Flagship Centers and Programs

The Language Flagship is a national initiative to change the way Americans learn languages through a groundbreaking approach to language education for students from kindergarten through college and graduate school. The program leads the nation in designing, supporting, and implementing a new paradigm for advanced language education. Through an innovative partnership among the federal government, education, and business, The Language Flagship seeks to graduate students who will take their place among the next generation of global professionals, commanding a superior level of proficiency in languages critical to U.S. competitiveness and security.

Flagship Centers and Flagship Partner Programs offer students intensive language instruction to enhance their academic degrees through the achievement of superior-level language proficiency and cultural competence. Programs are available at both undergraduate and graduate levels and include periods of rigorous language and cultural immersion at Overseas Flagship Centers. The Language Flagship also funds a select number of pilot K–12 programs designed to provide an articulated path of language instruction for students from elementary school through college and graduate school.

Bold, intensive, adventurous, useful—these are some of the words our graduates have used to describe The Language Flagship.

Our program is unique because it offers:

• Intensive language and culture instruction, including group training and individual tutoring, in a U.S. university setting
• Advanced language and long- term cultural immersion overseas where students  directly enroll in foreign universities
• Language immersion internships through our public-private partnership with international organizations and corporations
• The opportunity to attain professional-level language proficiency alongside a non-language academic major of students’ choosing  

What languages does The Language Flagship offer?

Flagship languages include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Korean, Persian, Central Eurasian Turkic languages, Russian languages, and African languages.

2009–10 Flagship Institutional Program Statistics

• 23 Flagship Centers and Programs
• 11 Overseas Flagship Programs
• 3 K–12 Flagship Programs