Kirsten Halling, OFLA Public Relations & Advocacy Chair
Professor of French, Wright State University

As I write this article, I think back to the beginning of my career where I would have been devastated to teach culture courses in English, seeing it as a cop out and a way to cheat the students out of classes in which they could practice the target language. But that was then, and this is now. With the decline in enrollment in world language courses and the existential threat facing all language teachers, it is clear that staying ahead of the curve involves collaboration with other departments and placing an emphasis on skills that cannot be acquired through AI or Google Translate. At the college level, it behooves all language faculty to find essential ways to become intertwined with other disciplines so that canceling our programs would have ripple effects in many academic areas. 

Collaboration implies, of course, change and compromise, which in our case usually involves sacrificing courses in the target language. The goal is to achieve balance between offering some English language courses about the target culture and maintaining a strong language program. The secondary goal is not to get discouraged when change is imposed from the outside. Here in this article will be detailed how the French staff at Wright State University has managed to remain intact while finding a way to respond proactively to the national decline in world language study and the dearth of students (resulting from the end of the baby boom.) 

1. Virtual Paris: Three years ago, the French section developed a course entitled “Virtual Paris” in which students learn about Parisian geography, history, monuments, the Olympics, visual arts, performing arts, religion and religious edifices, fashion, gastronomy, Paris as a haven for artists and literary giants, Paris as a haven for African Americans, Hollywood’s depiction of Paris, etc. This course became so popular that we have offered it every semester since its release. It has been taught as an Honors course and is now on the books as a Gen Ed (or Core) course. Rotating the faculty teaching the course keeps our individual enrollment numbers high. In addition, some of the students who take the course are so hooked that they enroll in French 1010 the next semester. Spanish now has its own version of the course (Virtual Spain) that is just as successful.
2. History of French Film: I offered (and continue to offer) this course in French for fifteen years. This spring, I was asked to teach the course in English to Motion Pictures students and had 30 students in the class. To my great satisfaction, the students fell in love with French film and culture and were excited to incorporate some French cinematographic techniques into their own film editing. A few of the film students have already registered for my fall FR 1010 class – a concrete demonstration of  how teaching in other departments can be effective for recruitment.
3. Pronunciation courses for the Performing Arts: My colleague Jean-Michel Lamoine is our resident French phonetics expert and does mini-French pronunciation classes for the School of Music or Theatre. When they perform French operas or French themed plays, we encourage our students to attend.
4. Freshman Seminar courses: The College of Liberal Arts began offering 3-credit Freshman Seminar courses taught by full-time liberal arts faculty. In addition to the common material ( book, film, and theme of diversity and democracy), each faculty member designs their own materials that fall within their specialty. Two French faculty have taught the course with an emphasis on French democracy and diversity. One lesson developed by Jean-Michel Lamoine on cultural imperialism was a study of the initial failure of Euro Disney, highlighting the economic benefits of understanding cultural mindsets and mores.
5. Study Abroad classes in English: My colleague Pascale Abadie and I realized a few years ago that our yearly program to France should include non-French speakers. We worried that the inclusion of students who didn’t speak French would be detrimental to the program, but surprisingly, it has helped all the students relax and rely on each other. Those who do speak French are thrilled to become mentors, and the English speakers are motivated to learn. Since we began offering the program to non-French students, some of them are so excited about their trip that they register for FR 1010 after they return.

While it’s true that developing new classes is a lot of work, the benefits of teaching some classes outside the target language are undeniable. I am sure that these efforts are in large part responsible for the once unlikely survival of the French section at our university.