Undergraduate Programs - Introduction

A major in modern languages and literatures may lead to a B.A. in French, German, Spanish, and Spanish for International Services, or in Modern Languages and Secondary Education. In addition to the three major language specializations, the department offers courses in Italian, which may be used to fulfill the second language requirement.

 

Undergraduate programs in modern languages and literatures stress both practical and humanistic goals. A series of graduated language courses permits acquisition of oral, aural, and written mastery of a foreign language. A comprehensive program of courses in literature and civilization, ranging from introductory surveys through period and genre offerings to seminars treating individual major authors, provides, in depth and in breadth, the experience of another culture and of its modes of thought and expression.

 

A major in modern languages and literatures provides its graduates with both a specific area of skills and competence and a sense of the relationship between their particular discipline and the large body of knowledge that is the patrimony of liberally educated persons. Majors learn to express themselves clearly and correctly through required advanced language courses (200 through 400 levels). They acquire a general knowledge of the literature as a whole in survey courses and a deeper knowledge of special areas in the courses that follow, including a number of 500-level electives. The final course taken by the concentrator, the senior seminar, coordinates all knowledge and skills acquired. A joint B.A.-M.A. program is available to qualified students in Spanish.

 

Students may choose to develop a minor in French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Consult the individual language programs below for further details.

 

For students not majoring in languages, distribution requirements in literature as well as in humanities, as outlined under B.A. degree requirements, may be fulfilled by a number of courses offered by the department.

 

Note:   All entering students and transfer students with one year of college French, German, Italian, or Spanish, and wishing to continue in that language, are required to take a placement examination. The resulting placement will be valid up to one semester after the date of the examination.