This analysis of the crisis facing the United States because of a general lack of interest in foreign language study deals with several facets of the problem. Its 12 chapters address the following questions or issues: (1) the traditional conflict between Americanization and cultural and linguistic pluralism; (2) the shift in the world economic pattern and the need for learning the languages of people who buy our products; (3) language, communciation, and national security; (4) the intimate connection between language and culture, and traditional American suspicion of anything "foreign"; (5) the state of language instruction in U.S. elementary and secondary schools; (6) the variation in language requirements and offerings in colleges and universities; (7) the quality of foreign language teaching at all levels; (8) less traditional approaches to FL learning; (9) examples of state leadership in the language teaching field; (10) trends in the foreign language job market; (11) the President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies; and (12) steps that can be taken by educational personnel, students, officials on the local, state, and federal level, parents, and the general public. (AMH)