The Language Flagship supports undergraduate and post-BA programs and a limited number of pilot K-12 programs. Flagship Centers are based at institutions around the United States and offer an on-campus curriculum coupled with a strategy for intensive study at an Overseas Flagship Center.
Though all Flagship Centers have the same goal–to create graduates of American colleges and universities who are professionally proficient in key languages–each Flagship Center follows its own pathway to reaching that goal.
The methodological approach of the language experts and the types of students
enrolled differ across programs and by language. Chinese is a high demand
language. This is reflected by the fact that The Language Flagship supports
five different domestic Chinese Flagship Centers and programs as well as
two different Overseas Centers. These Overseas Centers are coordinated by
the Chinese Flagship Academic Council, which ensures that the structure
and curriculum overseas is well articulated with the different domestic
curricula. In addition, at least two of the five Chinese Flagship Centers
work closely with Flagship-funded K-12 programs. Two Chinese Flagship Centers
offer post-BA/graduate degrees.
On the other end of the spectrum, The Language Flagship approaches the teaching
of lower enrollment languages by focusing on language groupings, such as
Central Asian Turkic languages, Eurasian languages, and African languages.
The Language Flagship approaches these languages through a partnership,
or consortial, approach. Recognizing that no one institution of higher education
has a large number of students who are prepared to learn these languages
at the higher levels, these programs engage multiple partner institutions
to create a critical mass of students. These students eventually study overseas
at selected locations that can accommodate direct enrollment at universities.
The Flagship approach is based on flexibility. Flagship Centers are designed
to accommodate students who enter the program at different levels of proficiency.
Some Flagship Centers focus on attracting students who already have intermediate-level
language skills. As Flagship Centers become more experienced in training
students at the higher levels, entering freshmen with no prior knowledge
in the target language may have to take an extra year to reach professional
proficiency.
Regardless of the language in which a student is enrolled, the pathway to proficiency ensures that students receive intensive, directed language and cultural instruction alongside their academic majors.