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By Way of Background
FOREIGN language educators have always known the value of study abroad, both to the individual students and to the sending and receiving institutions. Now it seems that the rest of the country is finally beginning to realize what we have known all along: that a sojourn abroad not only can do wonders for students’ foreign language acquisition but also can foster the understanding of other cultures necessary for success in today’s global society. Research findings suggest that overseas study also leads to a more realistic appraisal of one’s capabilities and shortcomings, heightened intercultural sensitivity, and even increased content knowledge in relevant discipline areas (Chieffo 41). According to the most recent Open Doors report of the Institute of International Education (IIE), the number of United States students receiving academic credit abroad in 1997–98 was almost 114,000, an increase of 14.6% over 1996–97 (“U.S. Students”). In a speech in 2000, President Clinton publicly acknowledged what many foreign language educators have long believed:
To continue to compete successfully in the global economy and to maintain our role as a world leader, the United States needs to ensure that its citizens develop a broad understanding of the world, proficiency in other languages, and knowledge of other cultures. [. . .] Today, the defense of U.S. interests, the effective management of global issues, and even an understanding of our Nation’s diversity require ever-greater contact with, and understanding of, people and cultures beyond our borders.
The president then called for a “coherent and coordinated international education strategy” that would give specific attention “to increasing the number and diversity of students who study and intern abroad.” Secretary of Education Richard Riley echoed the president’s remarks and put forward a challenge for the future: “At the very least, the United States should meet the newly established G-8 goal of at least doubling its exchange opportunities in higher education in the next ten years, and that means finding new ways of sending and recruiting twice as many students.”
Despite the increase in the numbers of Americans studying abroad in recent years and in the growing national enthusiasm and support for this activity, the percentage of undergraduates earning credit abroad remains surprisingly low. Although a few schools, usually small colleges, send the majority of their students abroad, IIE estimates that at most four-year institutions fewer than 10% of the undergraduate student body participate in a study-abroad program (“Participation Rates”). IIE calculated this figure by dividing the number of students who study abroad at four-year institutions by the number of bachelor degrees conferred in a given year. Using IIE’s formula, the University of Delaware can claim that almost 30% of its students study abroad at some time during their undergraduate career. About 40% of these participate in one of the programs sponsored or cosponsored by our department, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (FLL). We believe that we have contributed to the high rate of participation at Delaware by developing programs abroad that are closely integrated into our academic programs on campus. This integration enables students to fulfill more easily their language requirement or breadth of requirements for graduation or to complete a foreign language major or minor, and it encourages them to pursue advanced language study by going abroad a second and even a third time.
FLL’s off-campus programs were designed not only to help our students but also to benefit our own department in various ways. The department reaps numerous rewards from the success of our study-abroad programs: a leadership role on campus in the area of international education, good working relations with the university’s Office of International Programs and with the academic units with which we cosponsor programs, a more active faculty with an improved self-image, and increased enrollments and better-prepared students in our advanced language courses. Typically 50% to 60% of the undergraduates who participate in one of our programs continue with their language study in the semester following their sojourn abroad. Benefits such as these are valuable to any college or department directly involved in programs overseas.
Before elaborating on how our programs abroad are integrated into the curriculum on campus, we provide below a brief history of study abroad at the University of Delaware, followed by an overview of FLL’s programs abroad. Then, by following a freshman through two study-abroad programs, we illustrate how these are integrated into the student’s curriculum on campus. Finally we discuss three important issues related to study-abroad participation rates: publicity, recruitment, and scholarship aid.
A Brief History of Study Abroad at the University of Delaware
Although the popularity of study abroad is a recent phenomenon, such programs have been in existence for more than seventy-five years, with the University of Delaware pioneering the way. University of Delaware professor Raymond Kirkbride was ahead of his time when, in 1923, he proposed to President Walter Hullihen that he take a group of eight students to France to study for one academic years as part of his Foreign Study Plan. Hullihen agreed and, with the help of local philanthropists and businessmen, the junior year abroad was born. The university established similar programs in Germany and Switzerland in the 1930s and continued to send students abroad until the program was discontinued in 1948, when it was adopted by Sweet Briar College. According to university archives, 902 students, many of whom were matriculated at other colleges and universities, took part in Delaware’s programs between 1923 and 1948. Similar programs were established thereafter by Smith College, Rosary College, Fordham University, Georgetown University, and Wayne State University (Pace 3). Within ten years, 110 colleges had initiated organized programs abroad, and at least 2,500 American undergraduates were studying overseas annually.
