Trending Languages

Overview & Synopsis

Interest in traditional school languages such as English, French, Italian, and Spanish has changed considerably in the tertiary education sector over the last few years. While the number of courses in “small-” and “medium-sized” languages is increasing and a tentative trend is emerging, particularly in Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, the traditional languages often advocated by the European Union are losing importance. Based on the example of the University of Graz’s Centre for Language, Plurilingualism and Didactics, the development of the “main languages” of English, French, Italian, and Spanish is shown for the period from the 2007/2008 academic year to the 2022/2023 academic year. An in-depth analysis of the course offerings and demand enables conclusions to be drawn about students’ behaviour in terms of foreign language learning and leads to considerations concerning what the primary motives are for learning or not learning a foreign language.