ABSTRACT
Soon after the establishment of the FSA (1946) and the National Security Act (NSA, 1947), the FSI and the CIA became official US government departments (Honley, 2017; Robinson, 1948; Truman, 1996; US DOS, 2018). Both departments required foreign language skills to perform their duties (Robinson, 1948). The original FSOs were cream-of-the-crop candidates (Crew, 1947, June 18). However, barriers such as political promotions and limited budgets prevented the Institute from growing and developing to its potential. Officers were not linguistically prepared for their overseas assignments, and the use of interpreters created risks to US national security (Director of FSI, 1950; Sollenberger, 1951). As the Institute took on additional duties related to US national security, it realized the imperative to more accurately measure its officers' foreign language proficiency levels (Cruciani, Kaplan, & Stefanopolous, 1993; Ehrman, 1983; Jackson & Kaplan, 2001).