The University of Delaware resumed its foreign study activities in the early 1970s with the establishment of Winterim, now known as winter session. This three-week January term between the fall and spring semesters lent itself to experimental courses and overseas adventures. Study abroad began to flourish when the winter term expanded to five weeks in 1975. In January 1979 over 100 students went abroad to six sites; by 1980 the number of students and sites had doubled. By this time, fall and spring semester programs had been added. Today, twenty years later, the winter session continues to be the most popular time for University of Delaware students to go abroad. Of the 1,000 students or so who study abroad annually, about 700 participate in one of approximately twenty-five winter session programs.
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures has been very involved with study abroad since January 1988, when it launched three winter session programs. In the last academic year (1999–2000), 440 students participated in the fifteen semester and short-term programs sponsored and cosponsored by our department. Our programs run concurrently with the academic terms on campus, both during the fall and spring semesters and during winter session (from about 3 January to 3 February) and the first summer session (from about 2 June to 2 July). In all cases students remain registered at the University of Delaware and receive Delaware credit for all courses taken abroad.
The department offers eight winter session programs at universities in the following locations: Buenos Aires, Argentina; San José, Cost Rica; Bayreuth, Germany; Siena, Italy; Granada, Spain; Caen, France; Mérida, Mexico; and Fort de France, Martinique. In addition we offer summer session programs in Paris, Granada, and Kobe, Japan. (The Argentina, Mexico, and Paris programs are cosponsored with other academic units on campus, an added benefit that has helped us develop and maintain positive relations with those units.) Most of our short-term programs share a similar curricular model, and all require students to enroll in two courses, which is considered a full load during a five-week session. In Costa Rica, for example, each student takes Spanish 207, Contemporary Latin America, which is taught in English and combines lectures on topics such as politics, ecology, the educational system, and dance with short trips to nearby places of cultural significance and longer weekend excursions. In addition, all students enroll in one level-appropriate language course at either the 100- or the 200-level. On most of our short-term programs, students are housed in private homes with native speakers, which gives them further opportunity to enhance their language skills and to expand their cultural knowledge.
Our programs are designed not only to be attractive to our foreign language minors and majors but also to appeal to a broader segment of the student body, including students who are at an early stage in the language-learning process. In fact, our winter and summer programs are designed explicitly for intermediate-level students, who are more likely to be freshman or sophomores. A survey of over 1,000 University of Delaware undergraduates in the fall of 1999 revealed that nearly 40% of freshmen and about 35% of sophomores intend to study abroad at some point during their academic career (Chieffo 56). This figure drops to about 22% for juniors and to a meager 3% for seniors, indicating that underclassmen are curious about studying abroad. In addition, when asked what factors hinder their participation in study-abroad programs, nearly 25% of seniors surveyed claimed that the courses offered abroad were a major factor in their decision not to go, while this was the case with fewer than 3% of the freshmen and 9% of the sophomores (78). This confirms our assumption that freshmen and sophomores have more academic wiggle room in their schedules and are therefore more likely to be able to schedule a term abroad. We try to capitalize on this by advertising our short-term programs heavily in our 100- and 200-level language courses. Our hope, of course, is that students will return from a winter or summer session program, continue their language study, and perhaps spend a semester abroad doing advanced coursework.
Our winter and summer programs have a faculty development component as well, which has led to a high level of faculty morale and expertise with our program sites. Each short-term program has a director, a member of our own faculty, who accompanies the group abroad. If a program attracts more than twenty-five students, we generally send a second instructor along to teach a course and assist the director. Faculty members are usually eager to spend a month abroad, despite the substantial presojourn time commitment for recruitment and orientation. Over the past twelve years, more than fifty of our faculty have directed one of these programs or assisted the director as an accompanying instructor. Faculty members who have traveled abroad with a group of students become quite knowledgeable about the programs and sites and tend to be better recruiters following their return.
