Culture in the Classroom: Examining a Joint Approach Between Ethnic Studies and Foreign Language Courses

Protests in Arizona against a law prohibiting any school from promoting ethnic solidarity or from gearing instruction towards a specific ethnic group. Photo by Arizona Community Press. 

After years of growing racial disparities and racially-motivated hate crimes, activists have come to criticize the American government for its poor handling of institutional racism in the U.S. In their calls for change, many have demanded that the American government act to prevent the future perpetuation of the current status quo, ultimately begging the question: how should the American government begin to address this cultural crisis? 

In response, both U.S. lawmakers and education policy pundits have made the push for an education-based solution, proposing a robust ethnic studies requirement for high school students across the country. As the National Education Association elaborates, such an approach could help diversify contemporary social studies curricula, thereby challenging and developing the cultural competence of the many American generations to come. To that end, just this past October, California became the first U.S. state to officially implement an ethnic studies requirement in its high schools, effective during the 2025-2026 school year. 

Yet, while the concept of an ethnic studies requirement for high school students continues to be crucial, its effectiveness upon students’ cultural awareness could be largely strengthened by the simple addition of one other requirement: a foreign language course sequence. 

According to the American Councils for International Education, eleven states currently have foreign language graduation requirements, sixteen states have no foreign language graduation requirements, and twenty-four states have graduation requirements that could be satisfied by courses in several subjects, including foreign languages. Both historically and presently, the instruction of foreign languages in high schools has been overlooked as a way to further the sociocultural and intellectual development of American students. Namely, in the twenty-four aforementioned states with graduation requirements fulfillable by courses in several subjects, students can choose between classes in Career & Technical Education, the arts, or foreign languages. Unintentional or not, the ability to choose between these options miscontextualizes the study of foreign languages as preprofessional preparation rather than part of one’s cultural formation. Therefore, it is vital to dissect and analyze California’s current ethnic studies curriculum—the only one of its kind in the U.S.—as a case study for why an ethnic studies requirement would be far stronger in unison with a foreign language requirement. 

First, whereas ethnic studies courses seek to address systems of cultural and ethnic discimination, foreign language courses address and even combat linguistic dimscrimination. As the California Department of Education describes in its Model Curriculum Preface, the goal of an ethnic studies course is to “Promote critical thinking and rigorous analysis of history, systems of oppression, and the status quo in an effort to generate discussions on futurity, and imagine new possibilities.” In keeping with this intention, California high schools are therefore explicitly required to cover the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of four core fields: African American Studies; Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies; Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x Studies; and Native American Studies. 

However, nowhere in the curriculum is there a mention of the study of linguistic discrimination—an often overlooked, yet omnipresent manifestation of racism in this country. From the stigmatization of African-American Vernacular English in academic settings to the racialization of the Spanish language, it has been made clear time and time again that the prejudice experienced in this country is not simply rooted in the color of one’s skin, but in the language one speaks. Enter the foreign language requirement.

As the University of Rutgers-Camden finds in its cognitive research, “Studying another language, any other language, will help you understand the issues faced by Americans who speak languages other than English, will help you understand the immigrant experience, may help you understand your neighbor, your family, or yourself.” By immersing students into an environment in which they are unfamiliar with the primary language of communication, schools can familiarize students with the arduous process of adopting a foreign grammar structure, developing one’s listening comprehension, and shaping a sufficient accent. Therefore, foreign language requirements can help curb linguistic discrimination because they force students to face the same linguistic barriers faced by immigrants and non-English speakers. To put it simply, foreign language courses intrinsically compel American students to become more empathetic and open-minded.

But, more importantly, foreign language courses not only support, but expand upon the content taught in ethnic studies courses. As Dr. Aubrey Neil Leveridge explains, language and culture are intertwined in such a way that the study of one essentially requires the study of the other. As a result, foreign language courses offer students a uniquely interdisciplinary lens through which to examine and analyze a specific culture on both a micro and macro scale. 

And therein lies the hidden potential in the joint union between these two courses: whereas an ethnic studies course would equip students with the theoretical skillset to examine abstract social concepts like identity, history, and contemporary political movements, a foreign language course would offer students the opportunity to apply this knowledge to the real world. In tandem, the content of these two courses would not only uphold, but build on that of the other, allowing for a more well-rounded, complex approach towards developing students’ cultural awareness.

As such, although the Californian strategy is certainly a step in the right direction, there is still much work to be done in shaping an educational approach that actively addresses institutional racism. Therefore, if any tangible social change is to occur, states nationwide ought to begin integrating an ethnic studies requirement alongside a foreign language requirement into their schools’ curricula as soon as possible. Only in doing so can this nation’s students—and, by extension, this nation itself—begin to truly accept and celebrate its multicultural nature, on both a social and linguistic level. 

Alan Chen (CC ’25) is a staff writer for CPR currently studying Political Science and French & Francophone Studies. In his free time, you can find him analyzing film and television, studying foreign languages, and exploring the city.