Welcome to FLCL

Welcome to FLCL

Bard’s Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures Program (FLCL) is predicated upon the idea that the foreign languages currently taught at Bard constitute a distinct academic field of study not just within Bard but also in the context of Bard's increasing importance as a global liberal-arts institution.
 

FEATURES: Spring 2019 Language Learning Modules
 

  • Global Awareness Test
    • The purpose of this module is to invite users to measure their awareness of people, places and events in the modern global context.
  • Test Your Knowledge on the US Constitution
    • This quiz aims to raise our awareness of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights by identifying gaps in our knowledge and highlighting key aspects of the history of the US Constitution, Amendments to the Constitution, and our rights as citizens of both the United States and of the world.
  • Arabic: Returning to Haifa--Ghassan Kanafani
    • This project links to the original Arabic text (for advanced Arabic students), a pdf of the English translation, and the film adaptation with Arabic audio and English subtitles of Ghassan Kanafani's novella Returning to Haifa. Users can click through a short online presentation with historical photos to accompany the scenes in the novella. (Bard Moodle Users only)
  • Russian: A language blog covering translation and scholarly review in Russian
    • This project is a series of blog posts. One post, for example, is a translation and analysis of popular singer/songwriter/rapper Monetochka and unpacks the meaning of her song and her word use, including defintions of slang, for language students. Also included is an analysis of a Russian scientific paper, with small notes on important vocabulary for language learners.
  • And more to come...
 
The staff of Bard's Foreign Language Center develops interactive learning modules to encourage learning about languages, literatures and cultures. A complete list of projects can be accessed through their respective Language Resources pages.

Our Mission 

Teaching students a unique set of analytical tools, FLCL locates itself at the site where self- and other-understanding are thematized and analyzed in a unique and fundamental way, namely in and through a non-English language and its literary manifestations. Inseparably linked, the study of a foreign language and its literature engages the students in a cross-cultural dialogue and prepares them meaningfully to participate in the global community. 

Our Programs

Studying a foreign language engages students in a cross-disciplinary dialogue (literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, religion, opera, cinema, etc.)  that challenges their cognitive, imaginative, and affective faculties and enables them to explore "discipline" as a multicultural concept. Based on this shared mode of critical and creative inquiry, FLCL brings the existing language programs into a larger collaborative framework that strengthens their bond while recognizing each program's curricular particularities.