Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures                               

10 March 2006           

Statement for General Education Task Force            

 

In keeping with the "greater expectations" we are developing for general education reform, we believe ASU seeks to graduate students who have acquired the intellectual and practical skills that make them active participants in a global community.  We want our students to be well-versed both orally and in writing, to possess critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and to be able to adapt these skills to new settings once they leave college.  In addition, we want students to develop cross-cultural awareness that makes them open to the changing opportunities and challenges abroad and more tolerant of racial and ethnic diversities they will face at home.  General education should prepare students to play productive roles in a changing, more interconnected world, in which diverse cultures will have to work together. 

 

We in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures believe foreign language study provides a unique opportunity to do all of the above.  As a faculty of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, by heritage and by choice, we believe that study of foreign language is essential to the understanding of (and the effective communication with) other peoples and cultures.

I. Specific knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes from the department/discipline

Our faculty synthesized some key points about our discipline and our work that are not immediately obvious to faculty outside our field:

1. Foreign language study today involves  a lot more than conjugating verbs and learning vocabulary, and that the focus on teaching grammar/structures, though important, is only part of what we do.

2. Languages are taught within their cultural context(s), such that students develop practices for understanding societies different from our own (a valuable skill today!)

3. The knowledge and experiences gained in our courses prepare students to actually become a part of those foreign cultures in very meaningful ways, as our students can and do travel and study abroad to interact with native speakers of their target language.

4. "Internationalizing" the campus cannot happen in any genuine form if there is not a commitment to study of other languages and other cultures, in ways that let students be direct participants rather than observers.

5. Finally, the analytical and problem-solving skills that one develops  while improving language proficiency help students become  better overall learners, better readers/writers in English, and more aware of nuances of meaning in their own language.

II. Best practices in the discipline

Our focus in modern foreign language instruction is to help students understand both the the foreign language and the culture(s) in which the language is embedded.  Vocabulary and grammar, words and structures, certainly comprise the practical aspects of language that students must know in order to communicate.  Embedded (and inseparable from) in the words and the structures, however, is the cultural content that encompasses myriad aspects: from family and politics to history and art.  Modern FL programs, even for courses at the beginning levels, help students explore all the products and the practices of the target culture in context.

            As it integrates and supports a broad spectrum of languages and cultures, the Modern Language department literally embodies diversity, interdisciplinarity, and multiculturalism, qualities that have traditionally been viewed as important in a solid college curriculum but that are now more essential than ever before.  In various topic areas (such as film, literature, culture, language, conversation, composition) in multiple languages, we offer students a breadth and depth of access to other cultures so that students may engage and function fully in those cultural communities.  In short, we hope that our students may become what Martha Nussbaum (citing the Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes) calls “citizens of the world.”[1]

III. Current role in the general education curriculum

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is reasonably satisfied with its current role in the ASU general education curriculum. Though there is not a campus-wide foreign language requirement, we believe we currently reach a sufficiently broad base of students because of the intermediate-level requirement in foreign languages for the B.A. degree in the College of Arts and Sciences.  Furthermore, since intermediate-level courses carry humanities designators, the current curriculum entices a large student population to at least try an intermediate-level language class (even if intermediate courses are not required).   From this point, we can (and often do) entice students to continue in the language such that they can achieve a higher level of proficiency.

It is at the level of more advanced-level instruction where we can make the most profound effect on internationalization.

One area where we feel our expertise could be better and more widely utilized in the general education curriculum is in the area of culture studies and raising international and intercultural awareness (e.g. internationalizing endeavors).  Again, we do not deliver “only” language instruction for general education.  We in Modern Languages look at culture as mediated through languages; thus we “do” culture along with the sociologists and the anthropologists and the historians (and the rest of the academy).  Through the development of integrated programs throughout the curriculum, supported and enhanced by interdisciplinary study-abroad courses and programs, we can demonstrate our understanding that language functions as a bridge to other cultures and communities, promoting an on-going and vibrant cultural dialogue.  

