December 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 about 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!

Session 4: December 9th Preview and Zoom Link

In our next session (TODAY) on Monday, December 9 (2-3pm Eastern), our theme is a "Call to Action," which will focus on participants reflecting on next actions over the coming weeks, semester, and year(s).

We look forward to a fruitful discussion with you all!

Zoom link: https://msu.zoom.us/j/96150635753

Recap of Session 2: October 7th

In our previous session on Monday, November 11 (2-3pm Eastern), we focused on the theme of "Program Goals" with three presentations. Note: The videos of the presentations are not yet ready, but will be posted on the learning community website as soon as they are uploaded!

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
- Language policy research can support world language advocacy - it helps us understand how we talk about language study and how students are interpreting it
- "Declared, "perceived," and "practiced" policy; explicit vs. implicit
- What is visible or not visible sends messages about what is valued (or not valued).
- Considerations:
  - How do policy texts send messages to students?
  - How are we articulating linguistic goals/purposes of language study?
  - How do we articulate non-linguistic goals/purposes of language study?
  - Share testimonials from other students about value of language learning.
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
- Followed principles of Backward Design, started with graduate program
- Guiding principles: More relevant to 21st century and more flexible and responsive to student interests
- BA program revamp launched Fall 2022
  - Core classes at 300 and 400 level, with 400 level being repeatable so that students could focus on areas of interest (history, literature, language, culture, etc.)
- Numbers show that minors are increasing or staying steady, which is great considering broader trends
- Still want to change titles of 100 and 200 level courses to make them more informative than "French 1," etc.
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
- We know that language learning is transformative, but do students know that it is? Does it matter that they get that if they can't articulate that?
- Do students mostly agree or disagree with developing in the areas that were identified as important for the French language program (human connection, communication, initiative & leadership, resilience & persistence, collaboration, problem solving)? (Yes)
- How can we systematically raise students' awareness of this?
  - Currently conducting a study where they're doing an intervention (activities) where they anticipate, experience, and reflect on those identified areas.
- What can we do to raise awareness, shape (realistic) expectations and perceptions, and document the benefits of language learning in our programs?

We then continued with live Q&A and discussion with the authors.

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!