Foreign Language & Culture Requirement (FLCR)

The study of foreign language and culture provides a foundational undergraduate competency. Foreign language study will strengthen the development of cross-cultural awareness and intercultural communication, and provide opportunities for students to explore links between foreign language and other disciplines, and to prepare for and reflect on their study abroad experience.

All students (except native speakers*) will satisfy the FLC GCR by taking 10, 8 or 4 credits following one of the following platforms:

Platform Placement Required Credits Required Courses in a Foreign Language
1 110 10 cr. 110 + 120 + 132** (Platform 1 can also be completed by taking 110 + 120 + 130)
2 120 8 cr. 120 + 130
3 130 8 cr. 130 + one 200-level course
4 Beyond 130 4 cr. One 200-level or one 300-level course

If a student has questions or concerns about their placement results or if they believe that they have not been placed in the correct platform, they should contact the placement exam coordinator for the language. If a student enrolls in a course different from their original placement without explicit permission from the placement exam coordinator, they will not receive credit towards completion of the FLC GCR.

In order to ensure timely completion of the FLC GCR, students need to begin to study a language during their first year. Transfer students who enter as sophomores or higher should begin to study a foreign language immediately. For all students, unless there are extenuating circumstances, the final course to satisfy the FLC GCR should not be attempted in their senior year.

A student may not fulfill the FLC GCR by auditing a course. A student may not take any of the 100-level language courses as an independent study.

Definition of Native Speaker

A native speaker is a student who has completed his/her/their high school education in another language and culture. It is important to distinguish between native and heritage speakers. Native speakers are typically international students and citizens of another nation, were born abroad, and their family often still resides abroad. Students should be directed to the MLLC or the HLx center directors if they believe they fall in this category.

Students who are foreign nationals and/or native speakers and writers of a language other than English may be exempted from the FLC GCR if they provide evidence of their proficiency. Documents serving as evidence include a high school diploma from a school where English is not the primary language, and a note from a high school teacher or college faculty member from the student’s home country attesting to the student’s native-level proficiency in the language. Please contact Florence Martin, Director of the Center for Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, for more information.

Platform 1 Courses Information

SP 132 FR 133 are intended for students completing Platform 1 and not intending to major or minor in Spanish or French. If students intend to major or minor in Spanish or French, they should take SP 130 or FR 130 instead of 132/133. 132/133 courses may be repeated for credit if topic is different.

Placement Tests

Students must complete a placement test before enrolling in a Spanish or French language class or taking language courses abroad. On the basis of a placement test, students may be required to interview with our faculty, and will be placed in one of four platforms (see above). Transfer credits are awarded pending placement test results (see Transfer Foreign Language Credits). Placement results have an expiration date of one year-i.e., students need to retake their placement test after two or more semesters if they have not taken the language course in which they were placed, unless they have opted to satisfy their language requirement with the study of another language altogether. Regardless of an AP score, students cannot receive credit for Spanish without taking the Spanish placement exam and consulting the center director in order to be placed in the appropriate Spanish course.

Students interested in a language other than Spanish and French, should contact Florence Martin, Director of the Center for Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, for more information.

Outcomes

For more information about outcomes, please view the following information:

Learning Outcomes

The FLC GCR will be satisfied by earning a passing grade in the terminal course of Platform 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Culture Specific Outcomes

At the conclusion of their FLC GCR, all Goucher students will meet the following culture learning outcomes:

  • Demonstrate awareness that geographic, historical, economic, religious, and political factors have an impact on cultural perspectives, products and practices, including language use and styles of communication.
  • Demonstrate awareness that situational variables shape communicative interaction (verbal, non-verbal, and paralinguistic) and behavior in important ways. These variables include:

- Context and role expectations, including power differentials
- Age, gender, social class, religion, ethnicity, and place of residence

  • Demonstrate an awareness of some types of causes (linguistic and non-linguistic) for cultural misunderstanding between members of different cultures.

Language Specific Outcomes

Given the differences in difficulty of the languages offered at Goucher (including the need to master a new alphabet in Arabic and Chinese), and the different starting points of students depending on their placement, the language-specific learning outcomes will vary. Below is a description of the language-specific learning outcomes for students enrolled in French and Spanish. Differences in the learning outcomes for languages with a different alphabet are indicated with an asterisk. At the conclusion of these platforms, students should be able to:

Platform 1:


  • Write and speak using the infinitive and the indicative (present and past tenses). Recognize the subjunctive moods of regular and irregular verbs.
    *Students will perform with all but subjunctive mood and have fewer irregular verbs.

