About The Language Flagship

The Language Flagship 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 fluency in one of many languages critical to U.S. competitiveness and security.

The Language Flagship represents a bold and unprecedented effort to address the urgent need for professionals with advanced competency in critical languages. Through a combination of innovative campus curricula and overseas immersion, each intensive Flagship Program is designed to achieve professional proficiency, or level 3 as designated by the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) in the target language. Flagship programs are now available in African languages, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Korean, Persian, and Eurasian languages (Russian, Central Eurasian Turkic languages).

The Language Flagship is administered by the National Security Education Program (NSEP) in the U.S. Department of Defense and is a critical part of the National Security Language Initiative. To answer the call for professionals who can conduct high-level work in critical languages, NSEP formed strategic partnerships with recognized leaders in foreign language education. The Language Flagship began awarding grants to institutions in 2002 to create accelerated language training programs. The first students began the Flagship Programs in 2003. Nearly 200 students have successfully completed Flagship training.

Please visit http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/ to learn more about the history The Language Flagship, undergraduate programs, K-12 and K-16 programs, and other information.