Two courses will be taught in a foreign language during spring semester
Learning a foreign language is one thing, but applying it to areas outside literature is another.
Starting spring semester, Carolina students will be able to use their language skills in courses such as International Relations and Latin American Politics as part of the Foreign Language Across the Curriculum initiative.
Already in use at several universities across the country, FLAC seeks to integrate languages with coursework, so participating students graduate with a deeper understanding of language's connection to other disciplines such as history, philosophy, sociology, political science and art history.
"There is a greater realization that we are part of a global community, and we need to develop skills to interact with people from other nations," said Jonathan Hartlyn, associate professor in political science who will teach a FLAC course next year. "We see it as something that should really add to the appreciation of a foreign language."
Glynis Cowell, coordinator of the joint Duke-UNC FLAC initiative, sees knowledge of a foreign language as a big edge in the career market.
"When the student goes out into the real world and looks for a job, language experience is often the thing that gives them an edge over other applicants," she said. "This is a global economy now. We can't expect to deal with people effectively in business with only our own language and culture."
For example, she said a lawyer with Hispanic clients could work better with them knowing their language and culture, two aspects of any society that are inextricably bound.
"You can read about culture, but language puts you that one step closer to living the culture," she said. "It's that self-expression that gives you deeper understanding of a culture."
While the language skills students use in literature courses are important, using them in other courses can help expand vocabulary and understanding of that language, said Cowell, director of Lower Level Language Instruction in Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages.
It also can help develop knowledge of various academic fields, said Paul Price, a research associate at the University Center for International Studies who is helping implement the program.
"Most of social science goes on in Britain, France, the U.S., Germany and Italy," he said, noting that ability in French, German or Italian could aid significantly a social sciences student.
Cowell sees possibilities for combinations such as Italian and art history or German and philosophy.
"There's no limit," she said.
The courses at UNC will be taught either completely in the foreign language or will have a component, such as a discussion group, in the foreign language while the main body of the course is conducted in English.
One such course will be the introductory international relations course in the spring, Price said. Its typical enrollment is about 300 people who meet together for lectures and then break down into smaller groups for weekly discussion sections. One of the discussion sections will be taught in French, he said, with special assigned readings in French for that group.
Hartlyn said his Latin American Politics course would be conducted in Spanish, but the readings would be half in Spanish, half in English.
"I will require students to have an advanced ability in Spanish, but I will not require them to be fluent," he said.
To help meet any difficulty caused by differing language abilities, teaching assistants will be available to aid students in this course, Cowell said.
Cowell expects a large number of students interested in taking FLAC courses would be those returning from study abroad who wanted to keep up with their language skills. Some of them also may come from families where the language was used in the home, she said, while others may simply be interested in strengthening their language skills.
A way for students to be recognized for their extra effort, such as a certificate or notation on their transcripts, is being explored, she said.
Cowell hopes more professors will decide to teach FLAC courses in the future, and said she already knows of some who are interested. Course development awards are available to help interested faculty develop suitable courses, she said.
For more information on FLAC, contact Cowell at 2-0156 or gscowell@ email.unc.edu.
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