Mission Statement
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures provides students the opportunity
to gain a knowledge of the culture, literature, structure, and vocabulary of the diverse
languages offered. The department seeks to graduate majors and minors with an advanced
command of the written and spoken language and with the general analytical, critical
and communicative skills and global outlook essential to an educated member of society.
The department fulfills a service mission through offering foreign languages for students
who must meet the foreign language requirement, for students interested in language study
for intellectual and cultural enhancement, and for students and faculty in other
disciplines for whom a knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is a valuable
professional tool. In all cases, the department strives to broaden students'
awareness of the nature of language and of cultural and national diversities and
similarities. It also strives to break down the barriers of ethnocentrism and
xenophobia, thus increasing communication and understanding on an international scale.
The department strongly promotes the scholarly and pedagogical activities of its faculty,
who advance, preserve and transmit the collective knowledge of the discipline through
research, publication, teaching, and participation in professional life.
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech