Current Program

Courses in the Foreign Language program include Spanish, French and Japanese. Students enroll in courses to meet transfer requirements, for retraining or upgrading employment skills, or for personal enrichment. Many factors have affected course offerings in recent years, including changes in technology and the increasing use of technology, changes in student population and economic conditions, and college budget conditions and facility needs. Interest in the Spanish language in particular has grown in the United States in the last few years.

Degrees and Certificates - No degrees or certificates are offered.

Personnel - At this time one full-time faculty member and five part-time faculty members are employed to teach classes.

Teaching Methodologies - The teaching methodologies used most often are lecture and large lecture/study groups.

Technology - At this time no classes are offered online or through any kind of distance education.

Equipment - A television used in classroom instruction is in need of repair, and a remote control for the TV is also needed.

Facilities - The size, location and condition of classrooms is adequate for instruction. There is no language laboratory.

Future Program

The most pressing need that must be met in order for students to succeed in learning a foreign language at the college is a language laboratory. It is expected that in both the mid term (five years) and the long term (ten years), enrollment in Foreign Language classes will increase at the same rate as the overall college enrollment. See Program Projections.

Degrees and Certificates - The department may offer a certificate program for Service Personnel Literacy in Spanish.

Personnel - See Projected Faculty and Staff Needs.

Teaching Methodologies - It is expected that computerized and other technology-based methods will be used in future classrooms along with traditional lecture and large lecture/study groups.

Technology - Alternative delivery systems, such as online courses, interactive video and other methods of distance learning, will become a part of Foreign Language offerings in the future. For example, an online Spanish course targeted to the business community could be offered.

Equipment - In addition to repairing the program's TV, a VCR needs to be replaced. A DVD player also is needed.

Facilities - Students need a language lab in order to succeed in their Spanish, French or Japanese classes. Electronic classrooms are needed.

Staff Development - Foreign language instructors need support spending winter intersessions or summer breaks in the countries of their target languages.

Special Recommendation

The department should explore and incorporate new technologies, such as a state-of-the-art computer lab for both foreign languages and ESL.