Less commonly taught language and commonly taught language students: A demographic and academic comparison

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efforts to fund the teaching of critical languages, along with increasing enrollments in less commonly taught language (LCTL) classes, have evidenced a renewed interest in LCTL pedagogy. While much is known about enrollment trends, materials development, and professional training, far less research has compared LCTL and commonly taught language (CTL) students. Students from 83 classes (nine different languages) at a large university completed a questionnaire containing items requesting demographic and academic information. The results of a chi-square analysis demonstrated that LCTL learners were older, expected higher grades, reported higher GPAs, found their courses more difficult, and had studied a third language at a much higher rate. Although far from conclusive, these data begin to identify differences that may exist between LCTL and CTL students, specifically in university, introductory-level courses.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)405-423
Number of pages19
JournalForeign Language Annals
Volume42
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2009

Keywords

  • 1st-/2nd-year foreign language courses
  • Academic questionnaire
  • LCTL/CTL comparisons
  • Student demographics
  • Student self-perceptions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Less commonly taught language and commonly taught language students: A demographic and academic comparison'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this