Our department offers languages instruction for students across the University.
Although there is no language requirement at Clark, every student is expected to take at least one course that deals with the interrelation between language and culture. This is called the Language and Culture Perspective, or “LP” for short.
Core course: The National Imagination
The National Imagination (CMLT 130) is the department’s core course, providing insight into our approach to fundamental questions of language and national cultures. The course is required for students majoring in Spanish or combined languages.
National languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. The National Imagination looks at those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—which lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations.
Students are trained to examine the nature of the national imagination as an idea that has shaped modern cultures. The course looks at a variety of cultural texts and contexts, including literature and the arts, news, and film.
The National Imagination is taught each spring semester, with a team of three professors focusing on the “imagined communities” that we call national cultures. A variety of different faculty have taught this course and will continue to do so, in order to give students the opportunity to look at as many different cultures as possible.
Courses Offered
We offer courses in the following languages:
American Sign Language (ASL)
- ASL 1010: American Sign Language I
- ASL 1020: Beginning American Sign Language II
- ASL 1030: Beginning American Sign Language III
- ASL 1040: American Sign Language IV
Arabic
- ARAB 101: Elementary Arabic I
- ARAB 102: Elementary Arabic II
- ARAB 105: Introduction to Arabic Culture
Chinese
- CHIN 101: Elementary Chinese I
- CHIN 102: Elementary Chinese II
- CHIN 103: Intermediate Chinese I
- CHIN 104: Intermediate Chinese II
French
- FREN 105: Intermediate French I
- FREN 106: Intermediate French II
- FREN 120: Ways of Writing and Speaking
- FREN 124: Popular Culture in France
- FREN 127: Media Workshop in French
- FREN 131: Readings in French Literature
- FREN 132: Readings in Francophone Literature
- FREN 137: Studies in Contemporary French Culture
- FREN 140: Francophone Writing and Film
- FREN 146: Advanced Oral Expression – Lecture/Discussion
- FREN 164: Haiti and the French Antilles
- FREN 165: Theater Workshop in French
- FREN 215: 20th Century French and Francophone Women Writers
- FREN 249: The French-Speaking World In the 21st Century
German
We offer courses in beginning and intermediate German (101-104), plus English language courses on German literature and culture. In addition, there are courses in German studies offered through Clark’s departments of Philosophy, History, Music, Economics, Political Science, and Psychology, as well as the programs in Comparative Literature and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. In many of these courses, faculty will work with students who want to develop their abilities to read materials in the original German.
Students may also take additional German courses at other colleges in the Worcester Consortium for Higher Education.
Students may study abroad at the University of Trier as well as the Free University of Berlin. Besides the German studies concentration, students may elect German as their primary language within the context of the comparative literature major.
Greek
We offer directed study in Greek.
Hebrew
Every semester, three Hebrew courses are taught at three different levels. Modern conversational Hebrew is taught in all levels along with reading and writing skills. In each course, Israeli literature is examined through short stories, newspaper articles, poems and songs. Jewish and Israeli culture is the main focus for teaching.
Our classes hold video conferences with students in Haifa University in Israel. Video conferencing enables students in both countries to share lectures and their opinions on the same different topics.
Students studying Hebrew might also be interested in the Jewish Studies concentration.
Japanese
Every year, we offer Beginning Japanese (101 in the fall, 102 in the spring) and Intermediate Japanese (103 in the fall and 104 in the spring). Students who wish to continue Japanese language study are urged to participate in Clark’s Study Abroad Program in Japan at Kansai Gaidai. In addition, Japanese 296, Advanced Topics, is available to students as a directed reading course.
Four courses in Japanese literature and culture give students a chance to explore literature in a cultural context:
- Japanese 110: Japanese Popular Culture: Narratives of National Identity
- Japanese 190: Japanese Women Writers
- Japanese 275: The Japanese Warrior Tradition
- Japanese 280: Memory and National Identity in Post-war Japanese Fiction and Film
For these courses, all the readings are in English (though students may elect to do some/all of the readings in Japanese), and no knowledge of Japanese language or history is expected or assumed.
Check the academic catalog to see which Japanese courses count toward majors or minors in Asian Studies, comparative literature, and the women’s and gender studies.
Latin
We offer these courses in Latin:
- LAT 101: Introductory Latin I
- LAT 102: Introductory Latin II
- LAT 103: Intermediate Latin
Spanish
- CMLT 130: The National Imagination
- SPAN 103: Elementary Spanish: Intensive
- SPAN 105: Intermediate Spanish I
- SPAN 106: Intermediate Spanish II
- SPAN 127: Practice in Oral and Written Spanish
- SPAN 131: Social Change in Hispanic Literature
- SPAN 132: Analyzing Stories and Poems
- SPAN 133: Hispanic Cultures
- SPAN 139: Hispanic Identities Around the World
- SPAN 200: Afro-Latinx Cultures in the Americas: Movement, Migration and Complex Identities
- SPAN 217: Hispanic Women Filmmakers
- SPAN 238: Hispanic Literature of Political Commitment
- SPAN 246: Studies in Spanish Cinema
- SPAN 299: Directed Study
Studies in Culture
- SPAN 140: Spanish Dramatic Expression
- SPAN 141: Spanish Translation Workshop
- SPAN 136: Women in Hispanic Literature & Art
- SPAN 205: Spanish Community Internship
- SPAN 237: Advanced Oral & Written Spanish
- SPAN 238: Hispanic Literature of Political Commitment
- SPAN 243: Latin American Essay and Thought
- SPAN 245: Latin American Short Genres
- SPAN 246: Studies in Spanish Cinema
- SPAN 259: Love and Care in Hispanic Cultures
- SPAN 296: Capstone
