Lingua Franca

New Faces in the Department

As we announced in the previous issue of LF, Dr. Michele Dávila Gonçalves has joined the full time, tenure-track faculty and our second Hispano-Americanist. Dr. Dávila can also teach Portuguese.

Dr. Kenneth Reeds joined the full-time faculty for the year, replacing Dr. Ana Echevarría-Morales, who is on her second year of leave.

Prof. Abdelwahab Abdelfattah is teaching our Arabic courses this year. He is from Egypt and he is also a composer of contemporary classical music (a member of that nation’s third generation of classical composers).

There were two new part-time faculty in the fall, Prof. Joel Similien in French and Prof. Terri Gallo and Italian. Nate Gravel will be a new Spanish instructor in the Spring (for SPN204).

For more information about our faculty, go to our faculty web page.

Fieldtrip to Québec

In November 2008, Dr. Blood and Dr. Rocca accompanied a group of 11 students from the FRE 362 Quebec Culture and Literature course that Dr. Blood offered this semester for the first time, on a fieldtrip to Québec City. The students explored the city’s cultural and historical sites and tasted many Québécois delicacies.

Language Clubs

The Foreign Languages clubs organized their annual fall film series, with the French Club showing Le dîner de cons, the Italian Club offering La vita è bella and the Spanish Club presenting Voces Inocentes. Thanks to all who attended. We hope to continue this tradition in the future!

Dr. Dávila, one of the Spanish Club advisors, started “La Tertulia”, a Spanish table on Thursday afternoons in the lobby of Meier Hall. This is an opportunity for students to converse in Spanish in an informal setting.

The Spanish Club is looking for new leadership and increased membership. Please contact Dr. Dávila or Dr. Aske.

The French Club will be fundraising with the Foreign Languages Department this winter for the Heifer Project, a non-profit international organization aimed at building sustainable communities in the developing world. We will be raising money to purchase goats for families in need. Goats can produce up to four quarts of milk per day. Look for our fundraisers in early spring!

Curriculum changes

There has been a lot of development of the curriculum in the Foreign Languages Department this year. In Spring 2009, Dr. Rocca will offer a new diversity course in French called “Readings from Francophone Africa and the Caribbean” (FRE 354). Drs. Rocca and Blood are also developing new upper-level courses in French and Italian culture and literature for next year. In addition, the Department is preparing proposals for “Travel-Study” seminars in Spanish, French, and Italian, that will allow us to conduct courses in foreign countries where students will be able to study and practice speaking the language. In Spanish, new course proposals have been created by Dr. Dávila and Dr. Serra. Dr. Dávila‘s new course is a survey of US Latino/a Literature in Spanish and Dr. Serra’s is an upper-level course on film from the Spanish-speaking world. Dr. Sherf and Dr. Dávila also proposed a new course for the graduate school, SPN 700, which is an intensive advanced grammar review.

Also, this year, the Department is conducting an evaluation of its programs and many students will be involved in taking online proficiency testing in order to gage the outcomes of the various levels of foreign language instruction at Salem State.

Honor Society

The Department recently voted to join the Phi Sigma Iota international honor society. More information about participation in the honor society will be available soon!

Coming in Spring 2009

Look for our annual International Photo Contest announcement to come out in early spring! Also, look for the HOPE award essay contest, which awards a cash prize to a student undertaking a humanitarian project.

Fall Honors Program

The following MAT in Spanish students are honorees of the Fall Graduate Honors Program. They have a GPA of at least 3.85 and are at least 18 credits into the program:

• Lilliam Duffy
• Scott Estes
• Mary Giordano
• Jennifer Gray
• Carolynne McCormick
• Gerda Pasquarello
• Karine Poulin
• Jessica Stryhalaleck
• Julie Wall
• Rebecca Wolf