The United States lags far behind other countries, both developed and developing, in foreign language learning. The fact that so few Americans speak foreign languages puts the country in a perilous position in the present global knowledge economy. Even the U.S. government has started to take initiative and work to promote increased numbers of students studying what it deems “critical” foreign languages and specializing in geographic regions important to national security. In his article International Studies and Foreign Languages, featured in the well-informed Handbook of Practice and Research in Study Abroad, Charles Kolb, writes about this problem, calling the need for increased foreign language learning amongst the population “a critical American priority”.
Kolb, C. (2009). International Studies and Foreign Languages. The handbook of practice and research in study abroad: Higher education and the quest for global citizenship, 49.