Foreign Languages for Business and the Professions at US Colleges and Universities

Abstract

at American colleges and universities as early as the 1920s, but language for specific purposes (LSP) courses did not begin to gain widespread acceptance in the foreign language curriculum until the 1980s. A major reason for the proliferation of LSP was the report of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (7), which focused on the decline of foreign language skills in the United States and emphasized the need for professionally linked foreign language courses. Linguistic skills, the report stated, are a plus when combined with professional knowledge in fields such as engineering, business, and nursing. In 1981, Grosse's sampling of Spanish for Business revealed that forty-six percent of the 267 responding institutions of higher education included this type of specialized offering. Likewise, her 1983 research on applied language studies at 1,008 colleges and universities found LSP at sixty-two percent of the 450 responding institutions, the majority of which offered courses in languages for business. The emergence of professional journals such as English for Specific PurposesJournal (1980), Journal of Language for International Business (1984), and Language International (1989) reflect growing interest in applied language studies. The International Association for Languages and Business, which held its fifteenth annual conference in Nottingham, England, in November, 1989, attests to long-standing interest in the field outside the United States and also demonstrates the rela-