External Review for Central Washington University, Department of Foreign
Languages
James A. Grabowska, Professor & Chair
Department of Modern Languages
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Overview:
This is the first program review for FL since the pilot review of 2002-2003 and
reflects changes and enhancements (as well as areas yet to be addressed) made on
the basis of the pilot review. Among the changes made since the previous review are
the establishment of Spanish programs that parallel other language offerings, the
addition of a TT Chinese faculty member, the creation of a concurrent enrollment
program (Cornerstone) that enhances the relationship between the university and
area public schools, and a new area studies program in Latino and Latin American
Studies.
The department has 10 TT faculty members with one impending retirement in
French and 5 lecturers. Of the 10, 1 is in Japanese, 1 in Chinese, 1 in Russian, 5 in
Spanish, and with the retirement in French, there will be a half position next year in
that language. ASL is taught by an adjunct faculty member, as is Latin. Japanese is
supported by an adjunct position, although with the coming rotation of the chair, the
TT Japanese faculty member will return to full time teaching, which may affect the
adjunct position. There are 2 Spanish lecturers.
All of the TT faculty members have doctorates in their fields, 5 of whom have
achieved the rank of Full Professor, 2 are Associate Professors and 3 hold the rank
of Assistant Professor. Save two new hires, the remainder have been in the
department for at least 12 years. According to the data presented in the self-study,
faculty produced double the number of books as refereed articles and treble the
number of books as conference presentations. The preponderance of the books
published during the review period were textbooks or translations of works. Many
of the faculty hold or have held significant service positions within the department,
the college and the university.
BA degrees are offered in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.
The BA with a minor is 45 credits, 47 in Spanish. The BA Broad Area major is 60
credits, 63 in Spanish. The BAT is 53 credits, 55 in Spanish and the BAT Broad Area
is 60 credits, 67 in Spanish. Only the degrees in Spanish may be achieved
completely on campus, the other programs rely on study abroad in order to offer the
credits necessary for the majors. Majors peaked in AY 2003-2004 at 57, but have
steadily decreased to 30 in AY 06-07. Minors have risen and dropped during the
past five years and were at a high of 60 in AY 06-07.
Curriculum:
In terms of Gen Ed, students are expected to have completed two years of a FL prior
to admission to CWU. If they are admitted without having completed the language
requirement, they must complete a year-long sequence at the university level.
Students can use three-quarter sequence to fulfill and Arts and Humanities Group C
requirement as long as the language is different than that which was taken in high
school.
Degree programs are noted above.
The self study presents the department as generally in service to other units and
programs on campus: Bilingual Ed., Asia Pacific Studies, Latin American Studies,
Teacher Ed., as well as other interdisciplinary and graduate programs. Program
goals reflect the service concept: the goal to add Arabic, ASL and Italian are driven
by the service that study of these languages would contribute to the university and
broader community.
That student perception of language as purely in service to Gen Ed may be reflected
in attrition rates between first-year language sequences and those of second year.
Each language section experiences an approximate 50% drop in enrollment
between first and second year sequences. This data may point to other issues as
well: numbers of students admitted without two years of high school language
experience, the difficulty of course content, issues with advising, for example. In
terms of Gen Ed, alumni surveyed were split on whether or not their education
helped them become responsible citizens and weren’t sure that it helped them
become responsible stewards of the Earth. Alumni agreed that their education
helped them become productive and enlightened citizens who valued different
opinions; helped them appreciate the breadth and depth of human knowledge and
increased their sense of the interconnectedness of knowledge; helped them
integrate knowledge and ask insightful questions.
Based on the data gathered by the alumni survey, the language curricula prepare
students well or very well in the areas of listening comprehension, cultural
knowledge, and conversation/communications. Coursework adequately prepared
students to think critically according to the survey. Quantitative reasoning and
information literacy were the weakest areas with respondents split on their
preparation in those two areas. The majority of respondents were satisfied with
their education and indicated that their education prepared them for professional
challenges.
Program planning and assessment
Planning can be viewed through two different focuses, 1) the department perception
of their role as a service component to other programs and 2) the need to look to
outside sources for support and recruitment opportunities. With regard to the first
focus, planning continues to revolve around how best to serve other programs.
