College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Internationalizing the curriculum

Two-day colloquium to look at colloborations between professions and languages.
Over the past two years, Mark Rectanus and his fellow faculty members in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures have been discussing how the foreign languages can address the needs of today's learners by integrating course work and curricula in languages and professions which are also central to the land grant mission of Iowa State.

Those discussions have not just been centered within their own academic department, but throughout the entire Iowa State campus.

"We have been conducting informal discussions with colleagues in the Colleges of Agriculture, Business, Education and Engineering, as well as with our colleagues in LAS, to explore potential collaborations and there is a general enthusiasm for incorporating foreign languages into their curriculum," said Rectanus, professor of German.

In an attempt to further the discussions, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is holding a special colloquium, "Internationalizing the Curriculum at ISU: Languages, Cultures and Professions." The colloquium will be held in the Scheman Building April 4-5.

Funding has been provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

National and international leaders with extensive experience in the areas of professions, foreign languages and cultures are scheduled to attend.

"In selecting our speakers we were particularly interested in collaborative programs between professions and foreign languages," Rectanus said. "Our objective is to facilitate and stimulate dialogue within the campus community as well as with corporate leaders which will lead to curricular initiatives and projects involving languages, cultures and professions."

The colloquium will feature sessions on collaborations between professional programs and languages; corporate perspectives including languages, cultures and the global marketplace; study abroad, internships/coops, international projects, experiential learning and professional development; student perspectives; and internationalization, diversity, women, minorities and professional development.
The event will conclude with a series of breakout sessions.

Speakers from Purdue University, Cornell University, the University of Kansas, SUNY Buffalo, Michigan State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, San Diego State University, Boise State University and the University of Rhode Island are scheduled to attend.

"We have a very good group of people, national leaders in this area," Rectanus said. "We are bringing in individuals who have been successful in internationalizing the curriculum at their universities."

Rectanus says that students in various disciplines in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as engineering, business and agriculture have been and are currently enrolled in foreign language courses, sometimes as a double major, others with a minor.

But far greater numbers still only rely on English as their primary language. That's a mistake, he said.

"I was recently at a conference where I heard a panel of business executives," Rectanus said. "Each said they will not accept students in their management training unless they have a foreign language. At least one, if not more foreign languages are standard in Europe. If our students want to compete globally they need at least a second language and international experience.

"We believe that students also need to use a language within the context of the culture," he continued. "Culture is embedded in the language. And you can never truly understand the culture unless you speak the language. We know that goes hand-in-hand."

Information on the colloquium is available at http://www.language.iastate.edu/home/Collquim/main.htmw