The courses offered by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures provide a rich means for the intellectual and aesthetic development of Holy Cross students through the study of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures. While foreign languages play a key role in Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian Studies, and German Studies, they lie at the very heart of the broader liberal arts curriculum and should therefore be considered by each student regardless of area of concentration.
The Department offers courses in American Sign Language, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Major programs, consisting of at least ten semester courses on the intermediate level or above, are offered in French, German, Russian, and Spanish; Chinese may be incorporated in an Asian Studies major. Students are assigned their own advisor within the Department to help them devise their individual curriculum. Advisors see to it that students are aware of the College's many academic opportunities. They urge students to enrich and broaden their major programs by taking additional courses drawn from a wide range of humanistic and professionally oriented areas. Classroom instruction in the languages is complemented by small group practice with native foreign language assistants and through the use of state-of-the art facilities in the Multimedia Resource Center. Co-curricular activities are provided by weekly language tables, language clubs, honor societies, film series, lectures and cultural outings. All students, and modern language majors in particular, are encouraged to avail themselves of study abroad opportunities. The College has its own programs at sites in China, France, Italy, Japan, México, Peru, and Spain, and actively promotes student participation in major study abroad programs all over the world. The Department also offers a major program in World Literatures. Courses are conducted in English and employ translated texts. The program is designed to introduce students to the best and most representative works of world cultures. Students are expected to develop intermediate competence in at least one national languages to assure direct contact with original texts.
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