Departmental Mission & Vision

The Department of Modern Languages is dedicated to providing effective undergraduate education in French, Spanish, and German languages, literatures and cultures, as well as quality graduate education in Francophone Studies and Spanish. The undergraduate program provides basic language acquisition courses that fulfill the language requirement of the College of Liberal Arts, as well as advanced language, literature and culture courses for majors, minors and other interested students. The department’s goals are: (1) to equip students with pragmatic communication tools in the respective target languages (French, German, or Spanish); (2) to increase students’ cultural awareness and openness to diversity, and to develop their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills through exposure to international perspectives, as well as Louisiana cultural issues, whenever appropriate; (3) to develop students’ literacy and enable them to understand significant works of literary or cultural importance, and to equip them with critical tools for literary and cultural analysis; and (4) to prepare students successfully for their individual professions in sectors needing professionals who can speak and understand languages other than English.