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THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES

ANNUAL REPORT

JANUARY 1, 2002 DECEMBER 31, 2002

Preamble

Provisional Mission Statement (in the process of revision):

The mission of the Department of Modern Languages is to offer students the opportunity to pursue foreign language study at various levels with the goal of gaining differing degrees of proficiency in all four language skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing) and in cultural awareness. The department's undergraduate degree (B.A.) programs in French and Spanish provide curricula that are designed to facilitate progressively more advanced proficiency in communicative language skills, cultural knowledge, and analytical skills as applied to the comprehension of literary and non-literary texts alike. Minor programs in French, German, Italian, and Spanish together with instruction in Japanese and Latin permit students to pursue language study on a more limited basis through the intermediate or advanced level according to individual aims and interest.

In general, the members of the department endeavor to prepare students to be competitive in the global economy and to develop critical thinking skills that will make them aware of and sensitive to cultural diversity in national and international contexts. In particular, the department provides the means for students to fulfill the foreign language requirement of the College of Arts and Sciences and of units in other colleges, it is a partner with the College of Education in the preparation and training of primary and secondary school foreign language teachers, it assists the university’s professional schools through providing language training that is applicable to business and other professional uses, it affords students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding of their own culture as well as of other cultures, and it aids students in the development of reading, communication, listening, writing, and analytical skills. The programs of the department not only prepare students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for varied career paths, but also for the pursuit of more advanced study in the various areas of foreign language specialization. The department seeks to enhance student learning, success, and retention through excellence in teaching and advising. It also seeks to attract motivated, academically capable students and to improve the quality of the student body through strong pragmatic programs of study, insistence on high standards, outreach, and publicity. Similarly, excellence in research brings recognition to the department and university.

Vision:

The Modern Languages Department believes that language skills are central to understanding the larger community of humanity, to developing a more holistic perspective on our own culture as well as others, and to competing in today’s increasingly global economy. The Modern Languages Department seeks to become the program of choice for persons interested in pursuing language studies as degree work, as an adjunct to other majors, in continuing education for teachers, and for executive development. The Department will monitor and meet the language needs in both academic and private venues. The Department will provide the opportunity for cultural experiences both on campus and through study abroad that will facilitate the expansion and proficiency in conversational skills and intercultural understanding. The Department of Modern Languages is dedicated to providing a dynamic environment that attracts students from academic and private venues.

I. IDEA Evaluations:

A. Summary: For question # 3 on the IDEA form, “Overall Excellence of Teacher,” the departmental scores in all faculty categories (all; tenure-line; full-time temporary; part-time; graduate assistants) for 2002 were statistically comparable to those of 2001 and in general remained consistently strong (above 4.00/5.00), reflecting a high degree of teaching effectiveness and student satisfaction at all levels of instruction. Concretely, the rounded up average scores for this report period as compared to last year’s are as follows:

2002 2001

All faculty: 4.35 4.34

Tenure-line: 4.45 4.59

Full-time temp: 4.15 4.28

Part-time: 4.35 4.32

Graduate Assistants: 3.89 4.24

The single area of noticeable statistical variance, that of the scores for graduate assistants, is a category that is more susceptible to variation owing to the influx of several inexperienced new M.A. students each year whose performance generally shows improvement from fall to spring owing to the close supervision and pedagogical mentoring procedures of the department. In the case of CY 2002, the graduate assistants average went from 3.74 in the fall, to 4.04 in the spring.

II. Research Initiative – Grants:

A. Summary: The major focus of departmental grant activity for CY

2002 was the utilization of the funds for training in oral proficiency testing techniques provided by the award in 2001 of the Council for Teaching and Learning (ITL) $5,000 grant for the project entitled “Proposal for Department-Level Assessment Project,” in support of participation by Modern Languages faculty members in 5-day ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview training workshops. These funds were incremented initially by $2,500 matching funds from the College of Arts & Sciences and $2,500 of departmental funds, and subsequently by an additional $500 from A&S and $230 from the Center for Collaboration and Inquiry. Although this grant was awarded in CY 2001, the funds were not disbursed and utilized until CY 2002.

