World Languages and Cultures, Bachelor of Arts

Offered by the Department of Art, Communication, English, and World Languages

Whether you are interested in a language-intensive career (such as a translator, interpreter, teacher or professor of languages, regional area specialist, or international businessperson) or whether you are looking to enhance your career portfolio with language skills and cultural awareness, the undergraduate coursework in the World Languages and Cultures (WLC) Program at Mansfield University will help you build the analytical, critical, and communicative skills necessary for leadership in your career.  Because our program emphasizes cultural awareness, our students learn how language shapes their relationship with others and vice versa.  We are proud to help Mansfield students become global professionals in a multilingual, multicultural, and multinational world.

The WLC program emphasizes four basic language skills:  listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  We encourage our students to increase their proficiency through advanced courses and through study abroad.  And, whenever it is possible, we encourage them to apply their language skills to other areas of their academic, personal, and professional life.

Currently the WLC BA major offers three concentrations of undergraduate language study:  French, German, and Spanish.  Each concentration includes these core requirements:

1. Topics in WLC (Intro to Paris, Intro to German Film, or Intro to Latin American Cultures)
2. Phonetics & Language Structures
3. World Literature in Translation
4. A WLC capstone project
5. A required period of study abroad (courses taken abroad must be approved by your advisor)
6. Target-language intensive courses at MU

All WLC majors must take the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview to assess their proficiently level before they graduate.

Program Objectives:

Student Learning Outcomes:

• WLC graduates will understand and speak the target language at an intermediate-high or advanced-low level as described in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines.
• WLC graduates will read and write in the target language at the intermediate-high or advanced-low level.
• WLC graduates will be able to comprehend, analyze, and communicate the significance of linguistic and other cultural practices in settings where the target language is spoken.
• WLC graduates will be able to utilize their cross-cultural competencies in professional contexts to overcome challenges related to linguistic or other cultural barriers in intercultural settings.