Language Studies
Center for Language Studies
Department Information:
3086 JFSB
801-422-1201
cls@byu.edu
Advisement Center:
1041 JFSB
801-422-3541
liberalarts@byu.edu
Programs
General Information
The Center for Language Studies supports the College of Humanities by augmenting the list of languages taught at the university. Not all classes are taught at every level or every semester. Offerings are determined by languages taught by the Missionary Training Center (MTC), student demand, and the availability of a qualified instructor. Please see the Class Schedule for a list of classes currently offered.
The "teaching area" abbreviation for each language is listed below in parentheses.
Afrikaans (AFRIK) | Hmong (HMONG) | Polish (POLSH) |
Amharic (AMHAR) | Hungarian (HUNG) | Portuguese (PORT)* |
Albanian (ALBAN) | Icelandic (ICLND) | Quechua (QUECH) |
American Sign Language (ASL) | Ilonggo/Hiligaynon (HILIG) | Romanian (ROM) |
Arabic (ARAB)* | Indonesian (INDON) | Russian (RUSS)* |
Armenian (ARMEN) | Italian (ITAL)* | Samoan (SAMOA) |
Azerbaijani (AZER) | Japanese (JAPAN)* | Serbian (SRBIA) |
Bulgarian (BULGN) | Kekchi (KEKCH) | S'gaw Karen (SGAW) |
Burmese (BURMS) | Khmer (KHMER) | Slovak (SLOVK) |
Cantonese (CANT) | Kiribati (KIRIB) | Slovenian (SLN) |
Cebuano (CEBU) | K'iche' (KICHE) | Spanish (SPAN)* |
Croatian (CROAT) | Korean (KOREA)* | Swahili (SWAHI) |
Czech (CZECH) | Laotian (LAO) | Swedish (SWED) |
Danish (DANSH) | Latin (LATIN)* | Tagalog (TAGAL) |
Dutch (DUTCH) | Latvian (LATVI) | Tahitian (TAHIT) |
Estonian (ESTON) | Lithuanian (LITHU) | Thai (THAI) |
Fijian (FIJI) | Malagasy (MALAG) | Tibetan (TIBET) |
Finnish (FINN) | Macedonian (MACED) | Tongan (TONGA) |
French (FREN)* | Malay (MALAY) | Turkish (TURK) |
Georgian (GEORG) | Mandarin (CHIN)* | Twi (TWI) |
German (GERM)* | Marshallese (MARSH) | Ukrainian (UKRAI) |
Greek (Modern) (MGRK)* | Mongolian (MONGO) | Vietnamese (VIET) |
Guarani (GUARA) | Navajo (NAVAJ) | Welsh (WELSH) |
Haitian Creole (CREOL)* | Norwegian (NORWE) | |
Hawaiian (HAWAI) | Persian (PERSI) | |
Hebrew (HEB) | ||
Hindi (HINDI) |
* These languages are taught at BYU but not in the Center for Language Studies.
Advanced Language and Culture Courses
The advanced language and culture courses are a popular enrollment option for returned missionaries and others of comparable ability.
During these courses, students may be offered the opportunity to take a Challenge Exam whereby they may bypass beginning level language classes and earn up to 16 graded credits.
Note: If the course is not offered at the time the student is enrolled at BYU-Provo, the student has the option of taking the FLATS test through the Office of Digital Humanities on campus. This test offers 12 pass/fail credits. Once the FLATS test is taken for pass/fail credit it may not be reevaluated for graded credit, nor may the Challenge Exam be taken at a later date. (See http://flats.byu.edu for details.)
Advanced language and culture courses for returned missionaries
(Note: The "teaching area" abbreviation for each language is listed below in parentheses.)
* These languages or courses are taught at BYU but not in the Language Center.
Amharic (AMHAR) 330* Hiligaynen (HILIG) 330 Hindi (HINDI) 330 Khmer (KHMER) 330 Macedanian (MACED) 330* Macshallese (MARSH) 330* Modern Greek (M GRK) 330 Polish (POLSH) 330 S'gaw Karen (SGAW) 330 Swahili (SWAHI) 330 Twi (TWI) 330 |
Note: Those advanced language and culture courses that are marked with an asterisk (*) DO NOT satisfy the Languages of Learning GE requirement.
BYU Language Certificate Program
The Center for Language Studies administers the BYU Language Certificate program. This program is designed to certify a student's language proficiency (through oral and written assessments) as well as a limited academic experience (three courses are required).
We currently offer the Language Certificate in the following languages:
Arabic, Cebuano, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Haitian-Creole, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Visit the website (certificate.byu.edu) to read about the program.
