Language Advocacy in the Post-WVU Era – Challenges and New Directions: Perspectives From French

In an interconnected and multilingual world, language and cultural knowledge are essential global skills, as they are locally in an increasingly multilingual United States. Within the context of declining enrollments in languages in US colleges and universities and elimination of foreign language majors at WVU, language advocacy is more important than ever. This article examines the rationale, importance, theory and best practices of language advocacy, with an overview of advocacy challenges and of strategies for success. Examples from three higher education institutions provide inspiration and pathways to effective advocacy that can be applied in a variety of institutional environments.