A total of eleven courses is required for the Group Language major: five courses for each half of the major and one course emphasizing methods or theory. Additionally, students will complete a senior comprehensive project.
Major
Course requirements for each half of the Group Language major are listed below. Only two of the five courses for each half may be taken outside the Occidental language departments, including study abroad.
Chinese (5 courses)
CHIN 202 and above (only one of which may be a course taught in English).
French (5 courses)
FREN 202 and four courses numbered 300 and above (only one of which may be a course taught in English).
German (5 courses)
GERM 202 and above.
Japanese (5 courses)
JAPN 202 and above (only one of which may be a course taught in English).
Linguistics (5 courses)
LING 301; a second course in linguistics; one semester of a foreign language from one of the following categories: 1) Greek or Latin, 2) Spanish or French, 3) German or Russian, 4) Arabic, Chinese, or Japanese (the course must be in addition to and in a different category from the language used to fulfill the Core language requirement); and two additional courses with a language focus (such as one more foreign language course, another course in linguistics, COGS 330, COMP 331, EDUC 205, or PHIL 344,).
LING 301 must be taken before the senior year.
Russian (5 courses)
RUSN 202 and above.
Spanish (5 courses)
SPAN 202 or SPAN 211 plus four courses numbered 300 and above. Two of these four courses must be in either literature/culture or linguistics. One must be numbered 340 or above. Only one course may be taken in English.
Methods or Theory Courses:
| ASN 252/CSLC 252 | To Dwell or to Wander: Reading Confucius and Zhuangzi | 4 units |
| ASN 253/CSLC 253 | The Golden Era: Literature of China's Tang and Song Dynasty | 4 units |
| CSLC 200 | Literature, Culture, Self: Being in the Wor(l)d | 4 units |
| LING 301 | Introduction to Linguistics | 4 units |
| SPAN 490 | Senior Seminar: Genre and Literary Theory | 4 units |
All courses taken outside of the Occidental language departments, including those taken on study abroad programs, must be approved in advance by the appropriate language department. Students combining a language with linguistics must take LING 301 before the senior year.
Honors in the Major
Group Language majors with an overall GPA of 3.25 and a 3.5 GPA for major courses may submit an honors research proposal at the end of the fall semester of the senior year. If the proposal is supported by faculty from both components of the major, the student will enroll in four units of Independent Studies in the spring, in which they will develop the comprehensive paper(s) from the fall into 20 additional pages.