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School of Arts, Humanities and CommunicationsDepartment of Modern Languages |
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InformationThe Department of Modern Languages offers major and minor programs in French, German and Spanish, as well as introductory level courses in Chinese and Italian. Language instruction stresses the development of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing the target language. Offerings include courses in culture, literature, and language for special purposes. Besides meeting the needs of majors and minors, the department offers many lower-level courses to support the University's Core curriculum. These courses, as well as most others offered by the department, include frequent oral examinations to encourage students to develop listening and speaking skills. The department offers a wide array of extracurricular activities to complement course offerings: weekly language tables; active language clubs that sponsor film series, trips to museums, theatres and other off-campus events; and important outreach projects to regional Pennsylvania German and Spanish-speaking communities. To prepare students for challenging future careers, the department encourages all majors to declare complementary minors or double majors in other academic areas. The department's major programs place great emphasis on language proficiency, which is assessed by instruments such as video portfolios that record students' progress from the time they enter their respective language programs through their final comprehensive exam, and flexibility in upper-level course selection. This flexibility allows the required semester of study abroad, together with course requirements in other major and minor departments, to combine readily with the language major. Departmental advisors work closely with language majors and minors throughout their studies to help them define their career aspirations and to advise them in selecting graduate schools and other avenues for continued professional development. Department of Modern Languages
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