Recap of October, Zoom link for Monday!
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October/November 2024
Welcome (back) to the Thriving Language Programs Newsletter! For those of you new to this newsletter, it will be used to share information from the Thriving Learning Community sessions, share additional resources, and communicate about upcoming opportunities! If you have ideas for things to include in the newsletter, please reach out!
We anticipate sending out the newsletter once or twice a month, with occasional additional emails if time-sensitive items come up. If you wish to unsubscribe, you can do so at the bottom of the email at any time.
Check out sections below for recaps of our previous discussion and upcoming topics! Plus, find a resource section with links to some useful resources!
Recap of Session 2: October 7th
We began the session on Monday, October 7th with a recap of themes about student voices that came out from the September 16th session. Participants had responded to the prompt, "Why do students not enroll in language classes?" The main themes that came out of that were:
- Other courses too rigidly scheduled/don’t have time in schedule
- Time conflicts
- Reduction/elimination of language requirements
- Students being discouraged from taking languages
- Value of language learning
- Requirement only
- AI taking over
- Why is language valuable? Usefulness in careers/jobs
- Grading
- “The way we evaluate and grade students doesn’t accurately reflect language acquisition”
We highlighted several chapters from the Language Program Vitality volume, from large-scale surveys to smaller questionnaires that solicited student voices. We went into more detail by talking to authors of two chapters in the edited volume:
- LeAnne Spino (Leveraging Student Surveys to Promote Recruitment and Retention)
- Laura Edwards & Juliet Lynd (Internationalize Your Major: Embracing the Supportive Role of Language Study)
We then continued with live Q&A and discussion with the authors.
Session 3: November 11th Preview and Zoom Link
In our next session on Monday, November 11 (2-3pm Eastern), we will focus on the theme of "Program Goals."
- Presentation by Carlo Cinaglia on his Language Program Vitality chapter "University Students’ Beliefs About the Language Requirement: Policy as Articulated and as Perceived" and its findings/implications
- Presentation by Anne Violin-Wigent on the French program redesign at Michigan State University and how that helped align the program goals and the curriculum
- Presentation by Matt Coss focusing on a current project at MSU where a collaborative group is examining what students actually think they get out of language learning
**Note: we WILL be recording the live presentations, but not the Q&A**
After the presentations, we’ll have an opportunity for everyone to ask questions, share additional resources, etc.
Zoom information:
- https://msu.zoom.us/j/95342656776
- Meeting ID: 953 4265 6776
- Language Program Vitality in the United States (edited volume on which this learning community is based)
- Sharing Less Commonly Taught Languages in Higher Education: Collaboration and Innovation (edited volume with some “Solutions to Thrive”)
- Article: How important is studying languages for undergraduate students and why (not) study languages?
- Learning Community Website
If you have any information you would like to share with the rest of the community, please email us (Emily, Felix, Scott) and we will try to share it in our upcoming newsletters. We would love to include any stories of successful (and also unsuccessful) initiatives that you have tried. We could also share links to resources you want to share. We want this newsletter to be a place for our community to continue growing and thriving, so we would love to hear your voices as well!
