More than ever, faculty need to ensure that undergraduate curricula not only provide students with tools to gain linguistic proficiency but also teach them to analyze both written and visual information to attain historical literacy. Developing both intercultural proficiency and insights into various historical memorialization processes ensures…

Changing public demands and decreasing enrollment numbers have challenged the traditional concept of teaching languages, cultures, and literatures in the U.S. Although nationwide enrollment numbers in German programs have been declining, "global" German Studies programs such as the ones at the University of Connecticut and the University…

Graduate education in the humanities struggles with weighty traditions, constrained (fiscal) resources, and a legacy of elitism and cultural homogeneity. As the makeup of graduate students becomes ever more diverse in terms of income, ethnicity, sexuality, citizenship, and disability, graduate programs are working through the challenges and…

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 the study-abroad program offered by Colorado College in Luneburg, Germany. The program consists of four blocks of three to four weeks each, during which time students take the following courses: (1) Intermediate German; (2) Composition and Conversation; (3) Culture and Institutions; and (4) a course which varies from year to year. (SED)

The University of Toledo developed a course, primarily for its undergraduate business administration students, to hone their awareness of how business practices and approaches are shaped by culture. The course also aims to give students the opportunity to function effectively in the increasingly international environment of business. An outline…

The University of Oregon offers summer institutes designed to help secondary school teachers of foreign languages to gain new perspectives on the interdependence of humanistic disciplines and lead to much-needed curriculuar changes in the schools. The summer programs offer interdisciplinary study in foreign languages, literature, and history. (CB)

Traditional British attitudes toward foreigners, which are now being challenged by current economic realities, and the increasing internationalization of British business, which magnifies the need for employees to communicate effectively with people from other countries and cultures, are discussed. A brief overview is provided that covers recent…

Eastern Michigan University has developed and recently approved for implementation a unique joint degree program offering a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Language and World Business. The program is a modification of two existing degree programs. The language degree is in applied German, French, Spanish, or Japanese…

This report describes the planning process for the Export Academy at Eastern Michigan University, designed to prepare students for a Master of Arts degree combining export and trade studies with second language (French, German, Spanish). In 1989-91, the Academy prepared the proposal for the new Master's degree program and sponsored a series of…

In response to the need for improved international trade in Ireland, an undergraduate program of applied languages and international marketing was developed at the National Institute for Higher Education, a unique Irish technological university in Dublin. In the first year, students study French and German and four business subjects (marketing,…

A study commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States examined the status of area studies on contemporary Germany in American postsecondary education. It surveyed 50 institutions concerning the status of teaching and research on contemporary Germany in selected fields of the humanities, social sciences, and professional education.…

This paper reports on an innovative five-day training program for foreign language teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). The program developed out of a perceived need to train graduate students better for the teaching profession and to develop colleague support. In the UW program, the French and Italian, German,…

In a 3-year, federally-funded program, faculty at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) have developed a series of behavioral and natural science courses in which students with at least the fourth semester of foreign language do a portion of the course readings in the second language and meet once a week to discuss them in that language with the regular…

This final report describes a project at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, begun in 1993, to create a 5-year interdisciplinary, undergraduate, double-degree program, combining a bachelor of science in engineering with a bachelor of arts in German. The program, called Eurotech, is intended to provide students with practical, integrated foreign…