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Students struggle in foreign language courses |
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
Not all students are required to take foreign language for their degree. Those who do, however, can sometimes find it a daunting.
“Not all [instructors] teach exclusively in the ‘target’ language, which is the language being taught to the students,” Catherine A. Fountain, foreign language and literature assistant professor, said.
“I
did not take any Spanish in high school and was surprised when I
arrived in my introductory Spanish course to hear my teacher
instructing us only in Spanish,” Cara B. Crawford, a sophomore English
major, said.
“My teachers are good, it’s just hard because I don’t know any Spanish at all,” she said.
“Most research in foreign language instruction says it’s important to try create an immersion
environment for the student, but the idea is to not intimidate,” Fountain said.
Fountain said most instructors are trained to speak in Spanish.
“Of course there is not 100 percent consensus among instructors. There
is still much debate over how much English should be used in class for
introductory courses,” she said.
“Regarding introductory language classes [like Spanish 1010 and 1020],
we follow a curriculum developed by four authors whose approaches and
materials have been reviewed and edited by leaders in the field of
Spanish language education,” Dr. Beverly A. Moser, a foreign language
and literature associate professor, said.
“Another issue sometimes can be that introductory courses can have
students ranging from no Spanish instruction all the way up to possibly
even six years,” Fountain said.
“In our country, we Americans do not always fully understand all the
work that goes into learning a foreign language, and we expose our
students to foreign languages much later than our counterparts in other
countries,” Moser said.
“All of this can make the experience feel much less fun for students who are beginning language study as older learners.”
“One suggestion for students having difficulty is to try complete all
the assigned homework and reading in the textbook, which can often
contain English translations, [and] also to utilize your instructors
office
hours,” Fountain said.
According to the 2005-2007 Undergraduate Bulletin, generally a Bachelor
of Arts degree is the only degree that requires foreign-language
credits while a Bachelor of Science degree does not.
However, there are variations, such as a Bachelor of Science degree
with a teaching licensure, which gives the student the option of
choosing foreign language in order to fulfill major requirements.
Students with specific questions concerning whether or not their
individual degree requires them to take foreign language should refer
to the Undergraduate Bulletin.
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