Latin is an area in which the dept. indicates a desire to grow in support of other
programs such as Music. ASL is highlighted as a program that would serve the
greater area community (although it is noted that support doesn’t exist specifically
in Ellensburg, but in the broader service area). Improved advising is seen as
important to the program. The department also considers greater visibility and a
better articulation of the “interrelatedness with other disciplines” to be important
steps to build the language programs.
In order to build greater numbers of majors, the department will focus planning
efforts on fundraising and recruitment. The department developed the alumni
survey as an instrument for this self-study as well and notes throughout the selfstudy that building a relationship with alums is an important priority. World
Languages Day and the Cornerstone program are seen as important vehicles to help
with recruitment.
As part of this self-study, an assessment matrix was developed to gather data on
department goals (Appendix III in the self-study). The described goals touch on
three of the planning initiatives described above: maintaining contact with alumni,
providing programming that engages students in other programs (Latino-Latin
American Studies and the Asian Pacific Studies programs are specifically cited) and
improved advising. The other programming goals weren’t specifically elaborated in
the self-study: enhancing critical thinking skills and enhancing service learning.
The methods of assessment cited in the matrix are either nascent or not specific
enough to draw conclusions. The alumni survey, for example is new to this selfstudy and exit surveys have not been put in place yet. At least as presented in this
matrix, the use of exams, quizzes, compositions and journals are not specific enough
to provide meaningful data from which to make programmatic decisions because no
tie to the goal area is specified. Transition points or courses in which specific goals
areas are addressed would also be helpful.
The criteria of achievement in all areas of the matrix reflect the need for more
concrete methods of assessment and the need to establish better data-driven
criteria for achievement. Student GPAs of 3.0, for example, used to admit students
to programs, cannot be fruitfully used to assert “that students acquire and develop
disciplined habits of critical thinking and creative expression….”
Part of the assessment plan includes assessment of student learning outcomes, an
important element of program planning (it is noted in the self-study that the
Spanish program just “completed an overhaul of the entire curriculum structure…”,
for example). Five outcomes are highlighted: communicative competence, critical
thinking competence, pragmatic competence, cultural competence and 1 year of
study abroad. The competencies are really goal areas, lacking specific performance,
knowledge or attitudinal outcomes, but are important goals. The goal of study
abroad is also a laudable goal, but is not a learning outcome. It could certainly be a
vehicle leading toward the achievement of the competencies that are highlighted.
Like the methods and criteria of achievement above, the learning outcome
assessment plan would benefit from specific methods and criteria. The assertion
that “a major’s completion of the program requirements will show adequate
development of these skills” is not a method of assessment. The plan would benefit
from specific methods like those suggested in other areas of the self-study, such as
oral proficiency interviews, productive language skills instruments such as the
Praxis II and the like. The criteria of achievement could be tied to the instruments
used (as suggested by the references to ACTFL guidelines): Advanced Low for oral
competency, 160 on the Praxis II, etc. As above, transition points or courses in
which specific goals areas are addressed would also be helpful.
Observations
Faculty are faced with new directions and goals at the university and college levels.
One of the goals is to increase the reputation of CWU through excellent programs
and excellent scholarly production. The push for excellence in these areas presents
challenges and rewards. FL faculty are grappling with how and in what direction
they are to grow, how to gather data to show growth, how to meet the university
and college goals, and deciding their role in the university.
The Dept. of FL has yet to fully engage with the question of direction and how to
grow. Retirement and the preponderance of single faculty programs make
engagement imperative. The department has united under the aegis of “many
languages” but currently cannot sustain growth in all of the directions that that
notion implies and faculty have not yet articulated the clear vision that requires
asking difficult questions and providing challenging answers. At the same time,
there are questions to be asked about program planning and assessment: what to
measure, how to measure it, and the standards of mastery that will provide the
necessary data to guide future program decisions. In terms of scholarship, the bulk
of scholarly activity has been shared by a few faculty members. With the goal of
excellence that is shared at the university and college levels, the department will
want to encourage broader participation by more faculty, encourage greater
participation in conference presentations that can lead to articles that can lead to
books, and will want to encourage scholarly agendas that encompass not only
textbooks and translations, as well as creative output such as poetry, but scholarly
articles that touch on all areas of the broader language curricula represented in the
department.
