By Makenna Hall, Managing Editor of Content
Pandemic-related challenges presented in many different ways for each Susquehanna department. For the modern languages department, one of these challenges was the inability to have Fulbright language fellows on campus.
Since at least the 1990s, the language department has been welcoming native speakers of Italian, Spanish, French and German to teach language classes over the course of an academic year, amongst many other responsibilities, according to the department head and Italian professor, Daryl Rodgers.
According to Rodgers, each fellow teaches about three to four language classes over the course of the year, so their absence resulted in some scheduling issues for the department.
“We start planning for our Fellows generally in December or January. So, we had no idea at that time what would happen in the world in terms of Covid-19 and the effect it would have on many aspects of everyone’s lives, including travel,” Rodgers said, “When it became apparent in the summer that we could not bring the Fellows for this Academic Year we had to quickly come up with an alternative staffing plan.”
The alternative meant that some classes had to be canceled and some professors had to take on more courses than initially planned, according to Rodgers.
In addition to teaching courses and taking their own classes, the fellows were also responsible for cultural activities and conversation tables.
“They have participated in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day multilingual readings and International Poetry Day, for example. Depending on the year and their interests, they have organized (or worked with the language clubs to help organize) events for the Carnaval, the Chandleur, and other cultural events,” French professor Lynn Palermo said.
Without the fellows this year, a lot of these events have been canceled or greatly reduced in number.
“We used to have language tables where you could go and play games or chat with [the fellows]. They also used to run the movie nights. Neither of those events happened this semester and I feel like it created a lot of disconnect,” senior German major Becky Vernachio said.
As a German tutor and the president of the German club, Vernachio said she tried to do activities to make up for the loss in the department. “But nothing replaces having the fellows. Last year was really great in particular because I was close with the Italian, German, and French fellow and it was really fun to see them at different events on campus as well as the events that they ran. It makes the department more than just courses. It adds life,” Vernachio said.
As a substitute for the Italian conversation table typically run by a fellow, Rodgers has integrated conversations on TalkAbroad into the curriculum. TalkAbroad connects language-learning students with trained native speakers to converse about topics related to the course content.
In regards to the changes and cancellations, Rodgers does not believe that they have resulted in a mediocre learning experience or had a substantial negative effect on his Italian students’ progress.
“I do believe, however, that their experience is not as culturally rich and diverse as it would have been if the Fellow had been here,” Rodgers said.
Palermo expressed a similar sentiment about the presence of cultural diversity this semester: “They also bring their cultural background and perspectives, as well as native-speaker expertise on the language… I really miss students having these interactions with a native speaker with their different cultural perspective. It would have been fascinating to discuss the elections with a fellow, for example.”
This semester, all the German courses are taught solely online, but according to German professor Martina Kolb, that is not the only way the teaching dynamic has changed: “An adjunct faculty member teaches German one this year (instead of a fellow), who is an experienced rather than a beginning teacher — and who is not close to the students in age. [It] brings a different type of energy and background than an international fellow.”
The department is hopeful that fellows will be able to return to campus next fall, because as Rodgers stated: “They really are a vital part of our department.”
“We may live in rural PA, but we are able to offer our students a richer language learning experience (from the 100 to 400 level) thanks to our Fellows and so we really take pride in this unique feature of our department. Their presence on campus brings so much to our department and the university as a whole,” Rodgers said.
