Department of French
Student Outcomes Assessment Plan
March 30, 1999
I. Process used in developing this plan
The department head attended the workshop provided by the Center for Teaching Excellence. He distributed the worksheets gathered at that workshop to the entire faculty, which was simultaneously considering a massive revision of the undergraduate majors in the Department of French. The department worked in teams considering curricular changes and outcomes assessment in three areas: Language Skills, French Literature, and French Civilization and Francophonie.
At the same time we performed a literature search concerning outcomes assessment in the foreign language major. We identified the following documents to help us in developing our plan:
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Yonkers: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1986.
Hope, Geoffrey. "Assessing the Undergraduate French Major: Institutional and Individual Accountability". The French Review 72 (1999):456-468.
Liskin-Gasparro, Judith E. "Practical Approaches to Outcomes Assessment: The Undergraduate Major in Foreign Languages and Literatures". ADFL Bulletin 26.2 (1995): 21-27.
At department meetings through February and March of 1999 the departmental faculty met to discuss course revisions and the appropriate measures for outcomes assessment. In March 1999 the department head wrote this report and submitted it for comments from the faculty.
II. Desired learning outcomes
Our undergraduate major programs of study are designed to ensure that that our students will develop competence in areas: Language Skills, French/Francophone Literature and French/Francophone Civilization. The Department of French has three undergraduate majors: French Studies, Commercial French Studies, and Teaching of French. The goals in each of the three are generally similar, with different emphases which will be discussed below.
A. Language Skills
1. Oral Proficiency. Majors should be able to pronounce French accurately, so that it is not a strain for native speakers to understand them. They should be able converse comfortably on general topics, narrate events and describe what they see. They should be able to understand university classes taught entirely in French.
2. Written proficiency. Majors should be able to write gramatically and lexically accurate French. They should be able to express themselves on general topics, and to write analytically on literary and cultural topics.
Papers and examinations will be kept in a departmental file so that the faculty can evaluate grammatical accuracy and mastery of different styles and registers of language.
3. Translation Skills. Students in the Commercial French Studies option are required to take two courses in Commercial French and two courses in Techniques in Translation. Copies of papers and examinations will be kept in a departmental file so that the faculty can evaluate the ability to make the transpositions necessary for accurate translation.
B. Literature
The new program in the major provides a two-course historical survey of French literature, so that students can understand the chronology of French literature, and advanced courses in specific literary genres and literary periods. Copies of papers and examinations will be kept in a departmental file so that the faculty can evaluate the development of critical and analytical skills.
C. Culture
The department offers two courses on the history of French civilization, French 335 and French 336. These are required in the teacher education major, and encouraged for all others. Students are also required to take courses in the history of Western Europe (in the History Department) or in the history of European literatures (in the Comparative Literature program). In addition, courses on literature include the presentation of the cultural background necessary to understanding the literary texts in question. Copies of papers and examinations will be kept in a departmental file so that the faculty can evaluate students' knowledge of French and francophone culture.
D. Teaching of French.
Students take three courses (newly renumbered 271, 275, 278) on the philosophical and psychological bases of language teaching, and a course on the structures of French (French 316). Copies of papers and examinations will be kept in a departmental file so that the faculty can evaluate students' understanding of these concepts. Students in this area take state certification examinations. The results of this examination can be included in the portfolio. In addition, the courses that involve fieldwork will provide summary evaluation and recommendation forms from the Office of Foreign Language Teacher Education Early Field Experience.
E. Commercial French Studies.
Many of the students in this program take the international examination offered by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris (CCIP). The results of this examination can be included in the portfolio.
III. Process for using the results
Every three years a faculty committee will evaluate a random sample of student portfolios (consisting of student papers, examinations, and faculty evaluations), combine these with the results from the senior survey, Oral Proficiency Interview results, alumni surveys, ICES results and other indices of student achievement and satisfaction that may come to light. This committee will report the results and provide suggestions for improvement to the head, who will distribute these with recommendations to the departmental faculty.
IV. Timetable for implementation
Spring Semester 1999 and Academic Year 1999-2000: faculty will begin collecting relevant materials for the student portfolios and the other indices listed in (4) above. In the spring semester of 2000 we will ask a sample of senior ma ors to take the Oral Proficiency Examination. From these materials a faculty committee will create a baseline profile, which will show the results of the undergraduate major sequences as currently constituted.
Three years later (spring 2003), once the new undergraduate major programs have been fully implemented, a faculty committee will undertake the same kind of evaluation, establish a new profile of our undergraduate majors, and make recommendations for changes to the head.
V. Support needs
We think it would be helpful, on an occasional basis, to have an outside evaluation of our students' competence in language skills. We would like to have Oral Proficiency Interviews performed by an external examiner for a random sample of senior French majors, representing the three different degree options. To do this we need to certify two members of our faculty for the Oral Proficiency Interviews. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages offers certification for interviewers. One faculty member has lapsed certification; another has not been through this process before. The costs of obtaining certification are listed below:
| Faculty member A (recertification) | Faculty member B (new certification) | |
| Workshop | $130 | $630 |
| Certification | $350 | $350 |
| Travel | $400 | $400 |
| Lodging | $100 | $400 |
| Total | $980 | $1780 |
| Total for both: $2760 |
Workshops this year will be held in Middlebury VT and Dallas TX.