The 74 Million – Deborah Cohn
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, on Oct. 4, 1957, it did more than spark fears about America’s ability to compete technologically. It also raised concerns that the U.S. had a shortage of Russian speakers capable of monitoring Soviet scientific and military activities.
In 1958, the National Defense Education Act authorized funding to strengthen U.S. education in language instruction, in addition to math and science.
More than six decades later, a new Modern Language Association report is raising concerns about America’s foreign language capabilities anew. The report shows that the study of languages other than English at the university level experienced an unprecedented drop of 16.6% between 2016 and 2021.