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Department of

Languages and Literatures

About Us

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures strives for excellence in accomplishing its teaching function within the university, supports professional development and scholarly endeavors among its faculty, and encourages participation by departmental members in all levels of the academic life of the university.

In addition to providing the courses required by the University of San Diego's three-semester Core Curriculum program in eight languages, the department offers major and minor programs in French and Spanish, minor programs in German and Italian, and service classes in Ancient Greek, Japanese, Latin and Mandarin. In addition, the department supports the Master of Arts in Teaching, the bilingual and credential programs in the School of Education. It also serves in coordination and counsel for affiliated Study Abroad Programs which include the Guadalajara Summer Program. By its very nature, the department contributes significantly to the internationalization of the curriculum and cultural diversity.

At the lower-division level, the language programs are devised to enable students to acquire the basic structures and vocabulary to achieve communicative competence, as well as provide meaningful introduction to and a measure of familiarity with the cultures of the target languages. Upper-division courses are designed to further develop language skills, expand knowledge of the target civilizations with their sociological and literary manifestations, and their overall contributions to the progress of mankind over the course of history.