Roadmaps

The U.S. Language Summits: Roadmap to Language Excellence

To compete in a global economy and to respond to the demands of its increasingly diverse population, America must promote and support the study of foreign languages and cultures. Such is the overwhelming consensus of three “roadmaps to language excellence,” the results of a Flagship initiative conducted to address growing language and cultural deficiencies in regional, state, and local U.S. workforces. Read more...

Flagship Annual Report

The Language Flagship: Changing the Paradigm of Language Education in the U.S.

The Language Flagship envisions a system of programs across the country where high school students achieve intermediate- to advanced-level language proficiency. Those who defer college and enter the workforce (or enlist in the armed forces) bring with them a critical skill. Those who move on to universities enter with an advanced language level that allows them to undertake a more challenging curriculum aimed at developing professional proficiency. Read more...

Business Needs Report

What Business Wants: Language Needs in the 21st Century

The Language Flagship has undertaken one of the most systematic efforts, to date, to assess and understand the needs for global skills in business.  Over the past three years, this effort engaged over one hundred business leaders to identify the role and value of languages and cultural skills to business’ bottom line.  Equally important it identified potential roles for business as an integral part of a dynamic that will bring significant change to language education in the United States. The resulting report, “What Business Wants: Language Needs in the 21st Century” summarizes the findings that companies do need language and cultural skills on their staff for improving global business practices and for serving a domestically based multi-lingual workforce and clientele.