Often, literature is the focus of undergraduate French programs. Such was certainly the case for mine. Our department does offer courses in linguistics, culture, film, etc., but I don't know to what extent they're interdisciplinary. If I had the time, it would be interesting to sort through the course requirements for other departments to see if any of these courses count. The linguistics minor (part of the English department) at MnSU counted a couple of my French courses, for example, along with courses from other languages.
The article advises language instructors to reach out to other departments to make new connections: "Work with colleagues in the social sciences and in policy-oriented departments to strengthen language requirements in the design of their majors and graduate programs and encourage these colleagues to recognize the limits monolingualism imposes on research" (8). This sounds great, and I'm sure that most departments can see the theoretical benefits of this, but I have to wonder if many departments would simply shrug this off as too logistically difficult to be worth their time. The International Business program at MnSU, for example, actually dropped its language requirement because they already had too many other credit requirements. Asking other departments to add language requirements could in some cases be asking them to cut course requirements, which could affect their course availability, enrollment, funding, etc. I can't imagine that faculty members are jumping at opportunities to redesign their entire program requirements.
Yet, it seems a bit ridiculous that an International Business program doesn't have a language requirement. So, we can't just worry about marketing French to students, but also to other departments. If we want to take the interdisciplinary approach, I think we have to have something to offer other departments. This could mean making the requirements of French programs more interdisciplinary, or it could also mean something as simple as offering ourselves as guest lecturers for other departments' courses. Obviously, this requires some time commitment, but if we're going to ask other departments to incorporate language more, we need to put in some effort as well.
Yes, it is very sad that the fields such as international business or international law do not have a language requirement.
ReplyDeleteKelly you said that "Asking other departments to add language requirements could in some cases be asking them to cut course requirements, which could affect their course availability, enrollment, funding, etc" I agree with this statement. Unfortunatly the education and the its quality is based on economy. One can ask why to sacrify our departamental courses in favor of foreign language. The relationship between education and economy is a rapidly growing one.Economy treathens education fundings. Therefore, in the light of this danger how to introduce new linguistic requirements. Students want to graduate as soon as possible to avoid additional fees. Departments want to develop their own programs. Fundings are very limited. According to Newsweek (4/5/2010) the recession and unemployment are making schools and students rethink the value of an education in the humanities. "After the endowment of Centenary College in Shreveport, La., fell by 20 percent from 2007 to 2009, the private school decided to eliminate half of its 44 majors. Over the next three to four years, classic humanities specialities like Latin, German studies, and performing arts will be phased out." In addition, the humanities has become unfashionable and seemingly impractical. It is hard to say that most students think that languages are still unnecessary element in their education. To save one field they sacrify the other one.
I really like the idea of offering ourselves to other departments as guest lecturers, etc. It is a bit of an imposition to ask departments to change their requirements, but at the same time, we have to deal with the same effect: other departments demand the time of our language students. It's a two-way street, when all students are forced to take classes outside of their department/major/interests. We teach French for Reading Comprehension, why couldn't we teach French for International Business? Restricting ourselves to such a limited focus could be very useful for designing a course and lesson plans. Vocabulary, for instance, would be easy to plan, and I'm sure that grammar would stand out naturally from certain vocabulary sets. Not only that, the grammar would also be tied to meaning, since its context would be so strong.
ReplyDeleteA way to ease inter-department collaboration might be to create a kind of "foreign languages" secretary/office, where the information of all languages are gathered and also which can organize colloquiums by taking into the pool of resources of the languages respective department. For example series of lectures would be theme pertinent to all languages but expressed through the eyes of each. Also it could lead even to cross-languages programs, a bit like the program Erasmus Mondus in Europe (a program which includes as part of the diploma credit for studying abroad in at least two different country according to the languages chosen).
ReplyDeleteKelly, I can very much relate (as can most of us here, probably) to the stale taste of literature in undergrad language programs. Don't get me wrong, I love literature, but as an undergrad majoring in French, I did not take a single course on French history, civilization, politics, etc; in short, my undergrad French career consisted of language courses and literature. To set up programs this way is a great disservice to students. As much as I care for literature, my understanding of it could have been greatly improved by taking a course in French history, so that I could have been understood works in their historical contexts. Would teaching courses that go beyond literature within a foreign language department (and perhaps simply cross-listing them and teaching them partly in English) require that much interdepartmental effort?
ReplyDeleteInstead of enjoying a wider, more holistic array of courses, students are forced to study literature. Is this because faculty are simply not competent enough in other areas of French culture to teach a course based upon them? Or is it rather because they are unwilling, preferring instead to promote what interests them, perpetuating their own research via instruction?