--- Forwarded Message from Samantha Earp <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 11:44:20 -0400
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Samantha Earp <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5226 Under Attack Again (VERY LONG)
Well, I may not be able to help you out in providing facts or arguments to
strengthen your case, but I can let you know that you are not alone in
fighting this battle. We're in the middle of a variation on the theme here
at UNC Charlotte.
Our situation, at the moment I write this, is that UNC Charlotte does still
have a language requirement. The general language requirement applies to
everyone enrolled in an undergraduate degree program at the university.
Depending on which language a student is taking, s/he has to complete
through the last "first-year" courses (1102 or 1202, depending on the
language) to fulfill the requirement. Many of these first year courses
are taught by part-time faculty. [In a very few departments, majors have to
complete an additional one or two courses. In English, majors have to
complete a course at the second year (2000) level.] Students are not given
college credit for language study in high school, although students who
complete equivalent courses in community colleges can fulfill the
requirement that way. (equivalency has been formally determined through an
agreement between the university & community college systems).
In Italian, Latin, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, there are two courses at
the first year level, 1201 and 1202. These are four hour courses
(semester), which *usually* meet for four hours a week, although for
reasons I don't know, some of these seem to meet for more than four hours a
week. These are usually evening classes that meet twice a week, in order
to make them attractive to the largest number of students, including people
in the local community. It is fairly uncommon to have students arrive here
with prior coursework in these languages, but if they do, the instructor
gives them a test (in-house) to see if they know enough to start in 1202
rather than 1201 (rare).
[French, Spanish & German (see below) also used to follow the 1201-1202
structure, and met four classroom hours a week and one lab hour. However,
the Dean felt this was too costly, as it required the department to hire an
"unacceptably" large number of part-time faculty, and so four years ago the
department was *strongly* encouraged to change to a three credit hour
structure for these languages, which it did rather reluctantly. ]
In French, German and Spanish, we currently have three courses that are
considered to be at the "first-year" level. 1100, 1101, and 1102. These
are three credit hour (semester) courses, which meet for 150 minutes per
week. The breakdown of classes is fairly equal between those that meet MWF
for 50 minute periods and those that meet TR in 80 minute sessions. In
recent years we have also started offering evening and weekend classes that
meet only once per week.
1100 is for true beginners only, or people who had the language so long ago
(6-8 years ago or more, depending on the length of language study) that
they can't be expected to transfer that knowledge to their current courses.
Students who have studied the language recently, say in high school,
usually begin in 1101, although they may place out of the sequence
altogether.
This brings up the issue of placement testing, which is one of the major
reasons our language requirement may soon go away or take a different form.
Simply put, in recent years not enough students have managed to place out
of the language requirement. This year, only 20-some percent of the
incoming freshman class managed to place out. There are not enough courses
offered for all these students to get a seat, and so many students have to
wait a year or more to take a language class if they want to take Spanish,
and to a lesser extent, French. School administrators says this makes it
very difficult for students to graduate on time (*especially* those in the
professional schools) and creates bad publicity for the university. The
university has tried to deal with this problem in various ways, including
lowering by more than a third the threshold score for placing out of
Spanish, but this has not reduced the numbers anywhere near enough for the
system to work as currently funded. Securing funding for the creation of
more course sections is definitely not an option in the current political
environment.
Another wrinkle in the placement testing picture has been the instrument
used and the resources needed. For several years now, up until this
semester, we used the BYU CAPE. It was administered by our Testing &
Tutorial Services. During the academic year, they used their two in-house
computers to administer tests on a walk-in basis, and in the summer, during
freshman orientations, they used a campus computer lab to test 80 students
at a time. However, in this past year Computing Services has said that
they will no longer allow their general computing labs to be used for
placement testing. (strike 1). Testing and Tutorial Services was already
extremely unhappy with the BYU test due to numerous technical problems they
encountered. (strike 2). And it has been deemed impractical to
reconfigure the entire freshman orientation process so that we could
administer the test in the Language Resource Center, which has only 30
stations. (strike 3). So the BYU CAPE has been dumped, and by next
semester our department must find another way to test students.
The end result of all this is that the language requirement will almost
certainly not exist in its current form come next year. If it's eliminated
altogether as a university requirement, our dean feels that we will be able
to persuade departments or colleges to make languages a requirement for
their degree programs and tailor classes more specifically to their needs,
but given the current political climate, many are skeptical that this will
actually succeed. Our language department is currently debating a number
of steps we could take, but they are still at the brainstorming stage.
Another proposal has been to exempt from the requirement anyone who had X
years of high school language, with grade X or better (insert various
numbers & grades in both slots).
Well, there's my 200 cents, for whatever it's worth. Good luck.
--------------------------------
Samantha Earp
Director, Language Resource Center
Dept. of Languages and Culture Studies
University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone: (704) 510-6876 fax: (704) 547-3496
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
|
