Less Commonly Taught Languages

Less Commonly Taught Languages (or LCTLs) is a designation used in the United States for languages other than the most commonly taught foreign languages in US public schools. The term covers a wide array of world languages (other than English), ranging from some of the world's largest and most influential languages, such as Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese , Japanese and Turkish, to smaller regional languages studied in the US mainly by area experts, such as Twi, spoken in West Africa, and Finnish.

The term arose out of a need to contrast the more commonly taught languages in US K-12 public education with those normally encountered only at university level, a great divide reflected both in the US textbook industry, which caters to the existing K-12 market by necessarily focusing on the "Big Three," (Spanish, French and German) and in historical US government funding for foreign language education. (In fact, one Stanford University language educator has referred to LCTLs as the "Less Commonly Funded Languages".)

After 9/11, US federal departments and agencies recognized the strategic importance of LCTLs such as Arabic and, as a result, have begun funding programs for LCTLs such as the National Flagship Language Initiative (NFLI) under the auspices of the National Security Education Program (NSEP). These programs have been developed to encourage growth in the teaching of less commonly taught languages critical to national security such as Arabic, Persian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian.

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