April, but a chart of the cuts in the 2011 budget posted on the website of the House Appropriations Committee said that those programs could receive a cut of $50 million, or 40 percent of their budgets. “ ( Zehr ). The budget cut proposed by the government had a big impact on the amount of schools teaching a diverse amount of language programs. As a result, this left many programs to have to switch to a new source of income to help fund the program.  “ Foreign language instruction has never been our strong suit. But it’s been declining from our previous subpar levels, and that’s a troubling trend that will likely have serious economic, social and political consequences. “ ( Apodaca ) Because of the weak link we have with bilingualism, it will be twice as hard to make a strong bond with other cultures and languages.

Foreign language is critical skill in children, yet the number of children K-12 in America learning a foreign language has decreased significantly over the years. There are many factors that contributed to this, but the main factor is the budget cut directed towards language programs. Yet, bilingualism is proven to enhance mathematical skills as well as increase cognitive ability, higher achievement in other academic areas and higher standardized test scores. In addition to this, the number of jobs in need of bilingual people has increased significantly over the years. Therefore, reducing the funding for these programs will negatively affect this relationship between the child’s academic achievement in children and learning a foreign language.

Works Cited

Apodaca, Patrice. "It's Time to Invest in Foreign-Language Instruction." Los Angeles Times (Online), 21 Aug. 2018, pp. n/a. SIRS Issues Researcher.

“Benefits of Learning a Second Language.” Science in Our World Certainty and Controversy, 13 Apr. 2011. Accessed 28 Nov. 2018.

Eikenberry, Karl. “Inside Higher Ed.” Cutting the Federal Budget for Language Programs Threatens America's Security (Essay), 23 June 2017.

Mitchell, Corey. "Just 20 Percent of K-12 Students Are Learning a Foreign Language." Education Week, 21 June 2017, p. 1. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Accessed 19 Dec. 2018.

Soderman, Anne K. "Language immersion programs for young children? Yes ... but proceed with caution: young children can benefit from dual-language immersion programs that are developmentally appropriate." Phi Delta Kappan, May 2010, p. 54+. Professional Collection.

Zehr, Mary Ann. “Foreign-Language Programs Stung by Budget Cuts.” Education Week, 20 June 2018.