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Language Across the Curriculum (LAC)

University of Richmond

e-mail: LAC@richmond.eduwebsite w/FAQs: http://LAC.richmond.edu

dr. robert graboyes, director of LAC, 804.287.6355

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Short Bio

Dr. Graboyes is a health economist and Director of Language Across the Curriculum at the University of Richmond. He was Chase Manhattan Bank’s Africa economist and an economist with the Federal Reserve. He has lectured in Kazakhstan and speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese. His degrees are from Columbia University (M.Phil, Ph.D), Virginia Commonwealth University (M.S.H.A.), William and Mary (M.A.), and the University of Virginia (B.A.). Dr. Graboyes is an accomplished jazz, Latin, and classical musician.

3Senegal, France, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya

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LAC basics: structure, purpose

• 1 credit-hour pass/fail courses

• Enhances foreign language skills

• Bolsters knowledge of curriculum

• Informal setting

• Focuses on students’ interests

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LAC basics: Languages

• Spanish• French• Italian• German• Russian• Chinese• Japanese• “Other”

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LAC basics: Subject areas

• CORE• Political Science & Social Science• Arts & Literatures• Science & Health• Business Administration• Leadership Studies• Selected Topics / (eg Sports & Culture)

• Range of courses or single course

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My family saga• Talented albeit lethargic

• Chase Manhattan: Inlingua and context

• Travel and meetings

• Wife: job through languages

• Son: family secrets in Spanish

• Son: Acquired Hebrew fluency via IM– Music, travel, current events

• Casa Bolívar (UVa)

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University of Richmond

• Arrived in 2002 and heard about LAC

• French lit, Russian history, etc.

• Statistics and Macroeconomics

• Students loved it

• Humiliation and Jacques’s sister

• Semester after semester

• Revived interest in formal language study

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Student-instructors

• Spring 2002: Curriculum: read web articles, attend, speak, brief memos, games

• Hired native-speakers as assistants

• Morphed into student-instructors, with quiet me in room

• Fall 2002: Student-instructors, with quiet me back in office

• Student-instructors improvised

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Discoveries

• Shaky speakers rapidly improved

• Native-speakers learned about their gaps

– Technical Spanglish, etc.

• Students learned unexpected things about primary courses

• Professors with no linguistic skills could offer LAC with little effort

• (language / nonlanguage teams)

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Who should take LAC?• Students who speak with difficulty• Native-speakers of the language• Middle-of-road speakers• Students contemplating study-abroad• Students returning from study-abroad• Students currently studying abroad

– Distance learning techniques

• Students facing the job market

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Students currently abroad?

• Blackboard discussion boards (asynchronous)

• Chatboards

• Instant Messenger

• Blogs

• Teleconferences

• Videoconferences

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Who can teach LAC?• Native-speakers

• Heritage-speakers

• Advanced, fluent students

• Highly competent students currently studying abroad

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Subject matter and techniques

• Whatever works

• Talking about soccer and soccer culture in Spanish Employability in Latin and European football leagues

• “Give people what they want; then later you can give them what you want.”

– Pascal (Ian Holm), in Big Night

• Talking about soccer and soccer culture in Spanish García Lorca and Cervantes

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Contributions to University• Support federal goal• Gives international students a leadership role in campus life. • Potential magnet for attracting desirable international students.• Deep penetration of foreign languages makes more attractive to

intellectually inclined applicants, both international and American.• Opportunity for students to collect outside of classes for an

intellectual activity. • Helps to prepare students for study-abroad. • Provides continuity for returning study-abroad students. • Allows students to maintain some connection to foreign languages

during semesters in which they can’t take a traditional language course.

• Via distance learning, provides some opportunities for students currently studying abroad. This semester, a student studying in Paris is serving as an LAC instructor via web discussion board.

• Classes are interdisciplinary.

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Challenges• Coordination with Registrar

• Publicity

• Sorting into viable classes

• Hiring instructors, contingent on demand

• Timing of classes

• Monitoring

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Monitoring: Activity ReportAfter each activity, fill in the answers below and email to the class professor.

1. What kind of activity was this? (class, web discussion, assigned memo, guest speaker, film, game, etc.)

2. Which language and curricular area is this (ex.: Spanish CORE) class is this?

3. Who was the student-instructor in charge of this activity?4. In 100 words or less, describe this activity and what it accomplished.

Mention preparations, such as readings, associated with this activity.

5. When did the activity take place, and for how much time?6. Which students participated in this activity and completed all

requirements?7. Which students participated in the event, but did not complete all

requirements? (please explain which requirements they did not fulfill)

8. Which students did not participate at all in this activity? (Do you know why?)

9. Additional Comments?

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Expansion plans• Expand enrollments (currently 112 out of 3000) • Law, MBA, Continuing Studies offerings• Additional languages (e.g., Portuguese, Farsi, Hindi, and

Arabic). • Invite foreign-language speakers to campus for LAC classes• Independent study formats. E.g., we have an Afghan student

currently has no outlet for using Pashto in his studies at UR. • Develop written standards and procedures for LAC courses. • Use distance learning technologies to better connect UR

students with students and faculties overseas. Use discussion boards, chatboards, videoconferencing, teleconferencing, etc.

• Restructure registration process• Pursue external funding.• Establish LAC Housing

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LAC Housing• Immersion environment• Contract to speak language• Appealing environment. • Reinforce interests• parties, concerts, plays, films, receptions,

speakers, meals, hikes, tours, and other activities.

• Public face for foreign languages• Native-speakers in mix