Committee Meetings and Minutes

Administrative Login

Foreign Languages Task Force

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	October 14, 2011
Time	1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Location	HBC, Room #214

Members Present
No member attendance has been recorded.
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 0:	Attendees:
Presenter
Discussion	Scott Gibby, John Golden, Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia, John McMinn, Yuko Kato, Gladys Anderson, Becky Jaimes, Todd Phillips, Mariela Prato-Williams, Joe Liro, Anna Pyeatt, Marc Pr�vost, Theresa Oh, Jan Emberson, Tim Altanero, Talia Loaiza, Terry Gormley, Stuart Smith, Rosa D�vila, Cathy Angell, Carolyn Dunlap, Delia Montesinos, Juan Isart, Karolina Lantermann, Ewa Siwak, Bernadeta Kaminska, Jim Burleson, Gloria Diaz.

Item # 1:	Introductions
Presenter
Discussion	All faculty members in attendance introduced themselves.

Item # 2:	Study Abroad Programs for 2012
Presenter	Stephanie Amudson
Discussion	Stephanie Amudson reported on ACC's study abroad programs. Four of the ten programs for 2012 are in the Department of Foreign Languages, including SPAN 1512 in Argentina, SPAN 2311 in Costa Rica, SPAN 2312 in Spain, and Japanese 2312 in Japan. There are also programs in other departments that might be of interest to foreign languages students, such as a film history course in Germany. Rosa Davila inquired whether instructors from separate departments can create joint programs. Stephanie Amudson said such courses can be organized.

Item # 3:	Approval of Minutes
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	The minutes were approved with one correction under the Technology Committee report, where "learning courses" should be "Distance Learning courses".

Item # 4:	Adjunct Faculty Voting Representatives
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell announced the names of the Adjuncts Faculty Voting Representatives: Gladys Anderson, Carolyn Dunlap, John Golden, Fahim Idais, Bernadeta Kaminska, Tyra Lewis, Joe Liro, Christa Montoya, Garrett Oleen and Anna Pyeatt.

Item # 5:	Announcements a)
Presenter	Mariela Prato-Williams
Discussion	Mariela Prato-Williams proposed that faculty participate in the Austin Susan Komen race for the cure on November 13 as a group or as individuals. Seven people volunteered.

Item # 5:	Announcements b)
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell reminded faculty that substitutes need to be ACC employees. When using a substitute, instructors need to send Grisel Castrejon a message saying who, when and for how many hours.

Item # 5:	Announcements c)
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell announced that there is a scholarship for French 2311 and 2312. For more information, contact Annick Penant.

Item # 5:	Announcements d)
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell reminded faculty that they should not allow students to turn in photocopies of workbooks pages, since it is copyrighted material. College policy prohibits it. It was agreed that John McMinn will create a statement forbidding use of photocopies of workbook pages, which will be added to the master syllabi.

Item # 5:	Announcements e)
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell reported that class limits for a class to make are now 18 or 70% of the course enrollment limit, rather than 70% of the classroom capacity.

Item # 5:	Announcements f)
Presenter	John Golden
Discussion	John Golden encouraged instructors to get their students involved with Carnival Ah! this spring. It will be focused on international themes.

Item # 6:	Faculty Coach Report
Presenter	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia
Discussion	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia reported that this year the emphasis will be on student engagement and encouraging students to come to class, as well as community involvement and service learning.

Item # 7:	Program Review
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell announced that Vanessa Lazo-Wilson will be in charge of the program review. There will a SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) meeting either the first or second Friday in November.

Item # 8:	New Course Proposals a)
Presenter	Theresa Oh
Discussion	Theresa Oh proposed adding a Japanese Conversation Course (JAPN 1300). This course will be taught this summer as part of the Japanese study abroad program. It was approved to add Japanese 1300.

Item # 8:	New Course Proposals b)
Presenter	John MicMinn
Discussion	John McMinn reported that Veronique Mazet has been working on the creation of an honors course for French 1512, rather than 1511, because students will know more French and will be better prepared for some of the proposed service learning activities. After discussion, the consensus of the department was that if an honors program is created in French, it should start with French 1511 in the fall and continue with 1512 in the spring. It was approved that John McMinn will send out the proposed syllabus for the French 1512 class and the French faculty will vote on whether to offer the honors courses. The department will accept the vote of the French faculty.

Item # 8:	New Course Proposals c)
Presenter	Anna Pyeatt
Discussion	Anna Pyeatt proposed the addition of honors courses for SPAN 2311 and 2312 and presented sample syllabi. It was approved to offer honors courses for SPAN 2311 and 2312.

Item # 9:	Spanish Textbook Committee Report
Presenter	Stuart Smith
Discussion	Stuart Smith asked how many faculty members should serve with the fourteen full-time Spanish faculty members on the committee. She said that there may be as many as five Friday afternoon meeting which they will have to attend. It was approved that the first seven adjuncts instructors who volunteer and agree to commit to attend all the meetings will be on the committee.

