I recently saw a magazine article from the Brigham Young University Department of French & Italian. In it, they listed some changes they're making to how they teach French and Italian, though I'll focus just on French here. These include:
Including literature from contemporary authors and authors from the French-speaking world, where in the pasta the focus has been on classic literature from France
Acknowledging French accents, vocabulary, and dialects from around the French-speaking world, not just France
A greater focus on "transferable skills and professionalization," such as creating compelling arguments for supporting a point--part of an acceptance that not everyone studying French is going to become a professor
The introduction of a master's degree focused on professional proficiency (versus traditional classes like literature)
As a French teacher, I always felt French was a wonderful opportunity to learn about many different areas of the world--not just France. I also felt the biggest lessons I could teach my students were less about French grammar, but about respecting differences, exploring the world, and cultivating confidence in situations where you feel like you don't know what's going on.
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