Language requirements will take half the time
Missie Mills
Assistant Editor
German courses 111 through 212, which usually take four semesters to complete, will be offered in two semesters beginning in the fall.
Jack Knowles, chair of humane learning, said that the reason for the change is
so that students can fulfill their Bachelor of Arts language requirements in one
year instead of two.
The change was prompted because students who have not fulfilled their language
requirement by their junior year needed to learn “two years of German in one,”
said Ted Thomas, associate professor of German. Thomas proposed the
consolidation of semesters to Academic Dean Mark Matson late last semester.
“It is an experiment,” Matson said. “This might increase the number of students
taking German as a foreign language.”
According to Thomas, there are currently about 30 people on campus who can speak
German, including faculty and students. Thomas said that he would like to
increase that number.
This course consolidation is not the first of its kind at Milligan. A similar
situation was worked out in anticipation of Associate Professor of French and
Spanish Carolyn Woolard's sabbatical last year.
“(The class consolidation) worked fine with the French the last time I did it.
Students kept up better, and it was easier with daily exposure,” Woolard said.
Knowles said there is “a lot of evidence that students learn best when they are
immersed and dealing with a language five days a week.”
Junior photography major Sarah Shepherd will be taking German in the fall.
“It will make it possible for me to graduate on time, so I'm excited,” Shepherd
said.