Chairperson: Elizabeth S. Fouts

Professor: Teresa C. Mendez-Faith; Associate Professors: Elizabeth S. Fouts, Lourdes N. Jimenez, Nicole M. Leapley, Susanne M. Rossbach, Catherine A. Spitzer, Brother Andrew L. Thornton, O.S.B.; Assistant Professors: Julia Feldhaus, Caroline Wakaba Futamura, Jaime Orrego; Instructors: Carmen M. Sullivan; Lecturers: Marigen Delgadillo, Gregory G. Hevey, Eileen Rabbath, Jessie Tsai, Renee E. Turner.

Native Speakers: Margot Amboni, Nadiya Babina, Anne Thenin, Rina Ficek, Silvana Gomez, Ling Lu, Mikaela Noreng, Maria Teresa Peguri, Monica Peguri, Robert Perreault, Maria Cristina Rojas, Sonia Urbina.

Language is an inherent part of the human condition. It is a fact of consciousness, a mode of being, an intentional and intellectual structuring of reality. Foreign language study engages the entire person. It improves understanding of one’s own language through comparison and identification of linguistic structures. It increases intellectual capacity by exercising analytical and synthetic faculties: memory, attention, willpower, and self-discipline. It helps to exercise discrimination in the choice of words and to develop the ownership of a most valuable possession, a language sense, the feeling for correct form, for the exact word, for an elegant style; a skill that transfers into the student’s daily use of English.

Through a three semster sequence of courses in Chinese, French, German, Russian or Spanish, emphasizing understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, the department seeks to develop linguistic skill and provide cultural enrichment. In addition to regular classes, students attend Native Speaker sessions once a week. The Native Speaker program complements classroom study of a foreign language by giving students the opportunity to use the target language in a setting that models real-life situations. In small groups that are relaxed and conducive to interaction, students develop their speaking and listening skills as they converse with one another and with a native speaker whose voice, vocabulary and cultural background help to provide a mini-immersion experience that can foster fluency and confidence in speaking the target language. During the junior year or during the summer, a student may take advantage of approved study abroad programs in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Vienna, Madrid, Valencia, Granada, Geneva, Montreal, Lima, Mexico, Heidelberg, Saint Petersburg, Salzburg, and other cities.

The Modern Languages and Literatures Department has access to several study abroad programs for both majors and non-majors. For details, contact your language professor and the Study Abroad Office.

Programs

• French
• German Studies
• Spanish

• French Minor
• German Studies Minor
• Russian Minor
• Spanish Minor

Courses

• CN 100 - Chinese Semester I
• CN 150 - Chinese Semester II
• CN 200 - Chinese Semester III
• CN 300 - Special Topics in Chinese
• CN 301 - Special Topics in Chinese
• FR 100 - French Semester I
• FR 150 - French Semester II
• FR 200 - French Semester III
• FR 300 - Writing
• FR 301 - Advanced Grammar and Composition I
• FR 302 - Advanced Grammar and Composition II
• FR 303 - Conversation
• FR 320 - Culture and Civilization
• FR 321 - Contemporary France
• FR 325 - Cinema
• FR 350 - Survey of Literature I
• FR 351 - Survey of Literature II
• FR 353 - Short Story
• FR 354 - Early Narrative Literature
• FR 355 - The Novel
• FR 356 - Poetry I
• FR 357 - Poetry II
• FR 358 - Theater I
• FR 359 - Theater II
• FR 360 - Selected Topics
• FR 363 - Seventeenth Century Literature: Age of Classicism
• FR 365 - Eighteenth Century Literature: Age of Enlightenment
• FR 367 - Nineteenth Century Literature: Age of Romanticism and Realism
• FR 371 - Women Writers
• FR 373 - Francophone Literature
• FR 400 - Senior Seminar
• FR 460 - Selected Topics
• GR 100 - German Semester I
• GR 150 - German Semester II
• GR 200 - German Semester III
• GR 250 - German Semester IV
• GR 301 - Advanced German I
• GR 302 - Advanced German II
• GR 320 - Tales of the Brothers Grimm
• GR 321 - Business German
• GR 322 - Contemporary German Storytellers
• GR 323 - Translating German Prose
• GR 324-325 - Special Topics in German
• GR 325 - Special Topics in German
• RU 100 - Russian Semester I
• RU 129 - Russian Literature in Translation
• RU 150 - Russian Semester II
• RU 200 - Russian Semester III
• RU 300 - Special Topics in Russian
• RU 350 - Independent Study
• SP 100 - Spanish Semester I
• SP 150 - Spanish Semester II
• SP 155 - Healthcare Spanish I
• SP 200 - Spanish Semester III
• SP 300 - Spanish Semester IV
• SP 353 - Advanced Spanish Conversation
• SP 355 - Introduction to Spanish Culture and Civilization
• SP 356 - Introduction to Latin-American Culture and Civilization
• SP 357 - Introduction to Spanish Literature
• SP 358 - Introduction to Spanish-American Literature
• SP 361 - Spanish Literature before 1700
• SP 362 - 18th and 19th Century Spanish Literature
• SP 363 - Contemporary Spanish Literature
• SP 364 - Colonial Through 19th Century Spanish-American Literature
• SP 365 - Modern Spanish - American Literature
• SP 366 - Contemporary Spanish-American Literature
• SP 367 - Hispanic Short Story
• SP 368 - Problems in Spanish and Spanish-American Culture and Civilization
• SP 371-372 - Selected Topics in Spanish
• SP 400-401 - Spanish Senior Seminar
• SP 450 - Independent Study
• SP 480 - Spanish Internship