Beyond Foreign Languages

In a globalized world, with only approximately 10 percent of U.S. undergraduate students studying abroad, it is imperative to expand international education both in terms of more flexible study abroad options so that more students will have the opportunity to study abroad and more importantly, in terms of international education on our campuses through internationalization of the curriculum, which would include courses with an international focus as well as an increased presence of foreign languages.

In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Education, international education has been defined as “the study of all aspects of society in other countries.”

According to the late former president of Fairleigh Dickinson University J. Michael Adams and his coauthor Angelo Carfagna in Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation, “language is a critical instrument that shapes one’s view of the world. Understanding the meaning of the words other people use yields perhaps the most insight into cultural differences.” International education, therefore, includes the study of other languages, and the lack of knowledge of other languages and about other cultures is a challenge to U.S. students planning to study abroad and to U.S. campuses welcoming international students about whose language and culture the students, and even faculty and staff, may know little.

In broader terms, the relative lack of foreign language skills among Americans negatively impacts our economic and national security, career opportunities for monolingual Americans in a globalized workplace, and the ability of Americans to effectively navigate our own multicultural and