Foreign language instruction

At the beginning the model of the classics loomed so large that the fact that these languages were modern and living was treated as quite incidental. French and German texts were read in the manner of studying Cicero or Tacitus. Prose composition, regarded by teachers in the older public schools and in the universities as a great mental discipline, was adopted so as to prove to the skeptics that a modern prose could be as exacting as a classical one. (p. 50) • Students majoring in international studies, business, engineering, nursing, and so forth, who would like to develop proficiency in a second language to enhance their career opportunities, • Students who are studying languages “to meet specific personal or occupational desires or needs.�?.