Item # 10:	Committee Reports a) Foreign Languages Honor Society
Presenter	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia
Discussion	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia announced that the Honor Society would accept applications until the following Friday, October 21.

Item # 10:	n) New Faculty
Presenter
Discussion	There was nothing new to report.

Item # 10:	h) Technology
Presenter	Scott Gibby
Discussion	Scott Gibby reported that distance learning courses are using the new evaluation procedure for the first time. They will meet to determine how to use the results.

Item # 10:	i) Student Success
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell reported that she is still working on the creation of student interview videos about study skills and course expectations for foreign languages classes. The videos will be put online for students to view when enrolling in foreign languages courses. She asked for suggestions of where to put them online in order to reach the most students.

Item # 10:	j) Special Events
Presenter	Theresa Oh
Discussion	Theresa Oh said that she would send out information about the FOLA Show at Carnival Ah! later.

Item # 10:	k) Spanish for Native Speakers
Presenter	Rosa Davila
Discussion	Rosa Davila shared the results of her survey of faculty about the courses for native speakers. Eighteen out twenty-five thought it was good to offer the course, and fourteen-fifteen preferred the name Spanish for Spanish Speakers. (One person voted for two names). Riverside was the preferred campus for these courses and ten instructors said they would be interested in teaching them. She suggested that we give the CLEP exam and a challenge exam for native speakers in order to grant students credit for the beginners courses and put them in the intermediate native speakers' courses. There was a discussion about whether students could take the challenge exam at an orientation, and claim credit for the beginner's course afterwards.

Item # 10:	l) Scheduling
Presenter	Cathy Angell
Discussion	Cathy Angell reminded faculty that we lost several Spanish 2311 and 2312 classes in the summer because none of the courses at the University of Texas feeds into Spanish 2311. She asked for suggestions of what to schedule next summer. She also reported that she is working on the times of foreign languages classes to see if there is any way to improve them.

Item # 10:	m) Professional Development
Presenter	Stuart Smith
Discussion	Stuart Smith asked for ideas for workshops. Cathy Angell suggested an idea sharing session.

Item # 10:	b) Adjunct Faculty Interview
Presenter	Marc Prevost
Discussion	Marc Prevost reported that last year we hired three new adjunct faculty members, one in French, German, and Arabic. He explained that we now are adding new adjuncts only on an as-needed basis.

Item # 10:	c) Faculty Evaluation
Presenter	Talia Loaiza
Discussion	Talia Loaiza told faculty that those who were evaluated in the spring or summer will their faculty input forms soon. She reminded all the instructors teaching this fall that they should be evaluated. She asked that everyone be careful not to make any comments or jokes to students about the evaluations.

Item # 10:	d) Eligibility List
Presenter	Gloria Diaz & Gladys Anderson
Discussion	Gloria Diaz inquired why there are names of instructors on the eligibility list that are no longer at ACC. Cathy Angell asked faculty to let her know if they see names that should be put on the inactive list. Gladys Anderson commented that the system makes adjunct faculty feel like a number instead of long-term, dedicated faculty members, She suggested that evaluations and eligibility should be determined more by the long term performance and dedication.

Item # 10:	e) Curriculum
Presenter	John McMinn
Discussion	John McMinn reported that the option of HUMA 1315 as humanities elective needs to be deleted, since this course is no longer on the core curriculum. He suggested adding HUMA 1302, PHIL 1304, PHIL 1316, and PHIL 1317 as humanities elective options. These courses are core curriculum courses. He also explained that each language needs to create a statement of discipline outcomes to be added to the master syllabi. It was approved to delete HUMA 1315 from the degree plan as humanities elective, and to add HUMA 1302, PHIL 1304, PHIL 1316, and PHIL 1317. The following people agreed to organize the creation of discipline outcome statements for the different languages: Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia (Spanish), Stuart Smith (French), Theresa Oh (Japanese), Bernadeta Kaminska (German), John McMinn (Latin, Arabic, Russian, Japanese).

Item # 10:	f) Assessment
Presenter	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia
Discussion	Julie Kleinhans-Urrutia informed the department that after this fall, there will be five assessments per year, two in the fall and three in the spring. Five areas that will have to be tested include reading, listening, writing, dictation (in lieu of speaking) and cultural awareness. This fall reading and comprehension will be tested in 2311 courses. She also discussed the general education learning outcomes and suggested that they all are related to foreign language courses except ethical reasoning and quantitative and empirical reasoning.

Item # 10:	g) Textbooks
Presenter	Becky Jaimes
Discussion	Becky Jaimes reported that all textbooks orders for the spring have been submitted, and the audio inventory has been updated. She reminded Spanish faculty that the 2311 book in the spring will be a loose-leaf version of the same chapters with the workbook and answer key. Also in the spring, Spanish 2312 will use the fourth edition of Punto y aparte.

Austin Community College
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, Texas 78752-4390
512.223.4ACC (4222)