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School of Languages, Cultures, and Race College of Arts and Sciences

Student Learning Goals and Outcomes

For Comparative Ethnic Studies majors

  1. Recognizes and summarizes impact and intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
  2. Identifies and articulates one’s social location in a complex, structurally unequal, and often contradictory world.
  3. Displays familiarity with multiple perspectives, employs other interpretations, and considers a range of human experiences in analysis.
  4. Identifies and assesses social norms and assumptions and envisions alternative social norms and practices.
  5. Asks critical questions and formulates a relevant research plan; accesses information tools to get relevant answers.
  6. Can articulate and utilize the basic tools and texts of the interdiscipline.
  7. Examines the influence of historical context on the formation of local, national, and global political and social narratives.
  8. Active and critical verbal and/or written discussion of issues from scholarly sources.

For Foreign Languages and Cultures majors

Students graduating with a foreign language major from the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race (SLCR) will be able to:

  1. Communicate effectively in the foreign language in a variety of speaking situations.
  2. Communicate effectively in the foreign language via proficient, articulate, and well-organized writing.
  3. Demonstrate comprehension of the spoken foreign language in a variety of listening situations.
  4. Demonstrate comprehension of a wide range of foreign language written materials.
  5. Demonstrate a clear understanding of the culture(s) of the foreign language studied.

By the time students graduate from our program, they will be able to:

  • Recognize and describe the cultural forces (history, social values, economic practices, and politics) that shape the professional practices in the target culture;
  • Analyze and critique professional behaviors and practices (through the history of specific companies, case studies, or current business events) within their context, including conducting basic research tasks;
  • Examine the validity of one’s own behaviors and norms in the professional world by contrasting and comparing them with those of the target culture;
  • Perceive and value diversity and reinterpret the place of the self as an identity culturally situated in the global context.

Specifically for Chinese majors

  1. Express themselves competently in a variety of oral situations.
  2. Read and comprehend texts of an intermediate high level in both traditional and simplified characters.
  3. Write at an intermediate high level of proficiency.
  4. Understand most native speakers when they speak clearly on familiar topics.
  5. Employ a variety of coping strategies to communicate orally and verbally.
  6. Demonstrate a familiarity with various aspects of Chinese culture, literature, cinema and history.

Specifically for French and Spanish majors

  1. Linguistic Proficiency
    Students can demonstrate an advanced low level of proficiency (as defined in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines) in the target language in speaking, writing, listening and reading.

    • Speaking: Students are able to handle a variety of communicative tasks. They are able to participate in most informal and some formal conversations on topics related to school, home, and leisure activities. They can also speak about some topics related to employment, current events, and matters of public and community interest.
    • Writing: Students are able to meet basic work and/or academic writing needs. They demonstrate the ability to narrate, describe and express viewpoints about familiar topics in major time frames with some control of aspect.
    • Listening and Reading: Students are able to understand short conventional narrative and descriptive texts (spoken and/or written) such as descriptions of persons, places, and things, and narrations about past, present, and future events with a clear underlying structure though their comprehension may be uneven. They can understand the main facts and some supporting details. Comprehension may often derive primarily from situational and subject-matter knowledge.
  2. Intercultural Competence
    Students will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of other cultures and their products. By the time they graduate from our program, they will be able to:

    • Recognize and describe the historical, social, economic, and political forces that shape society in the target culture;
    • Analyze and critique the products of the target culture (film, literature, art, popular culture, media, etc) within their context, including conducting basic research tasks;
    • Examine the validity of one’s own cultural beliefs, behaviors and norms by contrasting and comparing them with those of the target culture;
    • Perceive and value cultural diversity and reinterpret the place of the self as an identity culturally situated in the global context.

Specifically for second majors in French, German, and Spanish for the Professions

Linguistic proficiency: Students can demonstrate an Intermediate Mid-High level of proficiency (as defined in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines) in the target language in speaking, writing, listening and reading.

  • Speaking: Students are able to handle a variety of communicative tasks. They are able to participate in basic professional conversations on topics related to formal introductions, education, description of companies, products or services relevant to their specific career, as well as traveling for business. They can also speak about some topics related to employment, marketing, management, advertising and relevant current events within their professional area. In addition, they are equipped to conduct mundane business practices in person or by phone, such as scheduling or canceling appointments.
  • Writing: Students are able to meet basic work writing needs. They demonstrate the ability to narrate, describe and express viewpoints in major time frames about professional topics such as companies, products, and services, employment, marketing, management, advertising and current events as they relate to their specific career. In addition, they can write a complete résumé including details about their education and past professional experience, and compose business letters on specific issues.
  • Listening: Students are able to understand short conventional spoken narratives and descriptive dictated texts related to simple topics/practices relevant to their professional area with basic understanding of time structures, though their comprehension may be uneven. They can understand the main facts and some supporting details. Comprehension may often derive primarily from situational and subject-matter knowledge.
  • Reading: Students are able to understand short conventional written narrative and descriptive texts such as education, description of companies, products or services, employment, marketing, management, advertising and current events relevant to their professional area, with basic understanding of past, present, and future events though their comprehension may be uneven. They can understand the main facts and some supporting details. Comprehension may often derive primarily from situational and subject-matter knowledge.
  • Intercultural competence: Students will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of other cultures and their norms as they relate to professional dealings.

For Humanities and Social Science Majors

Goals

All undergraduate students completing a bachelor of arts degree in humanities or social sciences will engage in a variety of activities designed to further the programs’ learning goals:

  1. To expose students to a thorough and integrated study of social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, the arts, and other related disciplines as appropriate to the degree pursued, that will allow them to develop a deep, broad, diverse, and transdisciplinary perspective and understanding.
  2. To expose students to a diversity of ways to integrate and synthesize knowledge from multiple sources.
  3. To help students develop means of expressing concepts, propositions, and beliefs in coherent, concise and technically correct forms appropriate to their professional goals.
  4. To help students think, react, and work in imaginative ways stimulated by a higher degree of disciplinary synergies that will promote transdisciplinary innovation, and divergent thinking.

Outcomes

A student completing the BA in Humanities degree program will be able to:

  1. Integrate learned skills and knowledge derived from the study of the humanities and/or the arts and other related disciplines, acquiring the necessary depth and breadth required for a transdisciplinary perspective.
  2. Demonstrate proficiency in using disciplinary-appropriate methods for research, critical analysis, creative work or professional performance.
  3. Communicate conclusions, interpretations, and implications clearly, concisely, and effectively, both orally and in writing for different types of audiences.
  4. Articulate and apply values, principles, and ideals derived from an individual as well as integrated understanding of their areas of study that demonstrate awareness of current societal challenges.