Degree and Certificate Offerings from LLC
The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers a bachelor's degree in Language and Intercultural Relations, minors in French and Spanish, and continuing education certificates.
Language and Intercultural Relations - Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
Globalization and increased migration have brought people from a variety of backgrounds closer together and in more frequent contact. Even though this increase in international contacts has seen a heightened use of English as a lingua franca, intercultural communication problems remain and sometimes give rise to significant misunderstandings, even conflicts.
Intercultural relations professionals are strategic relationship builders who work with individuals, corporations, government and NGOs to help all parties communicate in a way that bridges cultures and lifts barriers of language. The goal is to enable an unimpeded flow of information between parties who do not share a language and cultural code. Our BA in Language and Intercultural Relations (LIR) enables students to focus on one of two streams (French or Spanish), while acquiring skills necessary to navigate culturally diverse working and social environments. While developing the ability to adapt to, understand and appreciate cultural and linguistic diversity, students gain practical skills that open up employment opportunities and possibilities for advanced studies in graduate school.
Job Prospects
Our program relates practical and theoretical knowledge about language, culture and theory and knowledge to the real world and prepares you for careers in a wide array of areas requiring cross-cultural communication skills.
Extensive multidisciplinary opportunities in the upper years through professionally related electives in a broad range of areas, including social sciences, natural sciences, and business give you flexibility to pursue secondary areas of interest that complement your studies in Language and Intercultural Relations and enhance your career preparation.
Your skills will enable you to approach potential employers, and your knowledge of a different language will make you a more culturally sensitive person, who in return will be more likely to engage in successful cross-cultural relations.
Fields of work in which multingualism is a strong asset include:
- Public Service
- Foreign Affairs and International Development
- Education
- Public and International Relations
- Social Services
- Journalism
- Health Care
Advanced Studies
Many graduates from the LIR program pursue advanced studies after their degree. This includes graduate work in the humanities and social sciences, law school, international relations, foreign affairs, and teacher education programs.
LIR Curriculum and Program Streams
The first two years of the program offer basic knowledge of theories, methods, and practices of a broad range of social sciences and humanities, including sociology, psychology, politics and governance and more. This will broaden your perspective of the field and provide you with an ideal foundation for specialized study in Language and Intercultural Relations in the upper years.
As part of your training in Language and Intercultural Relations, you will choose a stream specialization in French or Spanish. You will take cources in the language of your chosen stream.
The Bachelor of Arts in Language and Intercultural Relations shares a common one-year foundation with programs in Criminology, Environment and Urban Sustainability, English, Geographic Analysis, History, Philosophy, Politics and Governance, Psychology, and Sociology. In all programs, your first year offers basic knowledge of theories, methods, and practices of a broad range of social sciences and humanities as you begin acquiring new skills in academic writing and critical thinking.
You are introduced to Language and Intercultural Relations through the first language course in your stream of choice (French or Spanish), and through LIR 100 Global Models in Intercultural Relations. LIR 100 will expose you to the concepts of world-view as expressed via differences and similarities between systems of communication. You will also develop the necessary emotional competence and intercultural sensitivity to understand the complexities of intercultural communication.
The second year is when students may begin to explore an optional concentration (Language and Cognition, Translation, or Organizational Behaviour). Students also take LIR 200 Critical Practices in Intercultural Relations, and LIR 300 Intercultural Negotiation in addition to language and culture courses.
In Year 3 students may choose to do a year abroad at one of our partner universities. Currently, we have partnerships in France and Spain. All students take LIR 400 Ethnographic Practices, acquiring the necessary tools to analyze and understand how groups are defined by their cultural and social practices, including ways in which they communicate differently, based on these characteristics.
It is in their fourth that students take LIR 800, a capstone course in which students interested in graduate studies can prepare a thesis, or an extensive intercultural relation project. During this fourth year, students also hone their skills in formal presentations. Students also have an opportunity to complete a Directed Reading related to their concentration or other area of interest.
