Spanish enrollment decline and students’ beliefs and attitudes

Abstract

Abstract Universities across the USA are experiencing a decline in foreign language enrollment and in advanced Spanish courses (Looney & Lusin, 2019; Lusin et al., 2023), with a trend of higher female enrollment (Brantmeier et al., 2019; Chavez, 2001). Literature in Second Language Acquisition and Sociopsychology has studied how beliefs can influence a student’s thoughts and actions regarding their decision to enroll in a particular course (Mills & Moulton, 2017; Omrod, 2011; Taylor & Mardsen, 2014). The present study aims to investigate advanced Spanish learners’ awareness, beliefs, and attitudes toward four language learning skills and their differences by gender. Overall results indicated that participants from two different advanced Spanish courses had more positive beliefs and attitudes toward speaking and listening than reading and writing. Additionally, a higher proportion of female students had more positive beliefs toward the four skills than male students. Pedagogical implications and future directions on student uptake are suggested in this study.