This article features the Foreign Language Assistance Program, also known as FLAP, which holds the distinction as the only federally funded program that exclusively targets foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools. Funded under Title V of No Child Left Behind, FLAP provides 3-year grants to states and local school districts…

From 1969 to the late 1980's, most French programs in schools were based on a traditional foreign language instructional model, usually offering 30 minutes a day of French language instruction in elementary grades, increasing to 50 minutes a day in middle school. Contingent on funding and political swings over time, programs expanded from…

The passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established foreign languages as a core curricular area. Nonetheless, educational policymakers at the state and local levels often opt to allocate greater resources and give instructional priority to content areas in which students, and ultimately the school systems themselves, are held…

Today, foreign language teachers are faced with more challenges than ever before. These challenges are due to technological advancements, new educational policies and reforms, a rapidly changing student population, and recent legislation and documents designed for educating "all" students. Most foreign language teachers who do not have…

In a state (North Carolina, 2006) that once pushed foreign language lessons as early as kindergarten, there has been a steady curtailing of instruction in second languages to devote more time and effort to basic reading and math instruction in English, two subjects heavily tested under the state's ABCs and federal No Child Left Behind…