Spanish courses to move to lecture hall format

Beginning Spanish classes will no longer be held in smaller classrooms so the department can 'become more efficient'

By: Mark Daniel

Posted: 3/20/07

A renewed focus on efficiency will send all Spanish 101 courses for the fall semester into a larger, lecture hall-style format.

While all foreign language courses are in smaller classrooms, Ruth Gross, head of the Foreign Languages and Literatures department, said the decision to move some to lecture halls came after the consideration of several factors.

"All departments are being encouraged to become more efficient and every department has to set priorities, and in many ways, 101 courses are the least important to us," Gross said.

According to Gross, every student who attends the University is required to take two years of a foreign language while in high school, and most of those students have taken Spanish.

"If they don't place out of 101, then that means they will be retaking what they took in high school," Gross said. "We had been spending a lot of money on what is essentially a catch-up class."

Gross said the fact that the majority of 101 students will not continue their Spanish education deep into their time at the University was also a factor in the decision.

"We did some research and found that only four percent of students in 101 will go on to take 300 level FLS courses. We tried to find a way that we could become more efficient."

While the decision to move to a lecture hall format was made primarily for budgetary reasons, Gross said that the department had come up with a model that will help provide students in the lecture hall classes with a lot of the personal attention and one-on-one instruction that the smaller classes provided. They also addressed some of the drawbacks of the bigger class.

"In a big class like this...the biggest challenge will be getting students' attention," she said. "The teacher will have to be a very engaging, very experienced instructor and we think we have found that instructor. Also, we plan on having 4 TA's to interact with the students."

Gross said the department plans on breaking up the class and doing a lot of partner and group work like what students do in smaller sections.

Scott Despain, an associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, said the lecture style classes have some advantages other than those concerning finances.

"When we took a look at the instructional needs of our department and the type of student that is usually in our 101 classes, it just made sense to bring all of our sections together to utilize our new graduate assistants who have no teaching experience, so they are able to work with a master teacher to get action in the classroom," Despain said.

Despain echoed several of the concerns that Gross had about the challenges of the lecture style class.

"In the humanities, we love student contact and getting to know our students. It will be a challenge for me to do this now," Despain said. "I've visited the room where the class will be held and it's dramatically different than I'm used to."

Teira Dadgar, a freshman in environmental sciences and a Spanish minor, agreed and said she didn't think switching to large lecture halls was a good idea.

"For foreign language classes, I think you need more one-on-one time with the teacher that wouldn't be feasible in a lecture hall," she said.

Despain said the rows of desks in the lecture hall are arranged in a way that accommodates his movement throughout the room.

Overall, Despain said the new format will meet the needs of everyone involved with the Spanish department.

"It will meet the needs of our students and our faculty," he said. "It will help our 101 students, our grad students who will be TA's, and I hope that I will be able to enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed teaching my other classes."