About the School

The School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) is the primary academic unit on the University of Maryland's College Park campus devoted to instruction and research in the world's languages, literatures, and cultures. Located in Jiménez Hall on the campus' main mall, the School is a unit within the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU). Formed in 2001, it consists of the Departments of Asian, East European, and Middle-Eastern Languages and Cultures; French and Italian Languages and Literatures; Germanic Studies; and Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; and the Second Language Acquisition program. It also houses a number of research centers; the FOLA (Foreign Language Acquisition, individualized instruction) program; and Language Media Services. The School offers study abroad programs in Nice, Alcalá, Barcelona, Manheim, Tokyo, and elsewhere. Its Language House, a residential immersion facility for approximately 100 undergraduate students located in St. Mary's Hall, is one of the most successful living-learning programs on campus.

Faculty and Staff

The school is home to over 50 tenured and tenure-track faculty, approximately 20 full-time Lecturers, and approximately 40 TAs, making it the second largest unit in ARHU in this respect. Many SLLC faculty enjoy national and international reputations. Five have been named Distinguished Scholar-Teachers, and several are recipients of national fellowships and awards, e.g., Guggenheims and Fulbrights, as well as a variety of national and international prizes, such as the Premio Pablo Neruda, won in 2003 by Professor Jose-Emilio Pacheco. There are also a number of distinguished affiliate faculty members in surrounding departments, including Linguistics, Philosophy, Communication, Educational Measurement and Statistics, Psychology, and Hearing Speech Sciences, and at the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) and the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC). Every unit in the School has a prolific record of scholarly and creative work, including books, journal articles, and documentary films.

Three new faculty members were hired in Fall, 2004: an Assistant Professor in French literature, a Full Professor of Arabic language, and a Full Professor of Persian literature. Fall 2005, saw the arrival of a new Full Professor of SLA, and an Assistant Professor of Chinese. An Associate Professor of Francophone Studies was added in Fall 2006. Five searches are currently underway in Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Japanese and Spanish/SLA.

There are 13 highly qualified and experienced full-time staff members. Five work in Academic Affairs, and eight in Administrative Affairs.

Undergraduate Instruction

Both majors and minors are available in each of the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. An inter-departmental major, and graduate certificate in Middle-East Studies, are in the planning stages. Regularly scheduled courses are also available in Korean, Portuguese, and Hebrew, the latter leading for those interested to a minor or major in Jewish Studies. An additional 10-12 languages are offered on through the FOLA program. They include Armenian, Dutch, Hungarian, Hindi, Urdu, Swahili, Tagalog, Polish, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Over 4,000 students per semester take courses in one or more of the School's programs.

The School demonstrates its commitment to superior undergraduate teaching by conducting a week-long orientation and training session for its approximately 40 teaching assistants.  A Coordinator of Language Teaching and Testing works to enhance the quality and instruction in the School. The School currently offers a variety of study abroad programs, summer intensive courses and language institutes, along with other opportunities for overseas study through winter-term courses. Students seeking additional information about these and other SLLC programs should consult the undergraduate advisor in each department.

See our undergraduate program information

Graduate Instruction and Research

M.A. and Ph.D. programs are offered in Spanish, French, German, and SLA. There is also a M.A. in Second Language Acquisition and Application (SLAA), with tracks in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. The presence of a dedicated SLA research facility in Jiménez building enables faculty and students to carry out work on language learning, teaching, and assessment. Tracks in other languages are anticipated soon. A new cognitively and psycholinguistically oriented Ph.D. program in Second Language Acquisition (open to students working on any language) was approved in February, 2005, with the first doctoral students admitted in Fall, 2005. A proposal for a new Ph.D. in Culture and Language Studies is currently in process.

In recent years, SLLC graduate students have organized conferences on selected themes, with student presentations and visiting plenary speakers. In April, 2003, the School held its first Graduate Forum, celebrating the achievements of students nearing completion of their graduate studies. The Forum has since become and annual event. Many graduates of all these programs go on to hold faculty positions of their own in the USA and overseas.

See our graduate program information

Research Centers

The School is in the process of establishing a number of new research centers. The first, the Center for Persian Studies (CPS), was officially opened in its new facilities in November, 2004, with the eminent Iranian literary and cultural scholar, Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, as its founding Director. A Center for East Asia Studies (CEAS) was established in Fall, 2005, with Professor Robert Ramsey as Director.  Two more Centers are anticipated soon: a Center for Research on SLA and Cognition (CERESLAC), and a Center for Research on Less Commonly Taught Languages (CRLTCL).

Strong collaborative relationships exist between the School and two other prominent research centers at Maryland: the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), and the new, federally funded Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL).

Administration

The School's administration consists of the Director and Professor of Second Language Acquisition, Mike Long; an Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Professor of French, Pierre Verdaguer; an Associate Director for Administrative Affairs, Charlotte Groff Aldridge; the four department chairs; and the SLA program Director. These individuals make up the School's Advisory Council, which meets weekly. This is the main policy grouping in the School, but major new proposals are referred to School-wide referenda, voted upon by all faculty and staff. A new position of Assistant Director for Instruction was established in Fall, 2005, with Dr. Lauretta Clough as the first appointee. Other important administrative bodies include the Undergraduate, Graduate, Salary, and Travel committees. The School is represented by the Director on the College's Administrative Council, and by elected faculty members on the Collegiate Council and Campus Senate.