People can't possibly...

I can't believe that it's actually been over five months since my last post on this site. I feel strangely ashamed, as if I'm shirking a duty I agreed to several months ago that I have not fulfilled. In reference to the title, can anyone seriously still be interested in this blog anymore? My English skills continue to deteriorate, and yet... and yet...

So a brief overview of the last five months for those who care to know ;)

1. I finished the first quarter of Masters at OSU
2. I finished the second quarter of Masters at OSU
3. Christmas happened somewhere in there
4. I'm currently teaching a French culture class that has me reexamining my desire to teach this language because it becomes progressivly more difficult to accept the fact that I am teaching an advanced language course to students who have no desire and for the most part, no where close to the ability to actually communicate in an advanced manner.

Perhaps I should explain (since I haven't explained anything for the last several months)... I appreciate the reasons that OSU has for requiring language study but very much disagree with the methods used to teach it, and the requirements themselves for that matter.

Students could theoretically begin in the fall of their freshman year in French 101.01. This is a class for absolute and total beginners who have never tried to speak or perhaps have never understood the concept of the French langauge. Good for them. Bravo. Fast forward to the spring quarter of that same year. The same student who only five or six months ago spoke no French at all is now expected to read a 90 page book and make compelling statements about this particular book.

You do the math here. 4 hours a week for two quarters (perhaps 24 weeks total with a Xmas break in between) is a little less than 100 hours of French, in a classroom environment and no pressure or need (or ability I might add) to use the language outside of the classroom. So what someone might say? 100 hours is roughly equivalent to 4 days. And this isn't even as intensive as immersion training.

Perhaps I am being unfair to the academic abilities of my students, but I do believe that this type of academic environment does little to stimulate students to continue academic study in the language field (especially when very few of them were interested in the language in the first place).

Well, this is quite impressive for a first post after a long hiatus. Enjoy this and I will try to blog again before the end of 2005 ;)

A+

Andrew