Defending the FL Requirement in the Liberal Arts Curriculum

Abstract

The writer recently sat on a university committee formed for the express purpose of considering the role of modern and classical languages as a required part of the liberal arts core curriculum. The arguments here presented—both pro and con foreign language requirement—reflect the ideas and opinions primarily of colleagues outside the foreign language profession and provide numerous insights into the thoughts of those very individuals to whom we must repeatedly justify the foreign language requirement. An awareness of these arguments can prove most beneficial to foreign language teachers, administrators, and researchers at virtually every level of education.