Trends in foreign language education in the United States have addressed themselves to the questions "Who?""What?""Why?" and "How?" In the period when the grammar translation method was in vogue, "Who?" was answered by the other three questions, since this approach to foreign language instruction was appropriate only for an intellectual elite.…

Educational goals and objectives of foreign language programs in the United States are described. Trends in objectives are divided into a practical and a personal domain. Practical considerations include: (1) the duty of the school systems to provide a thorough basic education for the taxpayers' dollars, (2) career education, (3) equality of…

Internationalization of the higher education curriculum and internationalization of campus life are discussed with regard to ways that foreign languages can respond to the call for internationalization; content for advanced language courses; the role of language teaching and culture specialists (LTCSs); and preparation of LTCSs. (46 references)…

The time to make positive changes in foreign language education programs and instruction has come. The first step in effecting change is to find out about the students' language backgrounds, interests, and intentions for their language skills. Language instruction can take many different emphases: foreign language and international studies,…