Wake-up Call: It's More Important Than Ever to Learn a LanguageThe study of Modern Languages within the College of Liberal Arts
curriculum contributes to the overall development of linguistic and
intellectual abilities - increased communication skills, analytical and
logical reasoning, and cultural adaptability- which are immediately
transferable to other areas of higher education and to a diversity of
careers. Modern Language majors enjoy many job opportunities in the fields of
law, government service, translation and interpretation, education,
communications media, library and museum science, publishing, law
enforcement, international business and the travel industry.
Our Majors and Minors in Spanish, French, German and Japanese offer a communicative approach to foreign language learning designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our primary objective is to provide students the opportunity to learn the speaking, listening, reading, writing, trans-cultural and technological skills which are necessary to achieve communicative competence in the target language and to effectively negotiate meaning in an increasingly multi-lingual and multi-cultural global community. Majors in Spanish Education and French Education provide future and current educators with the content knowledge required for excellence in teaching.
Our Masters Degree in Spanish continues this objective, allowing students to pursue further study in
Spanish in order to further their current careers or move into other
areas of academia.
The
Modern Language Association and the American Council of
Teachers of Foreign Languages provide essential
resources to help the department meet these goals. Many of our faculty are experts in their field, and are active in these and other organizations.
The Department is also currently offering pilot programs in the less commonly taught languages of Arabic, and Chinese. These courses may be used to fulfill the foreign language requirement.