Before turning to our semester programs abroad, it is important to explain our rather unusual sequence of 100-level language courses, which enables students to move quickly from the elementary to the advanced level, particularly if they spend a short term abroad. Instead of the fairly typical sequence of four three-credit courses, often entitled Elementary 1 and 2 and Intermediate 1 and 2, we offer a sequence of three four-credit courses, which meet for five hours per week. Students who are true beginners as freshmen will start the sequence in the first course, numbered 105. Even without taking a course in the winter or summer sessions, they will complete the 100-level sequence (and the foreign language requirement in the College of Arts and Science) in three semesters instead of the usual four. If, however, students take the second course, 106, as part of a study-abroad program during winter session and continue with the final course, 107, in the spring semester, they will complete the sequence by the end of the freshman year. The establishment of this 105-106-107 course sequence in conjunction with our short-term programs abroad has enabled us to fast-track our foreign language students and to funnel more and more of them into advanced courses. (The 107 course is offered in Granada, Paris, and Kobe in the summer as well, enabling students to complete the elementary-intermediate sequence by participating in a summer program rather than a winter session.)
Our departmentally sponsored fall and spring semester programs in Bayreuth, Paris, Granada, and Costa Rica are for students who are at a fairly advanced level of language study, while the semester in Siena offers a mix of language levels. The courses in these programs count toward foreign language majors and minors but are also designed to appeal to students in other disciplines and frequently fulfill breadth requirements in the College of Arts and Science. All students, regardless of major, who have met the language prerequisite are encouraged to apply. For our most advanced semester programs, the ones in Bayreuth, Granada, and Paris, this prerequisite is two courses beyond the intermediate (107) level. The programs in Costa Rica and Siena have lower prerequisites (107 and 105, respectively) and offer language courses that are less advanced as well as some courses in English. All our semester programs have one thing in common: they offer some courses sequentially as opposed to concurrently. This division of the semester into two or three sessions of courses enables students to advance from one language level to the next within one semester, something that is impossible on the home campus. The list of courses offered in the Costa Rica spring program, below, illustrates this possibility. (We cosponsor this program with the Environmental Science Program on campus, which explains the science courses and the lower language prerequisite for science majors. The courses marked with an asterisk satisfy a breadth requirement in the College of Arts and Science.)
Session I —February 12 to March 16 — Students choose any two courses.
SPAN 107 — Intermediate Spanish (Open only to Environmental Science and Biology Majors)
SPAN 200 — Spanish Grammar and Composition
SPAN 201 — Spanish Reading and Composition
SPAN 306 — Practical Oral/Written Expression
SPAN 326 — Latin American Civilization and Culture*
FLLT 326 — Latin American Literature in English Translation*
Spring Break — March 17 to March 25
Session II — March 26 to May 25 — Students choose any three courses.
SPAN 326 — Latin American Civilization and Culture*
SPAN 355 — Special Topics in Literature
SPAN 406 — Advanced Spanish Language
HIST 336 — Topics in Latin American History (Taught in Spanish.)*
The following courses are taught in English:
POSC 311 — Politics of Developing Nations*
GEOG 230 — Humans and the Earth’s Ecosystem*
BISC 317 — Tropical Ecology
BISC 318 — Tropical Amphibians and Reptiles
GEOL 434 — Geology of Coasts
A student majoring in international relations (let’s call her Jennifer) who has just completed Spanish 107 in the fall (or in the winter session as part of the winter program in Costa Rica) takes Spanish 200 and 201 during the first session. By the end of that session Jennifer has been in Costa Rica for five weeks, has earned six credits at the 200-level, and has already made significant progress in the area of language acquisition. By the end of March she is ready to ascend to the 300 level, enrolling in Spanish 326 and 355, and History 336. In one semester Jennifer has completed four courses that count toward the Spanish minor (five that count toward the Spanish major, should she choose to declare one), and she also has picked up two courses that count toward her breadth requirements in the College of Arts and Science.
Participants in most of our semester programs live with local families in order to enhance and enrich the cultural component and to encourage use of the target language. In Bayreuth they live in dorms with German students, which seems to work best for that location. In all cases a resident director, often a member of the faculty of the host institution, arranges housing and group excursions, handles program finances and submission of grades, and meets regularly with the students to make sure that everything is running smoothly. The resident director helps resolve problems and conflicts that occur during the semester and communicates regularly by fax and e-mail with our department’s study-abroad coordinator.
