Internationalization, Interculturality, and the Role of Foreign Languages in Higher Education

Abstract

The Foreign Language Center at the European University Viadrina is presented and described. For the author, foreign language training is a requirement for all students in higher education as well as a necessity for Europeanization and globalization. Increasingly, employers of educated human resources will require that job applicants have a knowledge of several foreign languages. University-linked foreign language centers will play a major outreach role. They will serve their neighbouring communities and be a factor in local and regional development. Several ways of structuring foreign language programmes are presented and described.