Education and Language Acquisition Department, LaGuardia CC

Modern Langauges and Literatures Program

The study of foreign languages and literatures has been at the core of liberal arts studies for centuries. Following that tradition, the Modern Languages and Literatures Program emphasizes the development of cross-cultural communication, appreciation of literature, multicultural understanding, and analytic and interpretive capacity. The Modern Languages and Literatures Program offers students the opportunity to study more than a dozen different languages and national literatures (i.e., American Sign Language, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Tibetan, Polish, and Portuguese).

Mission Statement of the Modern Languages and Literatures Program

Provide students with excellent instruction and relevant academic resources in the areas of language, literature, civilization and urban studies. In all courses, the program encourages students to attain the highest level of proficiency and cross-cultural competence so that they can participate in a multilingual community and compete in a global society.

Why you want to consider taking the modern language courses

Exploit your bilingual skills
If you are already proficient in one of the languages we offer, you may take an higher-level language course and earn exemption (extra) credits. You can use those credits as part of your graduation requirements (the maximum number of exemption credits differs for different majors).
Get your language requirement out of the way before you transfer to a 4-year college
Many majors at a 4-year college have foreign language requirements. It takes at least 1 year to complete the language requirement and it might delay your graduation plans. Why not start now?
Take advantage of cultural diversity at LaGuardia:
Our students come from 150 different countries and speak more than 80 languages. Why not take advantage of our cultural diversity to develop your future career?
A wide range of language proficiency levels and literature courses
We have a wide range of proficiency levels and various genre of literature courses. We offer courses in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, American Sign Language, Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese. In Spanish, for example, we offer "Elementary Spanish (ELS101/102)", "Intermediate Spanish (ELS103/104)", "Spanish for near-native speakers (ELS105)", "The Puerto Rican Community (ELN194)", Latin American Literature I&II (ELS200/201)", "Advanced Spanish Composition (ELS210)", "Latin American Fiction in Translation (ELS250)", and "Commercial Spanish (ELS220)".