For a full list of LIR program courses, please see the Language and Intercultural Relations program page in the current Undergraduate Calendar.
Concentrations
LIR students have the option to choose one of three degree concentrations.
Language and Cognition
Courses in linguistics, psychology and early childhood education, which opens up opportunities in post-graduate studies (teachers’ college, Speech and Language Therapy, linguistics, etc.)
Organizational Behaviour
Courses in group dynamics that prepare students to work as intercultural communication professionals between governments, NGOs, multinationals and those with which they want to communicate while being separated by a language and cultural barrier.
Translation Studies
Courses in linguistics and translation from and into English.
Minors for LIR Students
As part of your program of study, you have an opportunity to earn a minor in an area that complements your professional studies and broadens your career preparation. For a complete list and description of available minors, please see the Minors Policy in the current Undergraduate Calendar.
How to Apply
Please visit the Language and Intercultural Relations - BA (Hons) page on the Undergraduate Admissions website for detailed application information.
Transfers within the Faculty of Arts
Students admitted to the Bachelor of Arts programs in Criminology, English, Environment and Urban Sustainability, Geographic Analysis, History, Language and Intercultural Relations, Philosophy, Politics and Governance, Psychology or Sociology may transfer to any one of the other nine programs or to any one of the approved double major programs for the fall term of their second year of studies. Applications are available through the Program Office and must be submitted by February 2nd. Transfer applications are considered on a competitive basis subject to program capacity, and therefore, program choice cannot be guaranteed.
In order to transfer to Language and Intercultural Relations from any of Criminology, English, Environment and Urban Sustainability, Geographic Analysis, History, Philosophy, Politics and Governance, Psychology, or Sociology, students must have clear Academic Standing at the end of their second semester of studies and have successfully completed LIR 100. It is strongly recommended that students complete a French or Spanish stream course in first year.
French Minor and Spanish Minor
Open to TMU undergraduate students, these minors present an excellent opportunity to acquire the necessary language and cultural skills to be able to use French or Spanish as part of your academic and career plans.
See the Minors section of the current Undergraduate Calendar for details on each minor.
Continuing Education Courses and Certificates
We offer Arabic, ASL, Chinese, French, and Spanish courses for part-time learners through The Chang School of Continuing Education. The Chang School offers high-quality university level courses in which students acquire and develop a wide range of skills in languages, which can be used for success in the marketplace or as credit toward a university degree.
The Chang School certificate programs include Business French and Translation, Proficiency in French, and Proficiency in Spanish.
TMU full-time undergraduate program students are able to enroll in courses at The Chang School through myServiceHub. Please remember that fees for continuing education courses will be assessed over and above those fees for your program courses. Students will be assessed the appropriate fees as per the number of billing units assigned for their full-time enrolled courses plus the applicable continuing education course fee(s). If students have any question about billing units for the full-time enrolled program courses and/or continuing education course fees, they must consult, for clarification, the Fees Office. Also, be sure to review continuing education course drop and refund dates in the Chang School calendar as they are different from those for your undergraduate program courses. If you subsequently withdraw from continuing education courses, you will be charged a course drop fee. As with all courses, students are responsible for ensuring that the course selected applies to the program in which they are enrolled.
TMU full-time undergraduate students may also register in continuing education certificates following the regulations set out by the Chang School. TMU full-time undergraduate program students who are also pursuing a continuing education certificate should note that at least half of the courses required for these certificates must bear the code CFRE or CSPN.
CE Language Coordinators
For information on continuing education courses, please contact The Chang School or reach out to a CE language coordinator.
Language | CE Coordinator | Contact |
---|---|---|
Arabic |
Rania Ibrahim, PhD | rania.ibrahim@torontomu.ca |
ASL | Nina Winiarczyk, MA | nwiniarczyk@torontomu.ca |
Chinese | John Edward Stowe, PhD | jstowe@torontomu.ca |
French |
Lara Popic, PhD | lpopic@torontomu.ca |
Spanish |
Mignette Garvida, PhD | mgarvida@torontomu.ca |