MLA census results have been regularly presented at the convention. For this presentation, Natalia Lusin will discuss the preliminary results of her analysis of the 2021 data. Language scholars are eager to find out the results for the 2021 census, especially after enrollment declines in the previous two censuses in 2013 and 2016. The 2021 results have not yet been published, so these findings will be new to the audience. The presentation will include an analysis of overall enrollments, as well as breakdowns by the 15 most commonly taught languages and by the less commonly taught languages.
Natalia will discuss changes in enrollments at the introductory, advanced, and graduate levels, as well as the differential in enrollments for two-year and four-year institutions. The 2016 census showed a disproportionate drop in enrollments at two-year institutions as compared to four-year institutions. Since two-year institutions provide educational opportunities to traditionally underserved communities of students, we are particularly interested in tracking developments in enrollments when divided by two-year and four-year enrollments.
In order to understand what is happening to language enrollments now, it is necessary to understand long-term trends. Fedor Karmanov and Lidia Tripiccione will speak about the shifts in enrollments over time in the core European languages, and the changes that have occurred in enrollments in a number of emerging languages over the historical course of the census. Fedor will speak also about the growth over time in the category of less commonly taught languages. Lidia will discuss how historical trends vary in different US regions and at different institution types. Their findings are insightful, original, and will undoubtedly change the thinking of the language scholars who will attend the presentation.
Long-term trends in subsets of the census, such as particular languages or regions, can be obscured by the large overall trends if the trends in the subsets run counter to the overall trends. Lidia and Fedor have used the statistical software program R for the analysis of the historical data, allowing for a deep dive into the specifics of the data, in order to reveal these trends in subsets. They have put new tools and applications to use in their analysis. Their presentations will be data-driven, but oriented towards a humanities audience that may not necessarily have experience in data analysis.
With three speakers, we will easily fit into the timeframe of the panel. Each of us will speak for 15 to 18 minutes, allowing time for discussion by the attendees. We anticipate an online panel, which will obviate the need for travel expenses for Lidia and Fedor, who are both graduate students. Our presentations will include slides, as well as both static and interactive graphs.
As the organizer of this panel, I am excited to give this opportunity to present at the convention to two talented and promising graduate students in the humanities, and equally excited to present a new way of looking at the language enrollment census data to the attendees.