Digital Learning Commons: Linguistic & Cultural Diversity: Bilingualism

Articles

Center for Applied Linguistics About CAL Slideshow The Center for Applied Linguistics is a private, nonprofit organization promoting access, equity and mutual understanding for linguistically and culturally diverse people around the world.
Ethnologue Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world’s known living languages. Since 1951, the Ethnologue has been an active research project involving hundreds of linguists and other researchers around the world. It is widely regarded to be the most comprehensive source of information of its kind.
Language Use in the United States Information from the United States Census Bureau.
Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) was founded in 1924 to advance the scientific study of language. LSA plays a critical role in supporting and disseminating linguistic scholarship both to professional linguists and to the general public.
Omniglot Online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages maintained by Simon Ager.

Top Ten Most Commonly Spoken Languages Other Than English in Maine Public Schools (K-12)

Most of the world's population is bilingual or multilingual. (Linguistic Society of America)

There are roughly 7,000 living languages on Earth. (Linguistic Society of America)

About one quarter of American English-speaking adults can hold a conversation in a second language. (Gallup)

About 21 percent of Americans aged five and older speak a language other than English at home. (U.S. Census Bureau)

English is by far the most widely studied second language on Earth with an estimated 1.5 billion learners. (Washington Post)

The majority of English-speaking Americans who can speak a second language speak Spanish. (Gallup)

Chinese has the most native speakers. (Washington Post)

English is used as an official language by 35 countries. (Washington Post)