HAL/HAP Student Learning Outcomes

(Approved by the ECLC Executive Committee on 12/4/14 and confirmed by the EPC on 2/26/15)

 Upon completing Area VII, the Humanities, Arts, Performance (HAP) and Humanities, Arts, Language (HAL) General Education requirements, students will be able to use English and/or the studied language to: 

• comprehend, analyze, and interpret texts that reflect upon human experience, the human condition, or artistic form,
• communicate their ideas in writing, orally, visually, in performance, or in other media relating to various cultural, social and linguistic contexts,
• recognize the cultural and linguistic significance of written, oral, visual, or performative expressions,
•  demonstrate intercultural, level-appropriate linguistic and cross-linguistic competencies and a global perspective on the human condition.

Consortium on Assessment

Beginning in the fall semester 2010, the Emory College Language Center began serving as the organizing body for different foreign language departments and programs on campus interested in exploring useful assessment practices for collegiate foreign language study. Two main impetuses served to bring about this focused attention on language assessment. First, the upcoming reaccreditation of Emory University by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) has motivated all departments on campus to develop assessment plans as well as methods for measuring the attainment of learning outcomes. Second, the Language Center and interested foreign language programs were invited to join the recently formed Consortium on Useful Assessment in Language and Humanities Education. This inter-institutional network between Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rice, and Emory aims to foster a culture of responsible and useful assessment of student learning outcomes in the humanities. As a collaborative effort, it enhances assessment practices developed by individual departments, helps to disseminate exemplary practices within the Consortium and beyond, and supports research into student learning. More information can be found on the Consortium's website.

To date, Emory has participated in two meetings of the Consortium. In October 2010 representatives from five Emory foreign language programs traveled to Georgetown University for two days of meetings with colleagues from the other Consortium member institutions. At that meeting it became clear that more foundational reading and discussion about useful assessment practices needed to take place at Emory in order to assist programs conceptualize assessment plans and measures that are meaningful and useful to the various stakeholders in the language learning process. To that end, three workshops were held over the next several months to walk participants through the components of useful assessment as outlined by the work done on foreign language program evaluation at the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawai'i under the directorship of Dr. John Norris. For the third workshop, Yukiko Watanabe from the University of Hawai'i, who has worked extensively on foreign language program evaluation, led participants through the process of defining, mapping, and assessing student learning outcomes. That workshop was then followed by the second meeting of the Consortium, hosted by the ECLC in April 2011. Different programs of the member instituations gave presentations and held theme-based and language-specific meetings on useful assessment practices in collegiate foreign language education.

Following that meeting in late April, the participating programs at Emory met to plan their next steps regarding useful assessment and decided to focus during the 2011-2012 academic year on useful speaking assessment. Yukiko Watanabe will return to campus in early November to work with each program further on their efforts.