ABSTRACT
The Entrenchment period commenced with the US government passing foreign policy which facilitated the country's ability to use American funds in order build allies (United States Department of State (US DOS), 2018). As a result, the FSI took on the role of protecting America's identity and values through preservation of foreign relations (Duce, 1953, September, p. 6). This period also revealed the critical relationships that the FSI developed with the US military and American universities (Smith, 1954, July 16). As the country's foreign language needs grew, the FSI was more strongly compelled to find a way to measure service personnel's language proficiency levels. As a result, the Institute developed the country's first language proficiency assessment framework (Jones, 1975; Liskin-Gasparro, 1984; Sollenberger, 1978; Wilds, 1975). After the successful Soviet launch of Sputnik, the US government actively promoted math, science, and language education in public schools (Saracho & Spodek, 2006). By this point, bilingualism was equated with national security; however, the FSI continually struggled to acquire sufficient numbers of bilingual FSOs and quality interpreters (Linch, 1958). Urgency to develop bilingual personnel expanded interest in language instruction in public schools, Congress, and the American public (Johnston, 1958). Russian, in particular, became a language of high priority as it was viewed as a means for providing internal defense against communism (Byrne, 1961, June 1). Despite its diversifying role and growing notoriety as a language specialist, the FSI continued to experience fiscal challenges (Smith, 1954).
