Graduate Overview
Mission Statement
The Department of Languages and Cultures at West Chester University offers high quality stimulating graduate programs leading to the master's degree, in keeping with our stated mission to serve the regional community of teachers, scholars and professionals. We offer rigorous training in K-12 second language acquisition in accordance with the mandates of the PDE (Pennsylvania Department of Education) and NCATE (National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education) organizations. Our graduate students are carefully advised and personally mentored to assure their transformation and success as a result of completion of our curriculum and degree requirements.
We also train professionals in the business world in both language skills and cultural competency, in keeping with the demands of the expanding global market place. Our faculty are active and interactive professionally, participating in a wide variety of meetings national and international and organizing workshops and meetings on campus for students and fellow faculty. Our course offerings are continually restructured and updated to reflect the current exigencies of language professional environments, and emphasize diversity of personal and cultural experience while they offer equality of access and opportunity to all qualified students without regard to age, sex, race, or creed. This diversity is in keeping with our primary goal of advancing cross cultural awareness and communication and developing in our students the necessary skills to successfully meet the challenges of the future.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the Department of Languages and Cultures at WCU provides an intellectual forum for professionals in the surrounding area, offering a stimulating exchange of ideas, information, and strategies which they may in turn share with others in their community.