Department of Modern Languages
The Department of Modern Languages at Marshall University offers comprehensive programs in French, Japanese, and Spanish, including majors and minors, as well as minors in German. These programs are designed to enhance students’ linguistic abilities and cultural understanding, preparing them for effective communication in a global society.
The department emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills—such as observation, analysis, logical reasoning, memory, and adaptability—that are transferable to various academic disciplines and careers. By learning to understand, speak, read, and write in a foreign language, students gain direct access to diverse worldviews, fostering intercultural understanding.
“The study of foreign languages and cultures emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills—increased powers of observation, analysis, logical reasoning, memory, and adaptability—that are immediately transferable to other areas of higher education and to a diversity of careers. In learning to understand, speak, read, and write a foreign language a student acquires direct access to another view of the world at a time when intercultural understanding, both at the national and international levels, has become an urgent priority.”
