The distribution of less commonly taught language enrollments in US higher education

This article reports on a study of geographical variation of less commonly taught language (LCTL) enrollment relative to overall enrollment in languages other than English (LOTEs) in institutes of higher education in the United States using data from the 2021 census conducted by the Modern Language Association. Findings show a very uneven distribution of both enrollments and total number of languages offered with states ranging from 10 to more than 100 LOTEs offered. Four collinear predictors were found to predict to varying extents the proportion of LCTL study: the political leaning of the state (more Democrat-leaning states have more LCTL enrollment), the overall rate of LOTE enrollment (percentage LCTL enrollment is higher where overall LOTE enrollment is higher), proportion of households with an LOTE home language (states with more linguistic diversity have more LCTL enrollment), and Gross Domestic Product per capita (higher GDP per capita correlates with more LCTL enrollment).