|
 Ingredient #2:
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Commitment
Programs like the IEP face long-standing hurdles and
traditions buried deeply within academia. Language
faculty, after all, tend to see themselves as
humanists with a mission to teach national
literatures to young persons inspired to pursue
advanced degrees in highly specialized areas. Many
faculty in the field believe that teaching language
is secondary and that offering a language and culture
program for engineering students reduces their status
to one of a service entity. For many traditionalists
in the field, an IEP is, therefore, not an
appropriate mission and an actual betrayal of the
field.
Engineering faculty, in a related manner,
traditionally see little value in language learning.
What is primary to most engineers is technology, and,
if more work is to be done by their students, it
should be in that area. After all, as discussed in
the Rationale statement above, the American
view persists that the whole world speaks English,
and that there is, therefore, no need for us to
concern ourselves with language learning.
At URI we were fortunate to have capable faculty in
both engineering and languages who were enthusiastic
about the idea of an international engineering
program, who could bring specific skills to the
effort, and who were not bound by traditional
paradigms. The program was begun in German because
there were several engineering faculty with German
language skills and/or valuable relationships with
industry and higher education in German-speaking
countries. Another major factor was the eagerness of
the German language faculty to work with new
audiences and develop applied language programs such
as the IEP. Indeed, the German language program at
URI has built a curriculum and a research agenda
around this pedagogical direction which has become a
major factor in the program's now substantial
reputation in language as well as engineering
circles.
URI's successful establishment of the IEP came about
because of commitment and determination on the part
of faculty in BOTH language and engineering
disciplines. The faculty leadership involved in this
project realized the importance of working together,
and of capitalizing on each other's strengths. The
likelihood of doing serious language work, which is,
after all, absolutely necessary if one hopes to send
students to study engineering abroad or to carry out
internships with companies in non-English-speaking
environments, could not be done without the
involvement of language faculty. On the other hand,
there was no way to convince engineering students to
study language in depth, or to develop internships
abroad, or to design a new international curriculum
without the commitment and participation of
engineering faculty.
Back | Next
Rationale | Fast Facts | Dissemination Efforts | What's Where? | What Makes It Happen? | What does Industry Say? | Publications |
