Introduction

This chapter describes the first decade of the Language Flagship, beginning with a discussion of the national need for a systematic approach to creating opportunities for advancedto superior-level language learning in US post-secondary education. It discusses how the Language Flagship was developed within the context of language education in US higher education and follows with an analysis of the initial implementation and subsequent evolution as the Flagship began involving increasing numbers of institutions of higher education, faculty and students. The chapter covers the programmatic decisions that established clear expectations necessary for professional-level language learning outcomes at universities while at the same time creating the realistic opportunities for undergraduate students to achieve proficiency. It discusses how the Language Flagship strived to maintain a balance between a process driven by federal needs and one that represented a strategic investment in the development of capacity and expertise to address a fundamental long-term shift in philosophy and approach.

The Flagship Concept

The Language Flagship is one of the more important national innovations to language learning within the US higher education system. Flagship established for the first time a responsible and accountable partnership between the federal government and higher education with a goal to produce high-level language proficiency skills, identified as a critical shortfall by the national security community throughout the 1980s and 90s (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, 2008). The events of 9/11 served to galvanize support for efforts to challenge higher education to enable students to graduate with certified foreign language proficiency. A 2002 review of the US Department of Defense language requirements identified the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 (Appendix A), General Professional Proficiency, as the target proficiency level necessary for professionals to perform their duties adequately. College and university graduates with such language skills were seen as an important new resource for a civilian workforce (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, 2005).