Share of Secondary Schools Teaching Languages Other than English, by School Level, Academic Years 1986/1987–2007/2008

A majority of Americans first gain exposure to world languages in middle and high school; however, there has been a significant drop in the share of middle schools offering world languages: from 75% to 58% from 1996/1997 to 2007/2008. As a result, a large and expanding pool of American children are not exposed to a non-English language until their later teenage years. Even then, only a small minority of high school students are taking intermediate- or advanced-level language courses, which are typically where proficiency begins to form.