Welcome!

Welcome to the Thriving Language Programs Newsletter! You have been added to this newsletter because you filled out the form about the Thriving Language Programs Learning Community or signed up for the newsletter. As a reminder or for those of you who were not in attendance at our first session on September 16th, this newsletter will be used to share information from the 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 first discussion and upcoming topics! Plus, find a resource section with links to some useful resources!

Recap of Session 1: September 16th

We had almost 60 people join us for the first Thriving Language Programs Learning Community meeting! The meeting included an introduction and welcome to the learning community. We then broke into groups to discuss three questions:

What do you want to get out of this learning community?
What inspired you to join the community?
Why do students (not) enroll in language classes?

We used a web app called Miro to help us facilitate conversation (the Miro board is still active if you want to read comments). We then joined together for a brief discussion on the topics. We are absolutely thrilled to have so many of you join us in this community. It is clear that many of us are facing challenges when it comes to enrollments and efforts to keep our programs thriving. We hope that in the coming weeks that we can all learn from each other to make real progress in improving our professional practices in recruitment efforts.

Session 2: October 7th Preview and Zoom Link

In our next session on Monday, October 7 (2-3pm Eastern), we will be looking at two themes: Student Voices and Solutions to Thrive.

First, how are we listening to student voices? What do your currently enrolled students want? What do students who are *not* studying languages want? We will look at the data from last learning community – what are the themes that came out of the responses there? How does this compare with the themes identified by some of the authors in Language Program Vitality in the United States? (Also, check out this recent open-access article in Foreign Language Annals about the topic!)

Next, we’ll talk with the 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)

After the conversations about their chapters, we’ll have an opportunity for everyone to ask questions, have the authors share additional resources, etc.

Zoom information:

Monday, October 7 (2-3pm)
https://msu.zoom.us/j/92573683897
Meeting ID: 925 7368 3897

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!