CAS CONNECT 2017

The course is open to anyone interested in the French culture. “It is a lower level class, and students don’t have to be 21,” Turcat says. “They don’t have to have any experience with French. It is really wide open, and anybody can take this and hopefully benefit from it.” This course is just the start of the depart- ment’s efforts to make foreign language courses more accessible for students. “We realized that for too many students our courses would overlap,” explains Dr. Karin Schestokat, head of the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures. “We are going to go to the three-hour instruction for the first year, down from the five-hour instruction. I heard from many students that the five-hour courses are somewhat scary. But it also affects grade- point average. “If you do well [in a five-hour course], your grade-point average will go up, but if you don’t do as well, then it really pulls it down.” This change will also help students who are interested in foreign language courses and must meet certain grade requirements. “I especially heard that from students who were on scholarships and needed to maintain a certain level of GPA, that even if they wanted to take the class it is just too scary to have a five-hour course,” Schestokat added. The department expects that the change in curriculum and different culture classes will encourage students to take more foreign language courses. “The hope is that we can get more students to take foreign language early in their career so that they hopefully like it and continue on to a minor or major in foreign language,” Schestokat says. Of course, the changes in required hours means a change in the amount of homework. “It is going to be a big change for instruction because all of a sudden, they are going to have to fit a lot of material into fewer contact hours, which probably means we’re going to have more homework,” Schestokat says. “Materials will need to be shifted around, and we are in the process of that.” Schestokat anticipates this will allow courses to branch out and offer more in-depth, focused curriculum. “With more students and more interest and more students voicing interest, instructors will be able to think of different courses to offer,” she says. “At one point, they have to do the vocabulary and grammar to get the basics, but once you have the basics, you can branch out in either literature or culture or business or maybe even more specialized courses.” “The hope is that we can get more students to take foreign language ear ly in thei r career so that they hopeful ly l ike i t and cont inue on to a minor or major in foreign language.” — Kar in Schestokat Turcat and Shestokat have worked together to make foreign language courses more accessible for students. One way they have done so is by shi ft ing f i rst-year language courses from a f ive-hour format to a three-hour format. GARY LAWSON / UNIVERSITY MARKETING 6