FROM:Valerie Burke, Chair

TO:Beth Dobkin, Provost

FROM:Valerie Burke, Chair

Academic Senate

DATE:May 20, 2015

RE:Senate Action S-14/15-41CA

Modern Languages Proposal –

Lower Division Language Courses

And the Designation of the 4th Hour

At the April 29, 2015 meeting of the Academic Senate, the attached Proposal from Modern Languages for the Lower Division Language Courses and the Designation of the 4th Hour was approvedon the Consent Agenda. The proposal wasapproved by a vote of 8-0 with one abstention by the Undergraduate Educational Policies Committee (UEPC) at its April 13, 2015 meeting. All documents related to this proposal can be viewed at the UEPC website (

This action was assigned Senate Action #S-14/15-41CA.

Attachments

cc: President James A. Donahue

Vice ProvostRichard Carp

Dean Steve Woolpert

Proposal to the UEPC from the Department of Modern Languages

Lower Division Language Courses and the Designation of the 4th hour

March 16, 2015

School of Liberal Arts

Department of Modern Languages

Proposed Courses:

German 001p (praxis) / .25
German 002p (praxis) / .25
German 003p (praxis) / .25
German 004p (praxis) / .25
Italian 001p (praxis) / .25
Italian 002p (praxis) / .25
Italian 003p (praxis) / .25
Italian 004p (praxis) / .25
Japanese 001p (praxis) / .25
Japanese 002p (praxis) / .25
Japanese 003p (praxis) / .25
Japanese 004p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 001p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 002p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 003p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 004p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 009p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 010p (praxis) / .25
Spanish 011p (praxis) / .25
French 001p (praxis) / .25
French 002p (praxis) / .25
French 003p (praxis) / .25
French 004p (praxis) / .25
French 005p (praxis) / .25

2. Justification

We would like to separate administratively each of our 4-hour per week language courses into a 3-hour 1-unit course and a .25-credit praxis course so students will receive credit for the 4th hour of study.

a) Objectives of the course: The praxis courses will reinforce, expand upon, and provide additional communicative practice for material introduced in the full-credit language courses. Learning outcomes remain the same for our lower division courses, levels 1-11 (Spanish); 1-5 (French); 1-4 (Italian, German, and Japanese):

Learning Outcomes (levels 1-3)

Understand and produce speech in a variety of personal and social contexts; initiate and sustain conversations about multiple topics in the past, present and future tenses.
Read and comprehend texts with varied subject matter, multiple points of view and verb tenses.
Write prose that includes description and narration on a variety of topics with varied vocabulary; provide interpretations and supporting ideas.
Exhibit understanding and demonstrate knowledge of cultural, geographical, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of other societies.
Demonstrate an ability to see the world from multiple perspectives and become aware of themselves as members of the global community.

Learning Outcomes (levels 4 and higher)

Converse with other speakers of the target language on a variety of topics.

Read and understand expository prose.
Write coherent, grammatically correct essays on a variety of topics.
Be familiar with the culture, history and literature of the countries whose language is under study.
Engage in literary analysis (using the correct literary terminology, grammar, stylistic requisites) by writing clear and well-organized compositions.

b) The first list of objectives above (for levels 1-3) relate to the language proficiency requirement, as defined in the Core Curriculum. The second list of objectives (for levels 4 and higher) reflects the learning outcomes for students pursuing a major in Spanish or French, or a minor in Spanish, French, Italian Studies, German Studies, or East Asian Studies.

c) Students will be engaged in a wide variety of communicative activities to practice and reinforce the four modalities of language proficiency (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in the target language, as well as cultural activities designed to support the learning goals as described above. The pass/fail grading option will not be allowed.

3. Student Population

The anticipated student population remains the same as the one currently taking lower division language courses. These students include department minors, majors, and students fulfilling lower division language courses toward completion of the language requirement, as defined in the Core Curriculum.
Class size will typically be between 10 and 25 students.

4. Relationship to present College curriculum

The addition of these .25 praxis courses will modify existing lower division language courses (levels 1-11) by reducing them to 3 hours a week, thus aligning them with other 1-credit courses across the curriculum. We anticipate that the creation of these courses will have no impact on other departments and programs.

5. Extraordinary implementation costs

There will be no extraordinary costs or requirements. As is currently the case with our lower division language courses, we typically require multi-media classrooms.

6. Library Review

No library review is necessary, as we will not be changing course content. We are merely converting the 4th hour of instruction to create a .25-credit praxis course.