IV. More effective contributions

We believe that Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures holds an important key to the efforts of internationalization on campus.  Thus, there are further ways in which we believe our contributions to general education could be more effective.

1. The DFLL could collaborate with other related disciplines to offer an introductory-level general education course that would help students explore the topics of globalization and multiculturalism (both here and abroad).  Such a course would give students insights into the changing world sensitize students to the needs and issues of multicultural societies like our own.

2. We could also consider implementing a university-wide requirement for foreign language instruction, with the understanding that doing so would require a considerable increase in instructional resources (faculty lines) in FLL and with the understanding that intermediate-level proficiency is the most appropriate.

3. If we have a vertical general education curriculum in which language and international experience are embedded at various levels (e.g. Spanish for the Health Professions), taught by faculty who recognize the importance of this embedded-ness, then we can be at the forefront in educating students to communicate and act and lead in the global community with an informed “international perspective” based on academic and experiential learning. 

V. Opportunities for Collaboration

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is a logical and ideal partner for collaboration in the general education curriculum. We could, and should, be involved in offering language/culture-related preparation for all short- and long-term study abroad experiences in which Appalachian students enroll.   A new model for general ed should encourage early and meaningful experiences for students to study abroad (for example, spring break or summer trips), and these courses should have a foreign language/foreign culture component.  As foreign language professionals, our faculty are well equipped to offer and to collaborate on such components.

Languages and culture can and should be integrated to other disciplines; we should consider (foreign) language like writing, in that both can and should inform every aspect of the university curriculum.  Our department also finds itself in a unique position to collaborate and integrate with many others across the university.  Integration is the key to teaching languages and cultures within a global context.  When we consider the example of transnational migrations today, the situation between the US and Latin America is clear; however, a similar scenario exists also in western Europe and elsewhere.  Migrations and migrants (re)define not only the societies of their home countries, but also those of their newly adopted countries. Languages play a key role in understanding and confronting these global transformations.

VI. Resources

The current nationwide enrollment boom in Spanish has stretched our teaching resources well past the optimal level, making it impossible to consider even developing any specialized courses like Spanish for Health Professions.  These would be upper-level classes taught by faculty with the terminal degree; resources must be available to support development and teaching.  Further, our teaching effectiveness is compromised every time we put 30+ students in an introductory or intermediate-level class, which is currently the case in Spanish.  Maximal effectiveness for foreign languages happens when class size is (optimally) capped at 20 (The Association of Departments of Foreign Languages). The need to enroll 30 students per class indicates that restricted faculty resources are already creating an environment for foreign language learning that is less than optimal.

An additional but not immediately obvious problem is the need to maintain the teaching of a diversity of languages at Appalachian.  This by definition means funding lower-enrolled sections, at various levels, of smaller, less-commonly taught languages in an accountability enviroment that sets funding formulas based on FTE production.  If we want to enhance offerings in Chinese, or add Arabic or other languages, for example, this would benefit the overall education available to students.  But such additions are expensive and would have to be funded somewhere, and in some way that wouldn't risk taking away support for the other languages we offer.

VII. Recommendations

            There is general consensus in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures that a university foreign language requirement through intermediate level proficiency (i.e. 1050) would be acceptable, if appropriate resources were allocated to the department to ensure adequate space and staff and to support the diversity of languages in the curriculum.  We already have the appropriate placement test and retrocredit award system in place that would enable a requirement to be implemented with relative ease in terms of registration.

            We know that we cannot compress a lifetime of language and learning into the few years of an undergraduate career.  A well integrated general education curriculum that includes foreign language in a deep and meaningful way will strengthen connections “among language, language use and socioculturally mediated knowledge of the world.”[2]  Thus we place students on the life-long path of continued learning and connection.  To borrow an image from Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel lecture, these connections are the beauty of Babel.