Placement / Credit by Exam
Media Center / Tutoring Center
Language Resources
ML Podcast Series
100 Years of Languages
Advisory Council
Dr. Orlando Kelm from UT Austin delivers the 2015-2016 Paul G. and Ernstine G. Hatcher Lecture on Global Competency.
Area high school students participate in a SWAG (Start with a Goal) event led by Arabic instructor, Lhousseine Guerwane (front row, right).
Cast and crew members of a Beijing drama performed by students in the Chinese Majors & Minor Program.
Cast members of a Beijing drama performed by students in the Chinese Majors & Minor Program.
Russian instructor, Ekaterina Myakshina, teaching a Russian dance to students participating in Russian Day festivities.
A Japanese 102 class in their self-made Samurai hats.
Spanish Student at a Local Hispanic Market
Russian Doll at the Bowling Green International Festival
A Message from the Department Head
Welcome to the Department of Modern Languages. I hope you find our programs a welcoming place to develop your language proficiency and enhance your career opportunities.
If you would like to major in a language, you can choose from among Arabic, Chinese, French, German and Spanish. You can take two years of Japanese and Russian, and one year of Korean. Italian is offered on study abroad. Give yourself a competitive edge in today’s job market. Add a world language to your skill set.
If your goal is to complete your language requirement, you have a choice to make. I encourage you to take action right away. As a student in the Colonnade Program, you can choose to demonstrate proficiency, take a course in a language you already started, or start a new language.
The easiest way to demonstrate proficiency is by taking a STAMP test. You can submit scores from a STAMP test taken at your school, or you can take the STAMP test here at WKU. Taking a STAMP test is the least expensive route for completing the requirement in a world language. And the pass rate is over 90%.
Download the info sheet.
Click through your options by language.
Read about the Colonnade Program World Language Requirement.
Information Session on the World Language Requirement (March 30, 2016)
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”-- Nelson Mandela
Mission statement
Through coursework, experience abroad, and other cultural encounters, the Department of Modern Languages cultivates communicative skills and cultural awareness that prepare students at Western Kentucky University to be more knowledgeable and sensitive citizens of the local, regional, and global communities. The Department's purpose is to deliver high-quality language instruction based on nationally-recognized standards, and to contribute actively to cross-disciplinary international initiatives on campus. Our programs are designed to graduate majors and minors whose language skills provide them with enhanced opportunities for careers at the regional, national, and international levels and/or preparation for advanced study in language, literature, and culture.
Dr. Laura G. McGee
Department Head
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