Language Studies

Center for Language Studies
Chairs
Department Information
3086 JFSB
801-422-1201
cls@byu.edu
Advisement Center
1041 JFSB
801-422-3541
humanities-advisement@byu.edu
Programs

General Information

The Center supports the College of Humanities by augmenting the list of languages taught by other departments. Not all classes are taught at every level every semester. (Please see the Class Schedule for a listing of classes currently offered.)

Some of the languages have their own "teaching area" (where you will find them in the drop-down menu during registration), while others are listed under "FLANG" (for Foreign Language). The "teaching area" abbreviation for each language is listed below in parentheses.

Afrikaans (AFRIK) 
Akan (FLANG)
Albanian (FLANG)
American Sign Language (ASL)
Arabic (ARAB)
Armenian (FLANG)
Aymara (FLANG)
Basque (FLANG)
Bicolano (FLANG)
Bulgarian (BULGN)
Burmese (FLANG)
Cakchiquel (FLANG)
Cambodian (FLANG)
Cantonese (CANT)
Catalan (FLANG)
Cebuano (FLANG)
Croatian (FLANG)
Czech (CZECH)
Danish (DANSH)
Dari (FLANG)
Dutch (DUTCH)
Estonian (FLANG)
Fijian (FLANG)
Finnish (FINN)
French (FREN)
Ga (FLANG)
Georgian (FLANG)
German (GERM)
Greek (Classical) (GREEK)
Guarani (FLANG)
Haitian Creole (FLANG)
Hawaiian (FLANG)
Hebrew (HEB)
Hindi (FLANG)
Hmong (FLANG)
Hungarian (HUNG)
Icelandic (ICLND)
Ilangot (FLANG)
Ilocano (FLANG)
Ilonggo/Hiligaynon (FLANG)
Indonesian (FLANG)
Italian (ITAL)
Japanese (JAPAN)
Javanese (FLANG)
Kazakh (FLANG)
K'iche' (FLANG)
Korean (KOREA)
Laotian (FLANG)
Latin (LATIN)
Latvian (LATVI)
Lithuanian (LITHU)
Malagasy (FLANG)
Malay (FLANG)
Mandarin (CHIN)
Maori (FLANG)
Marshallese (FLANG)
Maya (FLANG)
Mongolian (FLANG)
Navajo (FLANG)
Niuean (FLANG)
Norwegian (NORWE)
Pashto (FLANG)
Persian (FLANG)
Polish (POLSH)
Portuguese (PORT)
Quechua (FLANG)
Rarotongan (FLANG)
Romanian (ROM)
Russian (RUSS)
Samoan (FLANG)
Serbian (FLANG)
Slovenian (SLN)
Spanish (SPAN)
Swahili (FLANG)
Swedish (SWED)
Tagalog (FLANG)
Tahitian (FLANG)
Taiwanese (FLANG)
Tamil (FLANG)
Thai (FLANG)
Tibetan (FLANG)
Tongan (FLANG)
Trukese (FLANG)
Turkish (FLANG)
Twi (FLANG)
Ukrainian (UKRAI)
Urdu (FLANG)
Vanuatau (FLANG)
Vietnamese (FLANG)
Waray-Waray (FLANG)
Welsh (WELSH & FLANG)
Xhosa (FLANG)

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 this course, students are offered the opportunity to take a Challenge Examination whereby they may bypass beginning language classes and earn up to 16 graded credits.

Note 1: If the course is not offered at the time the student is interested in taking the Challenge Exam, the student has the option of taking the FLATS tests (through the Foreign Language Achievement Testing Service) on campus. However, that test only 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.)

Note 2: Students may not take a FLATS test during any semester in which a "challenge exam course" for the targeted language is being offered.

Advanced language and culture courses for returned missionaries

(Note: The "teaching area" abbreviation for each language is listed below in parentheses.)

Albanian (FLANG) 330
Armenian (FLANG) 330
Bulgarian (BULGN) 330
Cambodian (FLANG) 330
Cantonese (CANT) 202
Cebuano (FLANG) 330
Croatian (FLANG) 330
Czech (CZECH) 330
Danish (DANSH) 321 *
Dutch (DUTCH) 340
Estonian (FLANG) 330
Fijian (FLANG) 330
Finnish (FINN) 321 *
French (FREN) 321 *
Georgian (FLANG) 330
German (GERM) 330
Guarani (FLANG) 330
Hmong (FLANG) 330
Hungarian (HUNG) 330
Icelandic (ICLND) 429
Ilonggo/Hiligaynon (FLANG) 330
Indonesian (FLANG) 330
Italian (ITAL) 321 *
Japanese (JAPAN) 301, 302
Korean (KOREA) 301
Latvian (LATVI) 330
Lituanian (LITHU) 330
Malagasy (FLANG) 330
Malay (FLANG) 330
Mandarin Chinese (CHIN) 112, 201, 202
Mongolian (FLANG) 330
Norwegian (NORWE) 321 *
Polish (POLSH) 330
Portuguese (PORT) 321
Romanian (ROM) 340
Russian (RUSS) 330
Samoan (FLANG) 330
Serbian (FLANG) 330
Slovenian (SLN) 330
Spanish (SPAN) 321
Swedish (SWED) 321 *
Tagalog (FLANG) 330
Tahitian (FLANG) 330
Thai (FLANG) 330
Tongan (FLANG) 330
Ukrainian (UKRAI) 330
Vietnamese (FLANG) 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 (only three courses are required).

We currently offer the Language Certificate in the following languages:

Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean 
French, Italian 
German, Russian 
Spanish, Portuguese 
Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

Visit the website (http://languagecertificate.byu.edu) to read about the program.