Commendations
In discussions with faculty and students, there is no question of the commitment
that FL faculty have to their disciplines, to the university, and above all, to CWU
students. There is also a strong commitment to each other, an important
component in a department of various sections. The FL faculty enjoy a collegial
relationship between one another that helps make the department very strong. This
is a substantial change from the previous review period in which morale and
cohesiveness were seen as weak and in need of improvement.
With the recent establishment of a faculty bargaining unit and the subsequent
contract have come some progressive steps toward encouraging the professional
development of probationary faculty. In this case, yearly review of each candidate
through the tenure year is an important means toward encouraging growth and
enhancing the retention of faculty by receiving yearly feedback at both the
departmental and administrative levels. This practice of yearly review is further
enhanced by the assignment of a colleague to act as a mentor, thus helping the new
hire to grow professionally and to become a member of the academic community.
While there are certain weaknesses inherent in programs that rely on study abroad
in order for students to complete the major (it masks, for example, the problems
that manifest themselves in single-faculty programs). The department has been
successful in requiring study abroad of its students, and students enjoy a wide
variety of sites and programs that can help tailor the study abroad experience to
their needs and interests. In addition, there is a very close (physically and
collegially) relationship between the Dept. of FL and the International Programs
Office. In this aspect, CWU is certainly working to realize its commitment to
internationalization.
Another strong component to FL is the Cornerstone program. Cornerstone may
serve to attract majors to the FL program, prepare students for upper division
university work earlier and build fruitful relationships between high schools and the
university.
The department has been successful in creating a number of interdisciplinary
courses, particularly the film courses that are great additions to other depts. as well
as to the FL dept. In addition, World Languages Day brings recognition to FL by the
community at large, an excellent vehicle for both the university and the various
language programs offered on campus.
Recommendations:
Immediate goals: Advising was highlighted as an area in which faculty would like
to improve. They might consider a workshop on advising for all faculty (TT & NTT)
during which distribution of responsibilities as well as best practices are the focus.
The self-study articulates this type of workshop as a goal; it now should become a
reality.
Advising is important to students and potential majors/minors.
Deficiencies in the advising process may chase potential majors/minors from the FL
programs. Taking steps to improve advising should begin immediately.
The dept. should gather data on the effectiveness of the Cornerstone program:
success within the schools, its effect on attracting students to programs, and of those
students that chose Central, what majors they choose, and the like. Continuing
Education as well as Institutional Research can help in gathering data and
interpreting it. This data is important to making decisions about expanding the
program, limiting it, developing strategies to better take advantage of it, and most
importantly, making program decisions.
Contact ROTC and begin to establish a relationship that shows what candidates can
achieve in the FL dept. According to ROTC students, the program provides
additional compensation to candidates with language competency. FL should take
advantage of this potential interest in their programs. If a fruitful relationship can
be established, it may affect the scheduling of classes or reviewing the FL programs
in order to make it possible to finish a degree within the ROTC timelines.
FL will want to explore the possibility of investing in a placement exam for the
various languages. Currently students are able to place themselves, and they may
place themselves incorrectly or for the wrong reasons. Not only are placement
exams important to program integrity, they can make it possible to track students as
they progress through FL programs, therefore leading to concrete evidence of the
levels that majors/minors are able to achieve.
Gather data on approximate proficiency levels of graduates through exit interviews
or some sort of proficiency exam like the Praxis II. Not only would the interviews
provide for a capstone experience for majors/minors, but the dept. would have
access to significant data that could inform decisions made about program change.
Discuss and develop a strategy for enhancing retention of students from 1st to 2nd
year courses. This discussion may hinge on the perspectives of “cup half full” “cup
half empty,” but the fact is that all languages this past year experienced a 50%
decline between first year and second year enrollments. If language faculty can take
advantage of the strong initial enrollments to build program majors/minors and
retain more of their students, they can make dramatic improvements in the
numbers of majors they graduate.