In order to understand how our study-abroad programs enhance curricular options on the home campus, let us follow a freshman named Jason, who has entered the university majoring in history. Jason took French in high school, and, like many incoming students, he studied the language for four years. This automatically places him in French 107, the third and final course in our 100-level sequence. (We abandoned a placement test over a decade ago in favor of placing students according to their high school background.) As a student in the College of Arts and Science, Jason must pass French 107 in order to graduate, so he enrolls in this course in the fall of his freshman year. In September he is informed in various ways about our winter session program in Caen, France: he receives a program brochure in French 107, the program director comes by one day to talk to his class, and his 107 instructor enthusiastically talks about the program and even encourages him to apply. Excited by the prospect of spending a few days in Paris, visiting the landing beaches of Normandy, and popping over to London through the Chunnel on the program’s free weekend, Jason applies to the Caen program and is accepted. His six-credit curriculum in Caen looks like this:
FREN 208 — Contemporary France (taken by all participants and taught mostly in English)
FREN 206 — Culture through Conversation (taken by all students who have completed 107)
Four weeks of intensive study in Caen, coupled with a homestay, have helped Jason improve his proficiency in French dramatically; now he is intrigued by the prospect of earning an Honors Foreign Language Certificate as he continues his study of French. Students in any major at the University of Delaware may pursue the certificate by participating in one of our winter or summer session programs and taking the 206 conversation course. On their return to campus they are required to take one more 200-level course and one 300-level course, all for honors credit. This option not only provides an incentive for our top students to study abroad but also encourages them to continue their language study at the advanced level, which more than half of the Caen returnees did last year.
In the spring Jason therefore takes another 200-level French course, and early in the semester he receives a brochure from his instructor describing the fall semester program in Paris. He is surprised to learn that by participating in the fall program he will earn the credits necessary to complete the French studies minor. We offer minors in French studies, German studies, and Spanish studies that go hand-in-hand with our semester programs in Paris, Bayreuth, and Granada. These minors consist of twenty-one credits, fifteen of which are earned during the semester abroad. The other six constitute the prerequisite for participation. Jason has already taken the 206 conversation course in Caen, and he is enrolled in another 200-level course in the spring, so he has met the prerequisite to apply to the fall program in Paris. (The 208 course in Caen does not count as a prerequisite since it is taught mostly in English.) Although Jason has never before considered minoring in French, as a history major he is excited about visiting some of the places he has read about in textbooks, and he is eager to return to Paris after his brief visit during the winter program. The idea of spending an entire semester in Paris, while at the same time earning a minor in French studies, seems irresistible.
The courses offered on the fall semester program in Paris are the same as those offered on our semester programs in Bayreuth and Granada, and all are taught in the target language (courses marked with an asterisk satisfy a breadth requirement in the College of Arts and Sciences). The two-session format is crucial, so that students like Jason are not overwhelmed by the prospect of taking five advanced courses in French all at once:
Session I — September 12 to October 13
FREN 308 — Contemporary France II* (All participants take this course.)
Participants choose one of the following, depending on their level of French:
FREN 306 — Practical Oral/Written Expression
FREN 406 — Advanced French Language
Fall Break — October 14 to October 22
Session II — October 23 to December 15
Students choose three of the following courses:
FREN 355 — Special Topics in Literature
FREN 455 — Selected Authors, Works, and Themes
ARTH 339 — Art and Architecture of Europe*
HIST 339 — Topics in Modern European History*
POSC 441 — Problems of Western European Politics*
Jason takes French 308 and 306 in the first session and in the second session he enrolls in French 355, the history course (which also counts toward his major), and the political science course.
