Content-based instruction in Spanish, French, and German at the University of Minnesota: The evaluation plan and results for the first three years

Klee, C., Cohen, A. D., and Tedick, D. unpublished report, 1996

 


This report provides an evaluation of the Foreign Language Immersion Program (FLIP) which offers a series of courses students take in place of other English-medium content courses. The purpose of FLIP is to provide an opportunity for undergraduate students who have completed at least nine quarters of college-level language courses to immerse themselves in a foreign language while studying the culture, literature, history, and politics of the region in which the language is spoken. Since one goal of content-based instruction at the university level is to give students an opportunity to improve their language skills while having language as a vehicle for subject matter, the main evaluative concerns of a FLIP program include:

  1. the assessment of gains that might have accrued in the four language skill areas as these relate to academic work: for example, comprehending an academic lecture, comprehending written text material on an academic theme, writing an academic essay, and speaking about an academic theme;
  2. the measurement of content gains to determine the effects of the FLIP program on progress in the content areas; and
  3. the attitudes of students and their instructors towards the program.

Although the lack of both a robust sample and a comparison group made it impossible to provide any definitive answers with regard to the pluses and minuses of the full-immersion approach to content instruction at the university level, the results from three years of evaluating the Spanish, French, and German FLIP efforts at the University of Minnesota would suggest that there are numerous benefits. Pre- and post-test scores from all three years indicated statistically significant gains in language proficiency at the end of the quarter that seemed to be attributable to the program. These gains took place while the students were simultaneously making normal progress through the subject matter of the respective courses. Among the five Spanish FLIP students for whom there are data, for example, four had a mean grade point average (GPA) in their FLIP courses which was equal to or better than their overall GPA. In the one or two cases where students had difficulty with their studies in the FLIP program, it was invariably the case that their language proficiency was not at an intermediate-high or better rating level on the ACTFL proficiency oral interview. The recommendation was that such students be discouraged from participating in FLIP until they have improved the level of their language skills.

With regard to achievements in the content courses taught through the medium of the foreign language, it appeared that the results depended on 1) the quality of the subject-matter instruction, 2) the nature of the fit between the language level at which the instructor pitches the course (i.e., the lectures, readings, writing assignments, and the like) and the level of the students, and 3) the motivation of the students to succeed in the program.

With regard to the fit between instruction and the students' academic language proficiency level, it was observed that the better FLIP instructors were those who demonstrated a willingness to make adjustments in their instruction based on the language proficiency level of the students. These were the instructors who made an effort to relate new information to the background knowledge of the learners. One way this was done was by preparing students for readings ahead of time through various pre-reading activities, including giving a lecture on that topic. It was also suggested that students receive a comparable bibliography for a FLIP course the quarter before the intended course is taught so as to start familiarizing themselves with the issues. In addition, it was decided to provide foreign language support in the form of special academic language support or linking courses for Spanish, French, and German FLIP students. The three instructors of these courses would work closely with the instructors providing FLIP courses in the content subjects. The students would receive five credits for taking this course.

As seen from the responses from the self-report interviews dealing with dual language processing in the program, there appears to be no right and no wrong way to do FLIP. Rather, students progress through the courses differently, according to their cognitive style and according to their language learning and language use strategy preferences. What remains to be determined -- among many other things -- is the extent to which patterns emerge as to learner approaches which repeatedly are proven effective, in the face of pronouncements to the effect that FLIP students "should" do all of their thinking in the foreign language while reading text or writing a course paper. There is a need to get beyond such pronouncements, in order to determine just what learners do in such situations and what behaviors, if any, seem to yield the best results.

Perhaps the key job of evaluators and researchers is to describe the processes and the products as fully as possible so as to provide, both for the local institution and for other institutions interested in such programs, some guidelines for program design.

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