Fellow Ohioan German Colleagues:
Please consider submitting a presentation proposal for the following OGSW 2018 panel to take place on October 20th at OSU’s usual venue.
Finding Solutions for Persistent Problems: Innovative Approaches for Atrophying German Programs
One of our our most wide-spread challenges in the languages in general, and German in particular, are the steadily decreasing enrollment numbers in intermediate and especially upper-level German courses (the major/minor). The Modern Language Association has tackled the issue of a steady decline in language studies, and the consequences for federal and institutional support for at least a decade now without much optimism for the near future. But we should not lose hope and confidence that we cannot turn this trend around. Many of our colleagues have exciting ideas and thoughtful concepts of how to strengthen their various German programs. This session aims to share these approaches so that we can collectively benefit from experiences and lessons learned and share our own ideas in response to those presented.
Such inquiries would include, but are by no means limited to, the following: what do colleagues/programs do to attract students, respectively keep them in their programs past the language requirement? What attracts students to studying German and how do we communicate the benefits we as teachers see? What role can digital technology play in both that communication and new teaching approaches? What are some of the challenges of single-person programs and how can these be overcome? What can we do for each other to lift our spirits as faculty members in dire times? How can we approach or respond to a steadily declining German program size in our respective institutions and the loss of language FTE’s? How can we help our graduate students and junior faculty members understand what the consequences may be for their professional future in the languages?
Please send your proposal no later than July 31st, 2018 to Dillmann@denison.edu.
Danke schön!
GABRIELE DILLMANN 