Following the 9/11 tragedies, the interest in Arabic language and culture in nontraditional destinations such as MENA (Middle East & North Africa) has become vastly obscured with sociocultural and political issues. The mandate to maintain national security served to designate the language and its destinations critical, producing the hegemony…

A research report from the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe shows that investing in languages education in the UK could return more than the investment cost. Researchers explored a gap in the evidence relating to the economic benefits of extending languages education and found that an increase in secondary-school pupils learning one of four…

Whereas major research universities may accommodate programs of study in Arabic, Chinese, or Persian, regional universities and liberal arts colleges have struggled to adapt to a wider and more complex array of world languages and literatures in the 21st century. Many have been forced to choose between radically restructuring or closing programs…

Concurrent enrollment access is expanding across the country, policies and practices are evolving, and data-driven studies examining every measurable element are being undertaken, yet the role of the relationships among concurrent enrollment partners and participants is too often just mentioned in passing. This case study of a concurrent…

German university programs can increase enrollments and diversify their curricula through academic community partnerships with surrounding schools. This article informs about two community-supported initiatives between the German Studies Program at Santa Clara University and the South Bay Deutscher Schulverein, a Saturday Morning School in…

Various newspaper articles report that British ministers, university representatives, exam chiefs and business bodies agree that foreign languages skills in primary, secondary and tertiary UK education are in crisis. Lower funding and policy changes have caused language skills deficiencies felt gravely in the business sectors. Funding and support…

Total enrollments (undergraduate and graduate) in languages other than English dropped by 9.2% between fall 2013 and fall 2016, as reported in the Modern Language Association's twenty-fifth language enrollment census. Despite the overall drop, there were gains in nearly half of all language programs (45.5%) that mitigate somewhat the downward…

Describes how the Spanish department at Central Michigan University began an experimental program in an attempt to address the surging Spanish enrollments. The description of the program includes quantitative and qualitative assessments that may serve as a model for other undergraduate programs of similar size. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that Title VI of the Higher Education Act has had long-lasting results in developing curricula in languages and encouraging more internationally-oriented campuses. Summarizes the language instruction aspects of a research report on the Title VI program, and incorporates data from a Modern Language Association survey. (Author/VWL)

While Russian language enrollment dropped from 1965-67 in the nation as a whole, it increased during that period in the South. The history of the development of Russian language programs in Southern states is outlined, with figures provided for each decade and some of the program founders identified. Many of the schools that offer Russian are now…

This report explains that 2000-01 was the eighth year in which the Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS) at the University of Dublin's Trinity College offered extracurricular foreign language modules to students who were not studying a foreign language as part of their degree course. The modules are intended to develop students'…

Michigan Technological University has introduced a program which awards a certificate in Foreign Language and Area Study to students completing two years of the same foreign language and three area studies courses. It was developed in response to the necessity of dropping 19 foreign language courses. A survey of freshman English students revealed…

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…

The status of English language education in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) in the era of Doi Moi, or economic structuring that began in 1986, is analyzed. Background information is given on the history of English language training in Vietnam since 1975, the municipality of Ho Chi Minh City, the emergence of Doi Moi policy, policy concerning licensing…

The University of San Francisco developed a certificate program in Western European area studies covering French-speaking countries, and subsequently a Latin American area studies program for Spanish-speaking countries, in response to uneven language enrollments and as a means of increasing intermediate-level enrollment. The French program begins…