Determine the roles of critical thinking, quantitative reasoning and information
literacy, where they will be taught and how they will be assessed. These areas were
the weakest in the alumni assessments and it may be due to the fact that they aren’t
specifically addressed in FL classes, or that students are not made specifically aware
that they are course goals. If these goals are important to FL coursework, make
them specific, if they are not, eliminate them from the assessment list.
Perhaps most importantly, the FL department should consider making progress
toward developing a strategic plan that will serve as a guide for both faculty and
administration as the dept. faces new and continuing issues. This is a suggestion
that was made during the previous review and it is more important now than ever.
Changes are imminent as evidenced by a retirement in French, the current chair
rotating out of that position and back into full-time teaching, and other faculty who
are approaching retirement, for example. The number of single-faculty programs
and an aging professoriate make discussion of a plan imperative.
Longer term goals: Another observation that was made during the previous review
and that should be addressed is the need for a departmental assessment plan that
provides for the gathering of data in order to determine what students are able to
do upon entering CWU, what they can do as they progress toward their degrees, and
what they can do when they graduate. The development of this plan should include
observable/measureable objectives, specific methods of assessment, specific criteria
of achievement and multiple transition points during which assessment takes place.
In addition, tools like the placement exam, proficiency exit interviews,
determination of the roles of critical thinking, etc. mentioned above, all may be
components of this assessment plan that can be used to drive program planning,
learning outcomes, instruction, scope, sequence, and content. They are also
important elements that should be discussed as key pieces of the strategic plan
referenced above.
As the FL department moves toward gathering data about program planning and
student achievement, they will likewise want to gather data about instructional
performance by faculty. The current instrument used to provide the lion’s share of
that data comes from the SEOI. With baseline data on student performance will
come adjustments in instruction and curriculum. As changes are considered and
debated, so should changes to the SEOI be considered in order to reflect changing
practices or perspectives by different programs in the department.
The university gives certain privilege to the “scholarship of teaching,” but there is
no apparent entity in place to provide guidance and instruction to faculty in this
area of professional development. As FL faculty develop their strategic plan for the
future and as they prepare to incorporate an assessment plan within the strategic
plan, they will need opportunities to continue to grow and develop as professional
educators. Learning about and investigating best practices in student learning, the
learning environment, diverse learners, instructional strategies, planning,
assessment, reflection, and collaboration, for example, should be intentional and
pervasive across the entire university.
Another aspect of professional development that will require careful attention and
targeted action by FL faculty is in the area of what might be considered more
traditional scholarship. Appendix II in the self-study presents performance criteria
from hire through post-tenure review for faculty. During the 6-year probationary
period, faculty are expected to complete 4 projects (2 in each of the specified
categories). In the case of successful tenure, a faculty member could apply for
promotion after 5 years, during which another 4 projects would be expected to have
been completed. After promotion to Full Professor, the faculty member is expected
to complete 3 projects during every 3-year cycle between post-tenure reviews. This
type of ambitious research agenda requires substantial support: 1) at the university
level, 2) at the college level, and 3) at the departmental level. At the university level,
a center whose function is to vet manuscripts and help perform data analyses is
fundamental. CWU and the College of Arts and Humanities have expressed a desire
to enhance their reputations and have cited research as a key component to
achieving that goal. With the commitment to move in that direction should come an
equal commitment to helping faculty realize their research ambitions. A center that
would provide the types of services mentioned would be a positive step in that
direction.
At the college level, reassigned time and financial resources provided to faculty in
order to facilitate completion of this type of agenda will be particularly important,
particularly in a department in which a number of the language sections are in the
hands of a single faculty member.
At the department level, the existing mentoring practices might be fruitfully
exploited to encourage broader participation by faculty in scholarly activity. The
department will want to encourage the development of presentations that can be
delivered at conferences, turned into articles and from articles into books. The
department will have to argue their needs carefully to the Dean, will have to use
their financial resources carefully, and will have to have serious discussions of load
in order to enhance the possibilities of success by junior as well as senior faculty.
Load, particularly, will be an issue in the FL Department, given its current state.
Given the described performance standards, achieving research goals will be one of
the biggest challenges this department faces.