  • Understand information from sentence-length speech. Ask and respond to simple questions.

  • Create and connect simple paragraphs to write short, grammatically correct compositions with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
    *Students will be able to write a comprehensible, grammatically correct paragraph.

  • Find, and interpret multiple texts in varying modalities, including digital formats.

Platform 2:


  • Write and speak using the infinitive, indicative, and subjunctive moods of regular and irregular verbs to narrate and express opinions, emotions, influence, and doubt.
    *Students will write and speak with all the above except the subjunctive mood.

  • Understand, with ease and confidence, sentence-length speech in basic personal and social contexts.

  • Create and connect grammatically correct paragraphs to write compositions with a clear thesis, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
    *Students will be able to create and connect simple paragraphs to write short, compositions with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

  • Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate multiple texts in digital and other formats.

Platform 3:


  • Write and speak using the subjunctive moods of regular and irregular verbs, and all the major time frames of past, present, and future to narrate and express opinions, emotions, influence, and doubt.

  • Understand short conventional spoken narrative and descriptive accounts.

  • Plan, produce and revise grammatically correct narrative, descriptive and argumentative texts.
    *Students will be able to create and connect paragraphs to write compositions with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

  • Draw on texts in multiple formats to defend an argument and support it with primary sources.

Platform 4:


  • Write and speak using the appropriate moods and time frames of past, present, and future to express personal meaning, ask questions appropriately, and interact spontaneously in conversation.

  • Understand conventional spoken narrative and descriptive accounts, including narrations about past, present, and future events.

  • Write to narrate and describe in the major time frames of past, present, and future integrating relevant and supporting facts in connected, grammatically correct, paragraph-length discourse.

    *Students will do the same but will be slightly limited in their control of tense use in writing.

  • Compare and contrast the differences between kinds of texts in multiple formats (written and oral) to defend an argument and support it with primary sources.

NB - AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

ASL can satisfy the FLC GCR.  Since we do not offer ASL at Goucher, however, students will need to complete 4-12 credits at another accredited institution, according to the level of ASL at which they initially place. Interested students need to provide the director of the MLLC Center a detailed plan and corresponding syllabi from the higher ed institution dispensing the courses.

The sequence of ASL courses must include language and culture. Part of that cultural training would most likely include exposure to the world’s diverse sign languages and the fact that American Sign Language is not the same as British Sign Language, nor is French Sign Language the same as Canadian, etc. Please note that you may need to take 4 semesters of ASL (3 language classes + 1 culture class) in order to fulfill the language and culture requirement. 

 

Culture Courses

A list of culture courses is prepared by Accessibility Services, each semester and made available to students who complete the FLC GCR with culture courses.

Definition of a culture course

To be identified as a culture course, the particular course must focus on the culture of a language taught at Goucher College or one of our inter-institutional programs. A significant component of the course must be based on primary sources that emphasize one or more cultures outside the Western anglophone culture.  If a student wants to take a culture course at another institution, the course must be approved by the Director of the Center for Hispanic and Latinx Studies prior to the student taking the course.

Viki Zavales Eggert, director of the Hispanic and Latinx Center will assess the syllabus of the course for which students are requesting approval. Only courses with grades of D or higher may count towards completion of the FLC GCR.

Spring 2023 Culture Courses

Course Number Course Title Instructor
ARB 230 Introduction to Modern Arab Culture Dissenting Voices Liberating Visions Zahi Khamis
CHI 301 Sex & Gender in Traditional Chinese Literature  Clay Chou
CHI 302 Sex & Gender in Modern Chinese Literature  Clay Chou
COM Intercultural Communication Cara Dickason
FR/THE 272Y Intensive Course Abroad Mark Ingram
HIS 131 You Say You Want a Revolution? Changing China’s Culture, 1966-76 Evan Dawley
HIS 204 Modern Japanese History Evan Dawley
LIT 285 Contemporary International Fiction (India, Africa, Australia) Antje Rauwerda
VMZ 287 Preserving a World War II Diary Tina Sheller