Graduate Courses in Languages for Specific Purposes: Needs, Challenges, and Models

The 2007 MLA assessment of the state of foreign languages in higher education correctly identifies the need for restructuring both program curricula and governance in order to meet current student needs. In its recommendations for doing so, however, the committee inadvertently defines the goals and objectives of graduate foreign language programs as narrowly focused on the production of future academics. The current reality of the academic job market, institutional demands, and of the global economy calls for a critical reassessment of this assumption. This article considers the potential benefits of, and challenges to, broadening existing graduate curricula, specifically through the incorporation of courses in Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), and presents a model graduate LSP course. It is imperative that graduate programs in foreign languages broaden their goals, objectives, and course offerings beyond literary and language competency in order to remain relevant. Expanding graduate course offerings to include LSP as an integral component of existing curricula better equips students to adapt and apply their education to the ever-changing demands of today’s global society