Jason returns from Paris in the spring of his sophomore year quite fluent in French and with a French studies minor under his belt. The political science course he took spurred an interest in this discipline, and he begins to think about how he can include more political science courses in his curriculum. Again, FFL is there with an answer. We cosponsor with the Department of Political Science and International Relations three majors that were designed in conjunction with our semester programs in Paris, Bayreuth, and Granada: the majors in French and political science, German and political science, and Spanish and political science. These majors require participation in one of the semester abroad programs mentioned above, and they include twenty-one credits in the foreign language and twenty-four in political science. All five of the courses Jason took in Paris count toward this major, as do the two 200-level French courses he took before departure. Since he is already taking one political science course this semester and enjoys the subject, it will be no problem for him to pick up the six additional political science courses he needs before he graduates. He still must take one 400-level literature course in French to fulfill the major’s French requirement, but this, too, will be no problem for him after having developed his reading skills during his semester in Paris.
So, within his first two years at the university, Jason has gone from being a history major and an intermediate-level student of French to a student with advanced language skills and a double major in history and French and political science. Such a progression would not be possible without the close integration of our study-abroad programs and our on-campus curriculum. Our study-abroad programs, in turn, would not be nearly as successful as they are without three important elements that we address below: high-quality publicity, aggressive recruitment, and program-specific scholarship aid.
Although students seem to learn the most about study-abroad programs from other students (Chieffo 62), we have discovered that it is also necessary to have attractive brochures for each of our programs, which are then distributed to every student in the target classes and made available to parents, current students, and prospective students at various campus events. We work closely with the university’s Office of International Programs, which designs and pays for brochures, ads in the student newspaper, and fliers advertising our interest meetings. This office also creates and maintains UD’s extensive study-abroad Web site (www.udel.edu/studyabroad), from which students can submit applications to any of the university’s study-abroad programs. From the Web page, students and their parents can obtain information about all the programs, view photos of each site, and link to the e-mail address of the faculty director(s) and study-abroad coordinator, should they have any questions. The International Programs Office has also created a separate Web page listing all of FLL’s study-abroad programs, which appears as a link from FLL’s home page (www.udel.edu/fllt). Despite the increasing popularity of the Web, the effectiveness of putting brochures in students’ hands cannot be discounted. According to the survey we mentioned above, about 60% of students obtain at least some information about Delaware’s programs abroad from brochures, versus only about 35% from the Web site (62).
There is an old saying in the real estate business: when you are buying a house, three things count—location, location, location. In the study-abroad business there are also three things that count—recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. It is unrealistic to believe that students will come in droves, applications in hand, to take advantage of programs that they have seen or heard about only once or twice. Our faculty members understand the central role that study abroad has come to play in the life of our department, and we have learned that active, ongoing recruitment of qualified students is the most effective way to boost our program enrollments.
Our greatest recruitment effort comes at the beginning of each semester, when all students in each feeder class receive a brochure describing the program that they can participate in during the next session. For example, in early September the faculty members teaching 100- and 200-level German courses receive enough brochures about our winter program in Bayreuth to distribute to each student in their classes. Faculty members teaching certain levels of Italian receive brochures about the Siena winter or spring program, and so on. The instructors make sure that every student receives a brochure, and they then highlight some features of the program such as opportunity for accelerated language acquisition, the homestay experience, study field trips and excursions, and personal and academic benefits. We take care to portray our programs not as a vacation or a trip abroad but rather as a serious scholastic endeavor. A good recruiter has the ability to persuade the students that study abroad can be both an enjoyable experience and a worthwhile academic activity.
Soon after the brochure distribution, the faculty members who direct each program try to visit every class, describe their program to the students, perhaps show a few transparencies, and announce the upcoming interest meeting. There is no question as to whether directors will be permitted to visit their colleagues’ classes; everyone expects and accommodates a brief visit on study abroad each semester. Faculty members all receive weekly updates on how many students have applied to each program so they are well informed about the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts, and they are reminded to continue these efforts in their classes until the programs’ application deadline has passed.
Becoming a successful recruiter is not easy and does not come naturally to everyone; some faculty members will need extra coaching and encouragement. Our department is unique in that it is the only department at the university where recruiting students for study-abroad programs has become part of the departmental culture. The payoff in terms of student awareness is undeniable. Over 90% of the students in our survey who were in foreign language classes reported obtaining at least some information about the university’s study-abroad programs from a current professor, compared with only 40% of students in other classes (Chieffo 64). Students in foreign language classes also rated themselves as more aware of the programs than respondents who were not taking a foreign language; on a scale of one to five, about 72% of the language students gave themselves an awareness rating of three or more, compared with only about 56% of the rest of the survey sample (59).
