Background The Modern Language Association supports a broad, intellectually driven
approach to teaching language and culture in higher education. To study the best ways of
implementing this approach in today's world, the MLA Executive Council established an Ad
Hoc Committee on Foreign Lan guages, chaired by Mary Louise Pratt, who served as the
association's president in 2003. The committee was charged with examining the current
language crisis that has occurred as a result of 9/11 and with considering the effects of this …