Other grant awards and proposals during 2002 were as follows:

1. Dr. María A. Zanetta: Provost’s special research fellowship for $5,000, for proposal to carry out research for a second book during FIPL, Spring and Summer 2003.

2. Dr. María A. Zanetta: Grant from the Friends of the University Libraries for $500 to purchase library materials for personal research. July 2002.

3. Buchtel College of Arts & Sciences departmental grant of $1,000, in conjunction with Early Career Research Award made to Dr. María A. Zanetta.

4. $2,495 OBR equipment funding proposal.

5. Dr. Maria Adamowicz: Applied for the Université de Montréal Scholarship through the American Association of Teachers of French to participate in a summer ’02 seminar on Québec Culture. Not funded.

III. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:

Summary: The principal research activity directly corresponding to the scholarship of teaching and learning in the Department of Modern Languages is that of the department’s specialist in linguistics Dr. Paul Toth. In addition to his publications dealing with issues relating to the learning and teaching of Spanish, Dr. Toth utilizes his research expertise in a variety of service functions both within and outside the university, such as those listed below. Other department members also have been involved in activities connected with the scholarship of teaching and learning through conference presentations, workshop participation, and attendance at ITL-sponsored events, as indicated below.

A. Publications:

Paul Toth, Psych verbs and morphosyntactic development in instructed L2 Spanish. Selected proceedings of the 5th Conference on the L1 and L2 Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. (in press)

Paul Toth, Why Attention to Form May Undermine Cohesion in L2 Classroom Interaction. Submitted to The Modern Language Journal, December 2002. (in review)

B. Conference Presentations:

Paul Toth, A “weak interface” for instruction and morphosyntactic development: Psych verbs in beginning L2 Spanish. Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. April 26-28, 2002. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Paul Toth, with Susan Colville-Hall (College of Education) and Patrice Castillo, “Costa Rica for Educators”. Central States Conference. March 21-23, 2002. Kansas City, MO.

Christopher Eustis, with Paul Toth and Susan Colville-Hall (College of Education), August 2002, “Costa Rica for Educators: Lessons Learned,” Annual Meeting of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. July 29-August 2, 2002. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

C. Workshops and Guest Lectures Given:

Paul Toth, February 5, 2002. Classroom discourse pragmatics and student participation. Guest lecture. Kent State University, Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies.

Paul Toth, April 20, 2002. Contextualization and the role of the teacher in classroom interaction. Invited workshop for K-12 teachers. The University of Akron, Northeast Ohio Language Alliance.

Paul Toth, August 21-22, 2002. Communicative teaching strategies for beginning Spanish. Workshop for new instructors. Modern Languages Department, The University of Akron.

Paul Toth, October 3, 2002. Sexual minority youth in the public schools. Guest lecture. The University of Akron, School of Education. Course on diversity in student populations.

Paul Toth, December 3, 2002 Communicative teaching strategies for beginning Spanish. Workshop for new instructors. Modern Languages Department, The University of Akron.

D. Other Presentations:

Christopher Eustis and Robert Jeantet, “The Value of Study Abroad,” ITL “Celebration of Excellence in Teaching and Learning” Conference, April 19, 2002.

María A. Zanetta, “Transforming literature and culture into an active and enriching personal experience”. Poster and video session to share results in improving the delivery of class material in student learning. ITL “Celebration of Excellence in Teaching and Learning” Conference, April 19, 2002.

E. Workshop Attendance:

Christopher Eustis, ITL events: “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,” 3/18/02; “Carnegie Teaching Academies Across the U.S.: Lessons Learned,” 4/5/02; “Celebrating Excellence in Teaching and Learning Conference,” 4/19/02.

Christopher Eustis and María A. Zanetta, ITL Distinguished Visiting Scholar Seminar. Dr. Maryellen Weimer “Teaching that Promotes Learning: Which Changes are Worth Making?” The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, November 8th, 2002.

