The Department of Modern Languages is committed to active engagement in a balanced program of teaching, research, and service. These priorities and the departmental commitment to them are amplified and clarified in the paragraphs that follow. In addition, the department recognizes the multiple advantages and necessity of allowing for flexibility in the individual honoring of these commitments; such a balance will be clearly articulated in each faculty member's Statement of Expectations.
I. Teaching
The effective communication and critical examination of knowledge
are universally recognized as cardinal priorities of any college
or university professor. The Department of Modern Languages seeks
to provide a high-quality, educational experience in our discipline
for NAU undergraduate students. This implies contributing to the
formation of literate, educated citizens able to participate effectively
in the social, economic, political, and educational dimensions of
life in Arizona and the world. To this end pedagogical excellence
is honored as the highest professional commitment and criterion
of faculty evaluation. Through linguistic, literary, and cultural
approaches to the study of languages, in its major programs (Spanish,
French, German), in our Navajo minor, and in its ancillary language
offerings (Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Italian), the department
strives to help students: a) develop skills in five areas of language
study: speaking, listening, reading, writing, culture; b) develop
cognitive skills in critical thinking, analysis; c) develop ability
to understand and appreciate diverse cultures. The department is
committed as well to help prepare the region's teachers in the above
areas, in language proficiency, and in instructional methodology,
and to offer resources for additional instruction, support, and
collegial collaboration in the shared enterprise of language education.
We seek also to assume leadership in exploring resources and options
provided by new developments in technology-assisted foreign language
learning, and to temper a forward-looking, progressive approach
with a sense of professional responsibility.
In addition, Department members seek to provide for themselves,
for their students, and for the university and the region, an example
of a vital and successful multi-lingual, multi-cultural academic
community. The Department capitalizes on areas of study where it
is uniquely positioned by culture and geography (in Navajo and in
Spanish), but it balances these initiatives with a world-wide perspective
reflected in the other language programs and areas of study offered
across the department (BA programs in French and German, language
programs in Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Latin, Russian).
Effectiveness in teaching is evaluated in the Department of Modern
Languages on the basis of student assessments, peer classroom visitations,
file review of pedagogical materials, and by student exit interviews.
II. Advising
Integrally related to the role of teacher is that of advisor. Recognizing
the fact that contact between faculty and students is essential
to the founding vision of the university, and that such contact
humanizes an institution of higher learning, the department's faculty
are dedicated to the philosophy that any student seeking academic
assistance is to be helped with promptness and respect. The department's
faculty enjoy a well-founded reputation for generosity vis-à-vis
support of student activities and involvement in student organizations.
All faculty within the department maintain posted office hours,
typically five per week for full-time instructors of all ranks.
Effectiveness in and commitment to advising are evaluated on the
basis of exit interviews with majors and student responses on the
departmental evaluations.
III. Research
The department's faculty recognize and affirm that the critical
examination and the extension of existing knowledge is inherently
related to an abiding commitment to a life of the mind in general,
and to professional involvement in the area of one's chosen discipline
in particular. All regular Modern Languages faculty pursue an active
agenda of professional development, with the broad aim of personal
and professional growth. Tenure-line faculty typically pursue this
agenda in the formal sense of research for publication in the faculty
member's discipline. Such professional development, scholarship,
and intellectual growth contributes in substance and by example
to the instructional and professional aspects of the department's
mission.
In promoting and evaluating such activities, the Department of Modern
Languages is committed to recognizing wealth in diversity. Areas
of involvement in research range from traditional literary criticism
to efforts that are strictly pedagogical in focus and import. The
department recognizes and affirms the validity of discipline-related
research efforts spanning projects as diverse as: literary-critical
investigations; literary translations; interdisciplinary and cultural
studies; articles dealing with methodological, cognitive, and pedagogical
research; the development of learning-related tools, including software
development; grant-writing efforts; program and course development;
and efforts toward program revision.
The Department of Modern Languages adheres to the tenet that research
efforts must be recognized by one's academic peers before they can
be accepted as legitimate. Dissemination and recognition of research
are essential to its validity, and such recognition is traditionally
affirmed in the process of jury or peer review, whether in the format
of books and journal articles published, papers accepted for conference
reading, or grants funded internally and/or externally.
IV. Service
The faculty of the Department of Modern Languages recognize the critical role of service in any university and academic unit. "Service" is here understood to include discipline-related service to the university, the profession and the community. While service traditionally is defined primarily as generous and effective committee work, the department's faculty recognize more far-reaching service responsibilities, as well. The faculty acknowledge their obligation to serve as role models and mentors for students throughout the university, and they strive to maintain positive rapport with all university constituencies, including students, faculty colleagues, administrators and staff. The department's faculty seek to promote collegiality and to participate in the life of the university community by attending selected university, college, departmental and student-sponsored activities, whether cultural or academic in nature. For faculty of different ranks, fulfillment of the responsibility for service will take forms commensurate with rank and experience. Tenured faculty, in particular, have a distinct role in providing leadership for the department and sharing professional experience with junior colleagues. Service activity in the department is monitored by the chair, in discussion with individual faculty members.
Approved by the Department of Modern Languages on April 30, 1998.
Approved by Suzanne Shipley, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences,
on September 16, 1998.