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2008-2009 Native Speaker Teaching Assistants

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Noisy le Roi (Albion's sister city in France)
Modern Languages & Cultures Newsletter, Vol 1, September 2007

Relevance of Modern Languages and Cultures Department at Albion College, and what distinguishes our department from other Modern Language programs

INTRODUCTION

Fluency in more than one language and also understanding other cultures are essential skills for living and working in our increasingly internationalized world. Studying languages allows you to step out of the confines of monolingualism. You will acquire an openness to other cultures, as you discover how other people think and express their ideas and beliefs. By studying another language, you will learn more about the history, customs, and ways of life of different groups of people as well as their remarkable intellectual and cultural contributions. Studying languages is, therefore, an integral component of a good liberal arts education.

Our courses emphasize language fluency

The Modern Languages and Cultures Department at Albion College offers majors in French, German, and Spanish as well as introductory and intermediate courses in Japanese. If you studied a foreign language in high school, you will be placed into a language class that corresponds to your score on the placement test. If you are interested in continuing course work in a language in which you have had one or more years of high school instruction please click on the "placement test" link at the top of this page and take the placement test.

Besides introducing students to culture, all the department's language courses emphasize the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Incorporated into classes are culturally authentic videos, films, radio programs and internet sites, as well as music from foreign countries. Native Speaker Teaching Assistants and advanced language students assist small groups of students once a week in tutorials for the first through third year classes. Language students also meet once each week for lunch with faculty, teaching assistants, native speakers and other students to practice their language skills in a more relaxed setting. Classroom study is supplemented with language CD's that can be used at any computer lab on campus or in your dorm room.

Cultural, historical, literary and filmic texts are the focus of the department's upper level courses, which are all taught in the target languages and which are designed to increase your awareness and understanding of different world views, arts and traditions. In this process, you will also gain a richer understanding of yourself and your own culture.

Other Opportunities for Language Practice

As a language major or minor at Albion College, you are required to to live at the Gerstacker International House, our unique multi-language living facility for all language students for at least one semester. Native Speaker Teaching Assistants help students learn more about the culture of their country, while also helping students refine their conversational skills in a residential setting.

The Foreign Language in Elementary Schools program (FLES) helps modern language majors spread the own enjoyment of language learning to the younger generation as they work in pairs with Albion grade school students.

All Modern Language majors and minors are strongly encouraged to participate in one of several approved Off-Campus programs. For more information see: Off-Campus Programs.

If you have any further question please take a look at the web pages for each of the language sections as well as our new major in Foreign Languages and Cultures for the Professions. (FLCP). On the faculty/staff page you will find contact information for each of the professors, who will be able to help you with any further questions you might have.

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