Toward Useful Program Evaluation in College Foreign Language Education (review)

In this volume, the editors present the results of the Foreign Language Program Evaluation Project (FLPEP) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The book is a comprehensive report on the state of foreign language program evaluation in the United States, containing a foreword by John Norris, an introductory chapter, seven chapters reporting research findings from different program evaluations, and a final chapter discussing current practices and strategies for the future of foreign language program evaluation. Copies of assessment instruments are provided in appendices at the end of each chapter. The project goal was to identify the program assessment needs within foreign language programs in the United States and to develop models, strategies, and resources to meet them. The project ran from 2005–08 with funding from the US Department of Education, and was conducted in three phases: needs analysis, resource development, and field testing.

The first evaluation reported is presented in chapter 2. The results are from a program evaluation conducted at the University of New Mexico. The purpose of this assessment was to redesign the Portuguese curriculum to increase enrollment. The faculty used surveys created with the help of the FLPEP to assess their program and the needs of their students. The process of how the faculty used the evaluation to both increase enrollment and improve the quality of the courses offered is discussed.

Chapter 3 explains how California State University at Monterey Bay used program evaluation to justify creating a new degree program. The results of their evaluation were used by the university administration to make decisions on new degree programs. One quite interesting outcome of this evaluation was a major shift in the faculty thought-process regarding program and curriculum changes. Prior to the evaluation, decisions were primarily based on "personal anecdotes, assumptions, politics, or individual preferences"; afterward, however, the faculty stated a desire for more empirical evidence on which to base such decisions (95).

Chapter 4 discusses the evaluation of the graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training program at Johns Hopkins University. The language coordinators determined that their existing training program was not producing the results they desired. The evaluation was a comprehensive review using questionnaires and classroom observation reports conducted by both the language coordinators and literature faculty. The information gathered resulted in several recommendations for changes to the existing training program.

The fifth chapter reports on Duke University's evaluation of the effect of the foreign language requirement instituted across the University in 2000. The chapter presents the rationale for the language requirement and describes the beginning of the evaluation project. However, the chapter proves somewhat disappointing in that no real findings (data from the evaluation) are presented—at the time of this publication, the final results had not been compiled.

Chapter 6 discusses the results of a program evaluation at the University of Evansville, Indiana. In 2005, the university administration called for an enhancement of academic excellence. As a result, the foreign language department began the process of reflection to improve the quality of their programs. They first identified student learning outcomes which were then mapped to the curriculum. Next, outcome assessments (including portfolios) were developed, piloted, and revised. The results of this evaluation are quite interesting in terms of foreign language curriculum. The faculty at Evansville saw a need to examine the relatively heavy emphasis on literature in their department as compared to the student learning outcomes.

In chapter 7, an evaluation of the study abroad programs at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon is presented. The college's foreign language department undertook an evaluation of three different study abroad programs in Spain. They observed that students returning from the study abroad experiences had widely varying proficiency levels—most were not satisfactory. The chapter presents a thorough description of the evaluation procedures, including: site visits, interviews with Linfield and non-Linfield students, and class observations of the study abroad...