Department of Languages and Literatures

Learning Outcomes in Foreign Languages

A. French and Spanish majors will demonstrate:

1. Oral proficiency at the Advanced-Low level, according to the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Proficiency Guidelines. Speakers at this level are "able to handle a variety of communicative tasks," participating "actively in most informal and a limited number of formal conversations on activities related to school, home, and leisure activities and, to a lesser degree, those related to events of work, current, public, and personal interest or individual relevance." Although communication at this level can be somewhat strained, with "noticeable self-correction and a certain "grammatical roughness," speakers at this level of proficiency "demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe in all major time frames... in paragraph length discourse" (ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines-Speaking. Revised 1999).

2. Writing proficiency at the Advanced-Low level of proficiency as described in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.  At this level students can "write about familiar topics by means of narratives and descriptions of a factual nature, and write simple summaries" using "major time frames with some control of aspect".  Although their writing demonstrates "sustained control of simple target-language sentence structures and partial control of more complex syntactic structures" it can be "understood by natives not used to the writing of non-natives through some additional effort may be required in the reading of the text (ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines-Writing. Revised 2001).

Oral and Written proficiency includes the following:

• • Mastery of the syntax, morphology, and semantics of the target language in both written and spoken form.
  • Knowledge of the organization of the target language’s sound system and the production of said sounds.
  • Understanding of the core concepts of the basic branches of linguistics, such as syntax, morphology, phonology and sociolinguistics as it pertains to the target language.
  • Recognition of social and regional variation as it pertains to the target language.

3. Knowledge of distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc. of the country or countries where the target language is spoken. This includes a critical understanding of the patterns of social interactions, as well as the meanings, attitudes, values, and ideas of the target cultures.

4. Knowledge of the main authors, literary trends, and styles (as connected with a given course’s focus and time period). Mastery of the technique of analyzing literature through close reading and the application of literary theory appropriate to the undergraduate level. Ability to conduct research and write a research paper of an appropriate length for the undergraduate level, in conformity with the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines and format.

B. Foreign Language students at the 102/L level will demonstrate:

       * basic proficiency in the understanding and use of a foreign language;

       * knowledge of the distinctive features of culture(s) associated with the language they are studying.