7. Course credit and grading options

The value of the newly proposed praxis courses will be .25 SMC course credits.
The total number of hours that the student will spend in the classroom during the semester is 13 to 14 – one hour per week during the regular long semester.
The format of the course is designed to support the material learned in the full-credit course. It may include communicative exercises, lectures, music, film, discussions, or computer lab activities in the target language.
These .25 courses will be designated as "academic," as they focus on a specific body of knowledge/method of study and have a specific connection to the College's curriculum in the Department of Modern Languages.
a) Faculty members from the Department of Modern Languages (ranked, adjunct, or part time lecturer) will teach these courses.
b) The praxis courses will require that work, whether in-class discussion of assigned readings, written work based on assignments, oral presentations in class or other performance-based projects will be submitted for evaluation.
c) The praxis courses require a minimum of 33 hours of combined classroom time (13 hours) and out-of-class (20 hours) of assignment time.

8. Prerequisites and Co-requisites

Prerequisites are the same for full-credit courses. (i.e. SPAN 002p, like SPAN 002, has a prerequisite of SPAN 001.)
Co-requisites:The.25 praxis courses will be taken concurrently with the corresponding full credit course.

Current Course / Current
Credit / Proposed
Co-requisite Courses / Proposed Credit
German 001 / 1 / German 001
German 001p / 1
(.25)
German 002 / 1 / German 002
German 002p / 1
(.25)
German 003 / 1 / German 003
German 003p / 1
(.25)
German 004 / 1 / German 004
German 004p / 1
(.25)
Italian 001 / 1 / Italian 001
Italian 001p / 1
(.25)
Italian 002 / 1 / Italian 002
Italian 002p / 1
(.25)
Italian 003 / 1 / Italian 003
Italian 003p / 1
(.25)
Italian 004 / 1 / Italian 004
Italian 004p / 1
(.25)
Japanese 001 / 1 / Japanese 001
Japanese 001p / 1
(.25)
Japanese 002 / 1 / Japanese 002
Japanese 002p / 1
(.25)
Japanese 003 / 1 / Japanese 003
Japanese 003p / 1
(.25)
Japanese 004 / 1 / Japanese 004
Japanese 004p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 001 / 1 / Spanish 001
Spanish 001p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 002 / 1 / Spanish 002
Spanish 002p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 003 / 1 / Spanish 003
Spanish 003p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 004 / 1 / Spanish 004
Spanish 004p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 009 / 1 / Spanish 009
Spanish 009p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 010 / 1 / Spanish 010
Spanish 010p / 1
(.25)
Spanish 011 / 1 / Spanish 011
Spanish 011p / 1
(.25)
French 001 / 1 / French 001
French 001p / 1
(.25)
French 002 / 1 / French 002
French 002p / 1
(.25)
French 003 / 1 / French 003
French 003p / 1
(.25)
French 004 / 1 / French 004
French 004p / 1
(.25)
French 005 / 1 / French 005
French 005p / 1
(.25)

9. Course description wording for the College catalog.

Course / Course Description
German 001p / .25 / Praxis to accompany German 001. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in German 001.
German 002p / .25 / Praxis to accompany German 002. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in German 002.
German 003p / .25 / Praxis to accompany German 003. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in German 003.
German 004p / .25 / Praxis to accompany German 004. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in German 004.
Italian 001p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Italian 001. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Italian 001.
Italian 002p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Italian 002. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Italian 002.
Italian 003p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Italian 003. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Italian 003.
Italian 004p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Italian 004. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Italian 004.
Japanese 001p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Japanese 001. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Japanese 001.
Japanese 002p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Japanese 002. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Japanese 002.
Japanese 003p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Japanese 003. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Japanese 003.
Japanese 004p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Japanese 004. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Japanese 004.
Spanish 001p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 001. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 001.
Spanish 002p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 002. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 002.
Spanish 003p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 003. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 003.
Spanish 004p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 004. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 004.
Spanish 009p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 009. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 009.
Spanish 010p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 010. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 010.
Spanish 011p / .25 / Praxis to accompany Spanish 011. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in Spanish 011.
French 001p / .25 / Praxis to accompany French 001. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in French 001.
French 002p / .25 / Praxis to accompany French 002. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in French 002.
French 003p / .25 / Praxis to accompany French 003. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in French 003.
French 004p / .25 / Praxis to accompany French 004. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in French 004.
French 005p / .25 / Praxis to accompany French 005. One hour per week. Must be enrolled concurrently in French 005.