departments should contend with the market approach to education and society's confusion over the "information explosion" and "communication crisis'' by revitalizing their programs in relevant ways.' As a first step, why not teach students how language functions?* A course introducing the nature of language from the broadest perspective could have the further advantage of unifying modern language, English, and other departments around a common core, another goal within the profession.3 The World of Language was designed to respond to such demands by providing a coherent framework for the updated study of foreign languages, English, and other disciplines, such as the visual arts and theatre.In this article we present the circumstances under which The World of Language was developed and point out its place in our curriculum. We then discuss the content and teaching of the course in more detail. Throughout, we suggest its usefulness for language programs in the eighties.
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