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World Languages & Cultures (WLC)

WLC is committed to creating a dynamic intellectual community of faculty and students dedicated to the study of language and culture, literature, linguistics, teaching, and translation. The department is home to the Center for Language Exploration, Acquisition and Research (CLEAR), graduate and certificate programs in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and 12 language and culture programs:
Our faculty work with students from departments and programs across the university helping them develop translingual and transcultural fluency necessary for their professional engagement with local, national, and international communities. Our graduate program in TESOL prepares educators of English as an additional language for the multilingual world.
We foster a learning environment that encourages the acquisition of language in tandem with the development of social and cultural awareness. Students have the opportunity to work with diverse and multilingual faculty who are experts in critical language pedagogy, linguistics, translation, and literature, as well as a wide range of theoretical and critical approaches as they relate to studies of culture, colonialism, race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, migration, and human rights, among other areas. WLC plays a major role in supporting AU’s mission to create an inclusive campus community that allows students to learn, engage with others, and become global citizens — see AU Core Courses in WLC.
Degrees & Programs
Undergraduate Degrees & Certificates
General
BA Foreign Language and Communication Media
Chinese
Arabic
French
- BA French Studies
- BA Language and Area Studies: French/Europe
- Minor French Language
- Minor Language and Area Studies: French/Europe
- Undergraduate Certificate Translation: French
German
- BA German Studies
- BA Language and Area Studies: German/Europe
- Minor German Language
- Minor Language and Area Studies: German/Europe
- Undergraduate Certificate Translation: German
Japanese
Russian
- BA Russian Studies
- BA Language and Area Studies: Russian/Area Studies
- Minor Russian Language
- Undergraduate Certificate Translation: Russian
Spanish
- BA Spanish Studies
- BA Language and Area Studies: Spanish/Latin America
- Minor Spanish Language
- Minor Language and Area Studies: Spanish/Latin America
- Undergraduate Translation Certificate: Spanish
- Combined BA/MA in Spanish and Latin American Studies
TESOL
What's after Graduation for WLC Students?
Many areas of business, industry, and government service consider a language background a career must. Recent graduates of the department have been employed in a variety of fields including translation, education, governmental and non-governmental organizations. Here are just a few examples of what recent WLC graduates are doing:
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Education
- Teaching Assistant for the French Ministry of Education and the Cultural Services in the Aix-Marseille Academy in France
- Instructor, Georgetown University Center of Language Education and Development
- Teaching abroad in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Peru, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, Switzerland, and Thailand
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Government
- Department of State
- National Security Agency
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Nongovernmental Organizations
- Organization of American States
- International Organization for Migration
- International Development Bank
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Translation
- Translator at CETRA, Inc., translation agency and corporate member of the American Translators Association
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Graduate Study
- Middlebury College
- University of Bath and Humboldt Universitat in Berlin
- George Washington University
- University of Miami: School of Law
- University of Texas-Austin
- Universidad de Carlos III in Madrid
News
Bulletins
WLC hosted the Albertine Cinémathèque Film Festival, October 31 to November 15.
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TESOL alumni Debora Amidani and Carlye Stevens are incorporating a digital storytelling project by Polina Vinogradova into their adult English language classes at DC’s Family Place Public Charter School.
- Naomi Baron weighed in on the use of “LOL” in the workplace in an article for MSNBC.
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Isabel Rivero-Vila’s film Afrykas et le Bôite Magique won Best Documentary Feature at the Cannes Independent Film Festival and Best Indigenous Film at The African Film Festival ans was an official selection at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival.
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Naomi S. Baron’s book How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio (Oxford University Press, 2021) was selected as a finalist for the 2022 PROSE Awards.
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Ranieri Moore Cavaceppi wrote “Hospitaller Aesthetics: The Self-Fashioning of a Supranational Military Religious Order.”
- Gemma Suñé Minguella wrote "Tula sin censura: un recorrido por la otra versión del clásico de Miguel Picazo."
- Erez Naaman authored “Authorship and Unity of the Classical Arabic Poem through the Lens of Collaborative Composition.”
- View more research and publications from WLC faculty.