Parizad Dejbord, Paul Toth, and María A. Zanetta: July 18-21, 2002, “How to Administer the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview.” Four-day training session offered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

Robert Jeantet, November 18-21, 2002, “How to Administer the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview.” Four-day training session offered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

Maria Adamowicz, attended an electronic workshop to participate in a pilot program for web-based proficiency test of French organized by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies, University of Oregon (September 2002). Conducted the test in FR 301 (September 2002).

F. Other Activity:

Paul Toth, Member of the National Research Task Force of the New Visions in Action project sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center in Ames, Iowa.

Paul Toth, Reviewer of conference abstracts for the 6th Annual Conference on the L1 and L2 Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Iowa.

Paul Toth, Reviewer of papers for the Selected proceedings of the 6th Annual Conference on the L1 and L2 Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese.

IV. Student Outcomes Assessment:

The department is engaged in a major assessment undertaking focusing on evaluation of the speaking proficiency of foreign language students, with attention first to majors, double majors, and teaching licensure candidates. This project involves training in oral proficiency testing techniques according to an internationally recognized system and scale developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), known as the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview). In order to implement this system of evaluation it first is necessary to get faculty members trained in the testing techniques, which can be done only by attending a four-day (40 hours) ACTFL-sponsored OPI Testing Training Workshop, of which only two or three are offered at different locations each year. Thanks to the ITL grant described above in section II, 1, the department sent three faculty members in Spanish and one in French for training during Summer and Fall 2002. Following the training, in order to become certified by ACTFL as an official tester, each trainee must conduct two rounds of oral interviews for a total of some 60 hours, in which the trainee must record a minimum of eight oral interviews with subjects representing different levels of proficiency. The interviews generally last one-half hour and then must be evaluated by the trainee to determine the level of proficiency according to the ACTFL scale. It generally is necessary to conduct more than eight interviews in order to get a sufficient number of suitable samples. The sample interviews are sent to expert ACTFL-certified tester trainers, who then determine if the trainee has followed the proper procedures in conducting the interview and also ascertain if the trainee has made a correct determination of the subject’s proficiency level. It is normal for the trainer-certifiers to require a trainee to conduct additional interviews owing to faulty techniques and incorrect evaluation of proficiency levels. The entire process is extremely intensive, time consuming, and exhausting for the trainee. The three Spanish faculty members involved in this process have completed all of the required interviews and it is expected that all three will be certified by ACTFL in the near future. The French trainee will have completed the process by the end of Fall Semester 2003. Once our testers are certified, the department will begin to conduct yearly oral proficiency interviews with all French and Spanish majors and double majors. The interviews initially will be done as exit assessments of graduating senior majors only. We then will begin to assess the proficiency of all majors and double majors at the start of their in-major studies, at a mid point, and also at the conclusion of their studies. The department foresees the possibility of eventually providing persons other than our majors with the opportunity to be tested and to receive an official ACTFL certificate showing the level of proficiency. For a fee, this service may be available not only to students in other programs such as International Business, Nursing, and Law Enforcement, but also to the public at large. The department hopes to be able to have two or three additional faculty members trained in OPI in the future. However, because the entire process of training and certification activities costs approximately $3,000 per person, future training will require additional special funding and may only be possible in the long term.

In addition to the OPI, beginning this year the department will conduct exit interviews with its graduating majors and double majors and also will ask these students to fill out an exit survey.

V. Faculty Data:

A. Honors and awards:

Dr. Paul Toth, Assistant Professor of Spanish, won the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages / Modern Language Journal Paul Pimlseur Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Education Research. The award was given for Toth’s article “The interaction of instruction and learner-internal factors in the acquisition of L2 morphosyntax” in Studies in Second Language Acquisition 22, pp. 169-208. Stipend: $500. Dr. Toth received this prestigious award based on a national ACTFL committee review of 38 professional research journals spanning a two-year period (1999-2001). Dr. Toth’s work on the complementary contributions of learner internal factors and instructional context to the learning of Spanish as a foreign language clearly rose to the top of the list. Toth received his award at the national ACTFL meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah (November 21-24, 2002).