Modern Languages and Literatures: General Courses

Modern Languages 150. Selected Foreign Languages.

Credits: Variable.

Certain foreign languages not listed above as regular course offerings are taught on occasion. Information concerning languages not regularly taught may be obtained from the Registrar or the department chair.

Modern Languages 240. Language Acquisition and Pedagogy.

Spring. Credits: 4

This course is a survey of a range of issues related to language acquisition and teaching. Among the areas covered are instructional methodologies and approaches, second language acquisition theories, language skill development, language teaching and learning technology, communicative and cultural competency, and assessment.

Rhodes offers a secondary licensure program within the Teaching and Learning track of the Educational Studies major. This program prepares students to teach middle and/or high school in one of eleven endorsement areas, including the following languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. The course of study for secondary licensure students is designed with guidance from faculty members in the discipline in which the student is being certified as well as members of the Educational Studies Program. All secondary licensure candidates are required to double major in Educational Studies and their endorsement discipline.

Modern Languages 260. International Science Fiction and Utopia: Shaping of Ideological Landscapes

Summer. Credits: 4

Degree requirements: F4 and F9

We are living through a time of great socio-political transformations, and history shows us that many cultural products labeled “science fiction” have become perfect metaphors of our fears and hopes (eg: Brave New World and 1984). Up to a point, science fiction allows us to objectively see the aspirations and taboos of our intellectual and ideological landscape. But what is then the relation between science fiction and utopia? In this course, we will widely question the limits of these two concepts by bringing together novels and films belonging to different cultural traditions. We will go far beyond the limits of Anglo-Saxon cultural production (More, Huxley, Orwell, or Kubrick, among others) and engage a body of international cultural texts and films (Zamyatin, Borges, Lem, Godard) which could help us understand the limits and points of contact of each tradition/culture; that is to say, the narrative nature of our "worlds."

Modern Languages 280. Introduction to General Linguistics.

Spring. Credits: 4

Degree Requirements: F9

The Introduction to General Linguistics course presents language as a specific object of knowledge, thought, science, and philosophy. Students will be introduced to the major linguistic theories and examine language as a system and structure at its various levels, as well as a tool to guide, plan, and monitor human activity. Offered in alternate years.

Modern Languages 460. Internship.

Fall, Spring. Credits: 1-4

Degree Requirements: F11

Internships in the departmental languages are occasionally available for language majors and permit a qualified student to receive academic credit for an internship experience on or off campus, for example by working with a business, a non-profit organization, or within the department itself. The internship, which requires of the student an advanced competence in a foreign language, must entail a significant encounter with a foreign language. Working with a faculty mentor, students must submit a project proposal for the internship prior to the beginning of the internship itself. The completed project will be graded by the faculty mentor. Intradepartmental internships will be reserved for students planning to continue their studies in a foreign language and culture beyond the undergraduate level. Such internal internships will involve working with a faculty mentor on projects of a diverse nature that seek to enhance the program offerings of the language section. Placements must be approved by the faculty mentor who teaches the language in question and the chair of the department. Internship credit will not be awarded retroactively and does not count toward the total number of credits required for the major or minor.
Pass/Fail only.