ABSTRACT
Advocates for the study of world languages in the United States have traditionally offered a number of arguments and rationales for the desirability of students learning a foreign language. In general, these arguments have been concentrated in five broad areas: commercial and business needs; national security requirements; promoting cultural understanding; facilitating travel and tourism; and the transfer of skills. There are three sets of reasons for encouraging students to study languages other than their own: epistemological arguments, sociopolitical arguments, and interpersonal arguments. Education in general, and world language education in particular, can either be employed to empower and liberate students, or to oppress and disempower them. The Western tradition of liberal education historically centered in large part on language. The concept of the “educated person,” and its relationship to liberal education, has been a matter of considerable interest to philosophers throughout Western history.
