The Boren Awards: A Report of Oral Language Proficiency Gains During Academic Study Abroad

The new IIE report by Leah Mason, Christopher Powers, and Seamus Donnelly of the Boren Awards for International Study explores the language gains made by U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received Boren Scholarships and Fellowships for language study overseas between 1996 and 2011. To the authors’ knowledge, this report is, in size, the largest presentation of data on oral language proficiency development by U.S. college and university students during study abroad, and, in scope, it represents the greatest number of host countries and languages studied to date.

The Boren Awards provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.