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Objectives
- Promoting a contemporary, critical and historical reflection on language
- Linking the study of languages with its meaning within different cultures.
- Providing students with education in critical discourse analysis, text analysis and oral and written command of the mother tongue and foreign languages.
- Offering a basic theoretical education in the fields of Socio-Cultural Studies and Language teaching.
- Offering all students in the University the possibility to familiarize with the study of foreign languages, in order to be more prepared for the professional careers in this contemporary world.
- Contributing to the improvement in the use of the Spanish language by students of the University.
Study Plan
The undergraduate curriculum of Languages and Socio-Cultural Studies is divided in three cycles: professional basic cycle, professional cycle and elective cycle. The purpose of the first cycle is to introduce students to the areas of social science, language theories, and the focus areas of the curriculum: Socio-Cultural Studies or Language Pedagogy. It includes learning the basics of a foreign language (English, French, German or Japanese).
The second cycle includes the improvement in the command of the language chosen by the student, and socio-cultural seminars associated with the selected language. It discusses theoretically one of the two focus areas of the curriculum. The elective cycle offers three possibilities: four translation courses, offered annually, introduction to a second foreign language, or an option in any other department or school in the University.
All students must take an international language test before taking the seminars. In order to fulfill all the requirements in the program, students with focus on Cultural Studies must pass the graduation seminar (LENG 3995). Students of Pedagogy must pass the teaching practice (LENG 3921).
Areas of the Study Plan:
- Basic year, School of Social Science: 6 courses
- Uniandes Basic Cycle and Constitution and Democracy (CBU): 7 courses
- Elective Courses (CLE): 2 courses
- Language Theories: 3 courses
- Introduction to focus areas: 2 courses
- Focus Area (Socio-Cultural Studies or Language Pedagogy): 5 courses each
- Basic main language (English, French, German or Japanese): 4 levels
- Advanced main language (English, French, German or Japanese): 2 levels
- Socio-Cultural Studies in main language: 4 courses
- Second language (English, French, German or Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Classic Greek or Latin (in the Department of Humanities and Literature), Option or Translation: 4 courses
- Graduation seminar (focus on cultural studies) and teaching practice (focus on pedagogy): 1 course.
University Requirements:
- Reading in English Requirement (LENG-2999)
- Mother tongue requirement (LENG 1501)
- Graduation Requirement: Command of a Foreign Language (LENG-3999)
Study Plan Requirements:
- Leveling test – Foreign language
- Language exam (LENG-3000)
Research or Focus Areas
In today's world of knowledge, we understand languages as ways of verbal and non-verbal expressions articulated in the diverse cultures and languages in the world. This degree promotes the study of some of these languages, including Spanish as a mother tongue, because we believe it is crucial to face contemporary and try to understand their cultural, sociological and political differences.
Socio-cultural studies are part of the critical question of the construction of historical meaning in societies. Therefore, we work around questions and methods incorporated by discourse and text analysis into the social sciences since the mid-20th century. We work on the project of cultural studies, understood as the effort made by scholars of different areas and from different countries to dismantle the naturalization of social and cultural orders, of political identities and discourses of truth. Therefore, we define ourselves as trans-disciplinary regarding reflection on methods and problems.
The Undergraduate curriculum in Languages and Socio-Cultural Studies integrates language learning with education in social science, apart from the basic education offered by the University in different areas.
Students can choose between focus on Cultural Studies and focus on Pedagogy of a second language. The focus on Pedagogy introduces students to teaching problems and methodologies of a second language. The inclusion of this focus in the Department is based on the communicational/contextual perspective of our pedagogical reflection. We also discuss the problems of cultural differences in issues such as bilingualism, translation, contexts, mental models and challenges to its implementation. Students with this focus perform pedagogical practices in different institutions.
Professors of the Department boast a high-level academic and research experience. Students interested in research can participate in projects directed by their professors. The main areas of research are:
- Policies of representation: It dwells on the relations and distribution of power around dominant and counter-hegemonic social identities.
- Sexuality and Gender: It reviews and criticizes processes, the construction of gender and sexuality and its necessary interaction with orders and regulations of race, class, religion and cultural diversity.
- Language, Culture and Power: It studies the dynamics among social relations, uses of language and structure of cultures.
- Analysis of contemporary socio-political discourses: It studies how these discourses produce meaning and are offered in social narratives.
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Alumni Profile
Apart from continuing their education with graduate courses in the area -the Department offers a Master's Degree in Cultural Studies- or other areas, graduates can conduct research on social and language processes in teaching one particular language, or a foreign culture, and to study and interpret texts and discourses in the social, cultural and political realms.
Additionally, graduates can also pursue careers in private, public or international organizations, as well as in innovative areas such as cultural journalism, conflict resolution, cultural management, and political and advertising consultancy.
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