As our programs have attracted more and more students, we have come to realize the importance of ongoing recruitment. We have found that students often begin thinking about studying abroad far in advance of the program’s departure date; we regularly receive inquiries about programs that will be offered a year or more in the future. The Web site has proved to be most helpful in this early recruitment phase, enabling us to have information and applications available for programs spanning an entire academic year, long before we could have an updated brochure ready.
Scholarship aid is a commodity that always seems to be in short supply, but without it, it would be difficult to assemble large groups of students to study abroad, even for a short period. The cost of most of our winter and summer session programs is about $2,000, and the fees for our semester programs range from about $3,000 to $4,000; most include airfare, housing, meals, and group excursions and activities. Students also pay regular University of Delaware tuition. Although we may think that these programs are a bargain, for many students they are not within financial reach. In fact, when asked about reasons for nonparticipation in study-abroad programs, almost 40% of students in our survey responded that cost is a major reason, making it the primary impediment to participation (Chieffo 73–74).
The only answer to this dilemma, and to the accusation that we are fostering elitism, is scholarship aid. In the last academic year our department awarded almost $40,000 in scholarships to 125 students, in amounts ranging from $200 to $500. The Office of International Programs provided about $32,000 of the total, and almost $8,000 came from departmental discretionary funds and designated gifts. If fund-raising is part of your job description as chair, then you probably know that study-abroad scholarships are an item many donors are eager to support. We have been fortunate to receive several sizable contributions just for this purpose in the past few years, and these funds have augmented the scholarship allotments we receive from the Office of International Programs.
Although the number of scholarships we award is great, the amount of each award is usually not. A $200 or $300 award has mostly symbolic value, and there are few students for whom this amount would mean the difference between going abroad or not. The students in our survey said that they would need an average of $1,360 in order to participate in a program abroad—far more than our scholarships provide (78). However, last year the Office of International Programs received a $300,000 grant from the Starr Foundation that will partially meet this need. The grant enables that office to award twenty to thirty need-based scholarships per year over the next three years to students who would otherwise be unable to study abroad. These awards cover an entire program fee; the students must pay only tuition. So far during this academic year, fourteen students have received Starr scholarships to participate in one of FLL’s programs.
In order to avoid preaching to the choir, we have purposely said little in this article about the many benefits students derive from study abroad. Instead we have provided examples of integration between our programs abroad and those on campus and have given some suggestions for ensuring their success. It goes without saying that we designed all our programs with the pedagogical goal of providing unique learning opportunities for our undergraduates. Well-designed overseas programs, when combined with on-campus programs that incorporate coursework done abroad, can provide powerful incentives for students—even those with marginal interest in learning a foreign language—to continue their language study and move up the ladder from the lower to the most advanced level. We mentioned the numerous advantages that successful programs abroad can bring to foreign language departments: stronger relations with other units and a higher profile on campus, increased enrollments in advanced courses, faculty development, and the like. Yet apart from their benefits to individual students and departments, study-abroad programs are very highly valued at the university level as well. They help attract the best applicants to our institution, and they play a major role in the ongoing effort to internationalize the undergraduate student body. In short, treating study-abroad programs as an integral (and integrated) part of the on-campus curriculum yields benefits for students, departments, and the institution as a whole.
Clinton, William J. “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: International Education Policy.” 19 Apr. 2000 http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/04-2000/wh-000419.html.
Institute of International Education. “Participation Rates for U.S. Study Abroad.” Open Doors on the Web. 1999 http://www.opendoorsweb.org.
———. “U.S. Students Studying Abroad.” Open Doors on the Web. 13 Nov. 2000. 21 Dec. 2000 http://www.opendoorsweb.org.
Pace, C. R. The Junior Year in France: An Evaluation of the University of Delaware-Sweet Briar College Program. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1959.
Riley, Richard W. The Growing Importance of International Education. 19 Apr. 2000. 21 Dec 2000 http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/04-2000/000419.html.
University of Delaware Archives. Foreign Study Plan. 21 Dec. 2000 http://www.udel.edu/Archives/Archives/forstudy.html.
© 2001 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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