Current concern over the link between the teaching of foreign languages and cultures is itself an American cultural concern, born of a specifically American educational tradition focusing on utility, democracy, and scientific measures of progress. State guidelines for integration of the teaching of languages and culture reflect the following issues: skill vs. content; political goals; nonacademic objectives; and academic learning outcomes. These contrast with the situation in France and Germany, where foreign languages do not need the extensive legitimation they do in the United States. The need to account for the cultural dimensions of language forces review of the traditional, positivistic conception of quantitative, normative, linear language learning. Several developments on the national level in the United States make foreign languages part of the general push for curricular internationalization, including increased interest international studies, establishment of a National Foreign Language Center, and addition of cultural proficiency guidelines. The notion of the global village and the assumption of universal pragmatic needs is an obstacle to genuine understanding of other world views. Traditional questions asked of foreign language education in instructional settings must be reframed to form an intercultural pedagogical approach. (MSE)