Foreign Language Requirement

General Description
 
A liberal arts education is not complete without a familiarity with another language that is meant as a gateway to another culture and history. Achieving a proficiency in a language other than one’s own enables a student to acquire a greater understanding of the world in which we live. Undergraduate students should be introduced not only to practical experience in a second language but also to an understanding of another culture through the study of that culture’s language. As a step towards that goal, we require students to take two courses, regardless of level, in a foreign language. For optimal learning, proper testing/placement will be implemented.

Goals

In keeping with the goals as outlined in the College’s General Education Goals document, the foreign language requirement enables students to get to know the world and to become engaged with it. In addition to gaining the inherent linguistic and intellectual benefit of learning a second langauge, students must prepare to live as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world. Foreign language courses and experiences help students to do this by providing the foundations for a more intensive exploration for understanding international issues, other peoples and other cultures, and the nature of responsible, engaged global citizenship. To this end, students need todemonstrate an informed understanding of at least one other culture.

Outcomes

As a result of their college education, students will be able to:

• Express themselves at an appropriate level in the target language
• Read text at an appropriate level in the target language
• Demonstrate an understanding of the linguistic structure of the target language at the appropriate level

• Explain their own cultural perspectives and make meaningful comparisons between it and other cultural perspectives

Logistics

Students must complete two semesters of language study. Students will be placed at an appropriate level, based on testing conducted by the foreign language department. Current practices for exemptions on the basis of demonstrated learning disabilities will continue. No other exemptions will be allowed. Students may be required to take more than two foreign language courses by some programs.

Meeting Adjourned at 5:30
Respectfully submitted,
Dan Falabella