SHAPE YOUR PLAN
Preferred languages
Boren Fellowships are unique in their focus on language and culture, and they provide a perfect opportunity for those with strong language skills to make significant progress. Study of a foreign language appropriate to the identified country must be an integral part of each application.
The language component of your proposed program should increase your proficiency. You should take into account any prior knowledge and experience in the proposed language when designing your study abroad program. Whether or not you have studied the language previously, you should consider how your plan offers you opportunities to make substantial progress.
Since the Boren Fellowship encourages students to study in countries whose languages are less commonly taught at U.S. institutions, it is anticipated that some applicants will not be familiar with the language of their chosen country. Prior study of another language will serve as an indication of interest and aptitude.
We realize that the following list cannot encompass all languages critical to U.S. national security, so we welcome applications that propose the study of other languages.
| Albanian |
Mandarin |
| Amharic | Mongolian |
| Arabic (and dialects) | Pashto |
| Armenian | Persian |
| Azerbaijani | Polish |
| Belarusian | Portuguese |
| Bulgarian | Romanian |
| Burmese | Russian |
| Cantonese | Serbo-Croatian |
| Czech |
Sinhala |
| Georgian | Slovak |
| Hebrew | Slovenian |
| Hindi | Swahili |
| Hungarian | Tagalog |
| Indonesian | Tajik |
| Japanese | Tamil |
| Kazakh | Thai |
| Khmer | Turkmen |
| Korean | Turkish |
| Kurdish | Uighur |
| Kyrgyz | Ukrainian |
| Kazakhstan |
Urdu |
| Lingala |
Uzbek |
| Macedonian |
Vietnamese |
| Malay |
Spanish and French, while commonly spoken in Latin America and the Caribbean and in some parts of Africa, are not preferred languages of study. If you apply to study in a Spanish- or French-speaking country you must have advanced proficiency in the language. Students who are at an advanced level of Spanish or French must keep in mind that their proposed program should not emphasize language training. Rather they should use Spanish or Fench in course work or research related to their fields of study.
Fellowship funds cannot be used for the study of French or Spanish unless such language instruction is at an advanced level or is combined with the study of applied science or engineering. IIE/NSEP will verify the self-assessed competency level of these grant recipients through a commonly used testing instrument.
Evaluating Language Instruction
The language component of your proposed study plan must incorporate opportunities to learn a language in a context that is meaningful to your language proficiency and language learning goals.
If you take part in an organized study abroad language program as part of your overall plan, here are some issues to consider:
- Does the program offer language courses that emphasize rigorous study and practical use of the contemporary language leading to increased proficiency in reading, speaking, and listening?
- How many classroom contact hours are offered in the language study? Will this be sufficient to increase your language proficiency?
- Are there opportunities to study the language in small groups tailored to your proficiency level?
- Who are the faculty who teach language? Are they native speakers with extensive experience in teaching foreign students?
- Is there a full-time U.S. resident director at the institution who will help oversee your academic and cultural programs and monitor your language learning?
- Are there serious opportunities for living in university housing or home-stays where the foreign language will be spoken on a regular basis? How are home-stay families selected?