ADFL Projects

The MLA's Articulation Initiative:
High School to College in Foreign Language Programs

Polk Community College's Articulation Project
Hugh Anderson, Rosalinda Collins, and Ana Maria Myers, Polk Community College, FL

Polk Community College began its articulation project, funded by two NEH projects, in 1995. It is ongoing. It is a simple project, its main focus being to provide seamless articulation between the high school Spanish classes and the community college. This is to be done by establishing an exit-entrance exam that will give the student the correct placement based on proficiency in the language. This has been difficult to achieve, and while we still do not have the results we hoped for, some serendipitous things have happened to us on the way to articulation.

First, the project. We have established dialogue with the Spanish teachers in the county and, funded by the grant, have had colleagues like Madeleine Lively, Jane Harper, Dorothy James, and James Noblitt conduct workshops to bring us up to date on using critical thinking skills in the classroom, to adopt ACTFL guidelines to help us design an exit-entrance exam (ongoing), and to explore the exciting possibilities of using technology in the foreign language classroom.

The result thus far is that the Spanish high school teachers know that we offer intermediate classes and beyond that can accommodate their students who have completed third-year or AP Spanish. So far, only a few of these students have materialized in our classrooms. However, because we do offer these classes, we have experienced an increased enrollment from the public at large. People in the community who in the past were unable to continue working on their language skills have told us how happy they are that we have these classes and that they have registered.

Another bonus is that we have now a pool of highly trained adjunct faculty members to teach at the college. We are also in the process of increasing our dual enrollment in Spanish. We have some teachers who are planning to offer Spanish for business at their schools to those students who have completed Spanish 1 and 2. We also hope to offer Spanish for the health professionals in the same manner.

We have social gatherings where everyone brings a Spanish dish and enjoys the others' company and thus stays connected; because of time constraints, it is very difficult for students to stay connected otherwise. Also, Polk Community College instructors serve as judges every year in the Polk County Foreign Language Competition, and this year the competition will take place on the Polk Community College campus.

We have two follow-up plans: First, with the help of Beth Johnson, foreign languages supervisor for the county, we hope to establish dates when selected teachers can work together with Polk Community College faculty members to design the exit-entrance exam. Second, we hope to receive an NEH Focus Grant to help us strengthen our articulation via the Internet.

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