Sociopolitical and institutional conditions for teaching Spanish as a L2 in US universities

This article examines the teaching of Spanish as a second language (L2) in the US in recent years through a review of public documents and a synthesis of relevant literature. The main goals of the article are to compare the sociopolitical and institutional presence of Spanish with that of other languages within the US educational context, and to explore specific critical dimensions that are likely to influence the future development of Spanish as a L2 in this country. This analysis makes it clear that the current abundance of students studying Spanish does not guarantee a constantly increasing number of learners in future Spanish programs, especially in a sociopolitical and institutional climate such as the present one, in which the study of the humanities, in general, as well as the study of second or foreign languages, in particular, seem to be heading for a marked decline.