Proposal - Benenati

Fall 1998 Proposal

name: Dr. Klaus Engelhardt

institution: Lewis & Clark College

language: French

status: Full-time, tenure track

type: CourseRelease

title:

Integration of Computer/Internet Technology into Upper Division Literature Courses
Development of Learning Modules for Business French (level 300)

duration: Spring Term 1999, perhaps extension through Summer 1999

description:

Integration of Computer/Internet Technology Into Upper Division Literature Courses

Background: All three courses I teach this semester

Fr 201: Intermediate French,
Fr 230: French Literature in Translation,
Fr 410: Major Figures of French Literature

are web-based. The students access the day-to-day syllabus, daily homework, etc. through my homepage. Assigned web-based activities range web-surfing, gathering information, and then sharing it with the class, to interactive tasks found on the www itself in increasing numbers. The web-sites for the literature courses include also many internal links, providing additional reading and viewing material. This allows the instructor to individualize the syllabus, and to enrich it by including many features reflecting his or her personal expertise and resources, whenever the adopted textbook(s) appear inadequate. As I am using and updating these documents, I realize how incomplete they still are, and how much follow-up work is needed in order to upgrade them for future use, especially in the case of Fr. 230 and Fr. 410.

existing web pages illustrating the courses referred to:

Fr 201: http://www.lclark.edu/~klaus/fr_201/S98.htm
Fr 230: http://www.lclark.edu/~klaus/fr_230/fr_230.htm
Fr 410: http://www.lclark.edu/~klaus/fr_410/fr_410.htm

Request: Next semester I will be teaching a similar course (Fr. 450, Twentieth Century French littérature engagée), which I would like to structure in a similar way. There would be no time to do so, however, if I am to teach a full load of courses. Hence I am requesting to be released from teaching the intermediate language course for which I am scheduled, in order to allow me to devote my time to the development of the internet possibilities of the course Fr. 450, and to do essential follow-up work on Fr 230 and Fr 410.

Development of Learning Modules for Business French

Background: The second project that I would like to pursue results form a workshop I attended in March 1998 in Monterey/Cal., entitled Business French and the Internet. It was organized by the Linguistic and Cultural Services of the French Consulate at San Francisco. My participation was supported by the Consortium. When I returned, I immediately implemented the techniques I had learned, especially the concept of "Global Simulation," which was completely novel to me, during the remainder of the third year writing class I taught at the time. Again, I found myself under considerable time pressure and unable to fully explore the possibilities of this approach, and to convert it simultaneously into tangible, repeatable programs. It was also clear to me that, in the context of a small liberal arts college, it would be very difficult to devote an entire course to the teaching of Business French.

existing web page illustrating the above project:

http://www.lclark.edu/~klaus/interlunettes.html

Request: I would like to use roughly half of the release time for the creation of small, possibly self-taught learning modules which can be "plugged" into existing language courses at the instructor^Òs discretion.

Examples:

How to write and format a French business letter, complete with models, linguistic conventions, specialized vocabulary, interactive exercices, etc.
How to fashion an authentic curriculum vitae in French, etc.

outcome: The purpose of these projects is to create documents that can be made available to the students through our Interactive Learning Center, and which can be shared not only with my immediate colleagues at LC but also with other instructors in similar institutions who, presumably, have similar needs.

The same documents will obviously be available whenever the above-mentioned courses are repeated. This will also be the opportunity to user-test these new materials. Fr. 230 is a bi-annual course, the two others, Fr. 410 and Fr. 450, are annual.

timeline: With only one course to teach, and this course, Fr 450,being actually part of one of the projects described heretofore, I think I should be able to bring both these projects to a certain level of closure by the end of Spring Term 1999. I am undecided, at this time, whether the progress and scope of this proposal will warrant a follow-up application, in March 1999, for a summer stipend.

amount: My understanding is that the substitute instructor would earn a total of $ 3000.-- per course per semester

breakdown: Release from one full course for one semester.