DC Language Immersion Report Cover

Demographics and Equity of Dual Language Immersion Programs in Washington, DC

Written in collaboration with the DC Language Immersion Project, this study explores how the demographics of dual-language schools compare with non-dual-language schools in DC’s traditional public and public charter schools. It asks whether and how these schools differ in terms of racial diversity, proportion of students classified as special education, and proportion of students classified as at-risk.

Demand for Language and Culture

Do employers value employees with language and culture skills?

Data come from a 2014 survey of U.S. employers in the government, for-profit, and not-for-profit sectors, in 49 states and DC.
Some of these results are reported in: “The demand for multilingual human capital in the U.S. labor market,” by Damari, Rivers, Brecht, Gardner, Pulupa, and Robinson (2017), published in Foreign Language Annals.

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

This article presents the findings of a 2014 survey of US employers on their requirements for multilingual employees. It identifies the employment sectors that were most likely to value multilingual workers, and it describes which skill sets were most coveted in conjunction with foreign language ability. The study also explains that even though a vast majority of employers wanted employees who can communicate effectively with people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, only 10 percent of responding employers reported requiring foreign-language skills in hiring.

Heritage and Second Language Learners

Heritage and Second Language Learners

This paper compares the attitudes of heritage language learners and second language learners regarding language learning. One finding discussed in the paper is that heritage learners were less motivated than second language learners to study languages, and they were less likely to think that learning a language would yield personal or professional benefits.