Languages, Literatures, and Cultural Studies

Sonja C. Lynch; Zak K. Montgomery, Co-Chairs; Ethan C. Blass; Joyce E. Boss; Rachel E. Clark; Amy L. Nolan; Marta Ramirez Martinez

English

Wartburg’s English program offers students the flexibility to prepare for a wide range of careers through concentrations in literature, creative writing, and film and performance studies. Wartburg English graduates are employed by companies, organizations, and institutions that seek people who communicate well. Graduates work in human services, mass media, publishing, technical writing, and business; teach in the secondary schools here and abroad; or continue their education in business, law, English, and other graduate and professional degree programs. To give students the appropriate preparation, the English program focuses upon three curricular goals:

• To engage students in a variety of creative responses to human experience through encounters with ideas, values, and artistic achievements in written, spoken, and visual media.
• To assist students in understanding their own writing processes and in using writing as a tool for thinking, learning, and communicating.
• To prepare students to teach English, to become members of the business community, to work in human services, or to enter graduate and professional school.

Intended Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

1. demonstrate knowledge of texts (literary, cinematic, and other) from diverse cultures, periods, and geographical regions.
2. demonstrate understanding of the history, structure, and uses (literary and otherwise) of the English Language.
3. analyze texts using various theoretical approaches (e.g., gender studies, post colonialism, historicism, and others).
4. design and complete research projects and original scholarly and/or creative work.

Additional Student Learning Outcomes By Concentration

Students will:

• analyze texts that represent a variety of genres and literary forms (prose, poetry, drama, etc.). Literature concentration
• write with proficiency in multiple literary forms (including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting). Creative Writing concentration
• apply knowledge of cinematic/theatrical forms in evaluating and/or creating works in film and theatre. Film & Performance Studies concentration

Department Recommendation

Students considering applying to graduate school should consult with their advisers about the most appropriate preparatory undergraduate course selections.

Programs

• English, B.A.  

• Creative Writing Minor  
• Film and Performance Studies Minor  
• Literature Minor  
• Theatre Minor  

Major in English Teaching

For additional information on teaching majors and endorsements, see Education  Department listings.

• English, Language Arts Teaching (5-12), B.A.  

Modern Languages

Modern language programs prepare students for participation in the global village by developing mastery of a non-English language, multicultural awareness, and the professional versatility necessary to adapt to change.

A variety of degree programs provides a unique balance of course work on campus and abroad. Campus language courses bring students to a high level of proficiency, making use of multimedia resources and peer-taught tutorials. Culture courses survey a broad spectrum of human activity past and present, from political, economic, and social developments to artistic expression in literature and film. Students study abroad four weeks at the end of the first year and one term in the third or fourth year. They also can participate in off-campus internships and practica sponsored by the college.

The overall goals of the program in its German and Spanish curricula are to prepare students to become:

• Effective communicators in both their own and other languages by developing proficiency in another language and by comparative study of that language with their own.
• Astute analysts of other cultures by studying another culture in depth.
• Insightful about themselves and their knowledge by constant reconsideration and correction of their understanding of and positions on other cultures.
• Informed and knowledgeable across the academic disciplines by studying interdisciplinary cultural materials in the target language.
• Participants in multilingual communities and global society by being directly involved in another culture through total immersion experiences.

Intended Student Learning Outcomes

Spanish

Students will:

1. complete a variety of formal and informal communicative tasks enabling their language production to be understood by native speakers who are not accustomed to non-native speech.
2. better understand a culture other than their own through the study of a foreign language in an immersion setting both in the classroom and abroad.
3. participate in multilingual communities in a foreign country.

Modern Language Major Cultural Immersion Requirements

May Term Abroad

During May of the first or second year, students study for four weeks at a German or Spanish language institute and visit sites of interest (1½ course credits; GER 260/261; SP 260/261: SP 262/263).  Students may remain for a second four-week term and receive additional credit for 265 Term Abroad: Culture II (½ course credit) and 266 May Term Abroad: Intensive II (1 course credit).

Tutoring

Under faculty supervision, students develop language skills by tutoring groups of German or Spanish students (½ course credit each; GER 304; SP 304). Students tutor at the beginning level (104 Elementary I, 106 Elementary II) or at the intermediate level (204 Intermediate I) after Third-Year Study Abroad.

Third- or Fourth-Year Study Abroad

To perfect language knowledge and gain insight into the life and culture of other countries, majors spend one or two terms at an Austrian, German, Spanish, or Latin American university. Students complete at least five courses in German, or four courses in Spanish each semester (minimum of 12 course hours weekly). Within these five courses German majors spending one year abroad must complete one advanced language course and one advanced literature course per semester. German majors spending one semester abroad must complete two advanced language courses and at least one advanced literature/culture course. German studies majors must complete one advanced language course and one advanced literature/culture course. Within these five courses students studying Spanish must take one advanced language course and one advanced literature course each semester.

Department Recommendation

For German and Spanish majors and minors who choose a second language minor, 260 May Term Abroad: Culture I (½) and 261 May Term Abroad: Intensive I in the second minor are recommended.

Programs

• German, B.A.  
• German Studies, B.A.  
• Spanish, B.A.  

• German Minor  
• German Studies Minor  
• Spanish Minor  

Modern Language Teaching

For additional information on teaching majors and endorsements, see Education  Department listings.

• Spanish Teaching (5-12), B.A.   
• Spanish Endorsement (5-12)