We present this presentation in the ESRI Education Conference 2014. This presentation takes a look at the relationship between language courses in a district and the surrounding community. Submitted Abstract: America has been known as a multicultural country. For that reason, the curriculum in education institutions have grown to accommodate the need of learning a new language by students. Would it be beneficial when the institutions are offering classes in a specific language,i.e. Vietnamese, in a vicinity where are a large Vietnamese-speaking population? Is there a relationship between the distance of the community and the institution and the language course offered? We can explore this phenomenon.

1. Relationship Between
Foreign Language Courses
and School Locations
AU VO
MESHARI ALSAWAT
CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY, CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Study questions
3. Findings
4. Study guidelines

3. Introduction
-America is a multicultural country
-The curriculum should reflect the diversity of the community
-To prepare for the future, high school students are encouraged and
required to take foreign language courses
-Are the language courses offered in the community reflect the
community composition?

4. Study questions
1. How many types of world languages are being offered in each
Orange County school district?
1. How many courses per each language?
2. Is there a relationship between the number of language courses
and the population residing in the associated district?

5. Orange County Facts
3 million inhabitants (2012 estimate)
People Quick Facts
Orange
County California
White alone, percent, 2012 74.5% 73.7%
Black or African American alone, percent, 2012 2.0% 6.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent, 2012 1.1% 1.7%
Asian alone, percent, 2012 18.9% 13.9%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone,
percent, 2012
0.4% 0.5%
Two or More Races, percent, 2012 3.2% 3.6%
Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 34.1% 38.2%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 43.1% 39.4%
Top 10 Languages spoken at
home. (100+)
1.English only (1,542,700)
2.Spanish (665,070)
3.Vietnamese (124,540)
4.Korean (50,365)
5.Chinese (33,040)
6.Tagalog (32,180)
7.Persian (23,880)
8.Japanese (15,650)
9.Arabic (13,800)
10.German (12,960)

6. Orange County School Districts

7. Finding 1: 8 Languages offered

8. Finding 2: Total language courses offered in
Orange County
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Spanish
French
Japanese
Chinese
German
Latin
Vietnamese
Korean

9. Finding: Spanish
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

10. Finding: French
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

11. Finding: Japanese
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

12. Finding: Chinese
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

13. Finding: German
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

14. Finding: Latin
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

15. Finding: Vietnamese
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

16. Finding: Korean
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Tustin
Santa Ana
Saddleback
Placentia-Yorba Linda
Orange
Newport-Mesa
Los Alamitos
Laguna Beach
Irvine
Huntington Beach
Garden Grove
Fullerton Joint
Capistrano
Brea Olinda
Anaheim

17. Implications
-Data for languages are disparate
-Weak correlation between language and the
surrounding community
-Districts should offer more related language courses
to match with the community

18. Next step
-Expand the study into other districts
-Expand the study into other institution types
-Explore the reasons behind the association between
language courses offered and the surrounding
community.

19. Study guidelines
Data Collection
Data Processing
Display results

20. Data Collection
15 High School Districts in Orange County
95 High Schools in Orange County
8 Languages offered
◦ School’s curriculum guide
◦ 2013-2014 Schedule of classes
◦ Teacher’s school webpages
◦ Communication with curriculum Principal
Census Tract data – languages speaking at home
Census Tract shapefile
School district shapefile

21. Data Processing
Aggregate language courses per school district
Join census tract data with its shapefile
Spatial join school district spatial data with the census tract join

22. Display results
Filter by each language
5 classification breaks on language speakers
8 maps with 8 results

24. Acknowledgement
Dr. Brian Hilton, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA