About Us

What makes us so good?

Target language teaching. You can't learn a second language if the instructor teaches in English. That is why our classes stress immersion techniques. You'll be speaking the target language during the first class! Imagine what you will learn after just one semester!

Variety.  Students can learn a second language and start a third and even a fourth before graduating.

Flexibility. Study abroad, when it makes sense for you. You may study abroad with a group or, if you want the ultimate academic challenge, study individually in another country. Students may spend their third or fourth year abroad. No senior year restriction! As long as the foreign coursework relates to literature, language, or culture, the credits will likely transfer to our language programs. Coursework taken in other areas may transfer to the corresponding discipline at UW.

Low student-teacher ratio. We offer the intimacy of the world's most exclusive classrooms, for a fraction of the tuition cost. Our courses typically range from 5 to 25 students. Outside class, faculty members take time to develop individual relationships with students. Office hours, conversation tables, trips, emails, and even chats while walking from one building to another are routine elements of faculty personal attention to each learner.

Expert faculty. Our faculty is richly experienced and highly skilled. On campus, the Department ranks in the top percentiles for total number of teaching awards and for outstanding teaching evaluations. We offer some of the most intellectually challenging courses at UW, and our evaluation statistics prove it.

Best students. If you want to sit in a classroom of tomorrow's leaders, take our upper-level courses. Students who attain this advanced proficiency compete successfully with the best minds in the world. Our graduates include Fulbright recipients and the top 1% of scorers on standardized placement tests for graduate school.

Don't delay. Get started now and enjoy the benefits of being bilingual! View the assessment plan.

More About the Department

20+ full-time and part-time faculty work with language teachers throughout the state and world, taking part in language festivals, workshops, conferences, and incentive programs.

Our H. Dickman Collection (Cinematheque et Videotheque) is a valuable, on-campus resource. More than 400 full-length foreign films can be loaned to faculty and students as well as schools throughout Wyoming.

The department is proud to host Mexican fiction writers in Laramie. These visiting authors spend time with undergraduate and graduate students and speak to them in Spanish. Previous guests include Ernesto Murguía (who learned to ride a horse during his trip) and Bernardo Fernández (BEF). Bef was so impressed with us that his latest crime novel, Cuello blanco (2013), ends in Laramie and mentions UW!