About the field of Foreign Language Education: Teaching a foreign language typically requires having an extremely firm grasp on at least two different languages. Students wishing to pursue such a degree would normally specialize in a particular language (along with the corresponding literature, culture, etc.) such as: African Studies , Asian Studies , French Studies , German Studies , Italian Studies , Middle Eastern Studies , Portuguese Studies , Russian and Slavic Studies , and Spanish Studies . Teachers of foreign languages are opening doors for their students as they help them to discover not only another language, but through that language, to discover another culture. Students who have become fluent in a second language can talk to a whole new group of people, read a new body of literature, and expand their horizons. Teaching a foreign language therefore opens doors not only for the teacher but for the students. Related fields may include: teaching English as a second language (TESL, TESOL) , teaching English , and linguistics .