The department strives to educate students to become sensitive and responsive participants in today's diverse, multi-cultural, global society. Thus, in keeping with the Ignatian and Jesuit educational tradition, the department views the process of language learning as an intellectual pursuit valuable in itself as it helps to form persons who are increasingly aware of their own as well as others' cultural orientation biases. Emphasis is placed on the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and understanding languages and their cultural contexts in order to achieve linguistic and cultural proficiency.

Whether pursued as a sequence in the university core requirement for languages study ("six hours after placement with a goal of reaching intermediate proficiency") or as a major or minor field of study, some measure of proficiency in a second language constitutes an essential part of a liberal arts education. The faculty in modern languages, therefore, endeavors to:

• Develop communication skills in the target languages
• Encourage empathy for and understanding of different cultures and peoples
• Heighten recognition of the contributions of other cultures to contemporary society through the study of their histories, literatures, and languages
• Continue that long tradition of Jesuit educational philosophy, which stresses the study of languages other than one's native tongue as an important humanistic and humanizing element
• To strengthen and broaden the background of all Xavier students, a liberal arts core curriculum consisting of courses in history, literature, mathematics, languages, philosophy, science, social science, fine arts and theology is required in addition to courses in the modern languages major.