|
|||||||||||||||||||
José I.
Suárez
Clemson University In 1979, Bobby Chamberlain edited a series of essays by fellow Lusitanists under the title Building a Portuguese Program (East Lansing: Latin American Studies Center of Michigan State University). These essays deal primarily with how to found successfully a Portuguese language program at a post-secondary institution. Almost ten years after its publication, much contained therein is still true; however, since the low number of students enrolled in Portuguese studies remains approximately the same 1979 national figure of 5,000 (Japanese has well over 60,000), it is essential to address the question of how to maintain a Portuguese program, whether on going or incipient. After all, a number of us have heard of universities where programs seemed to be thriving only to discover a few years later that Portuguese was no longer being offered at those institutions. Michael Fody, III points out in «Building a Portuguese Program: Two Perspectives» that «the first place to begin Portuguese recruitment is with undergraduate and graduate majors in the Romance languages» (14). Although this is indeed true, a certain fact must be kept in mind: students majoring in French and/or Spanish (the two most popular Romance languages) become more or less confident in their ability with these languages during their junior year or at the onset of their senior year. If a student, therefore, has decided to learn another language, it is usually during this period that he or she undertakes its study -this is a logical decision since, during the first two years, students must devote considerable time and energy to acquire a good foundation in the major language. Such a late decision is usually detrimental to a Portuguese program because it can only yield, at most, two years of adequate enrollment: the beginning and intermediate. To my recollection, no senior whom I have taught has ever postponed graduation or returned as a graduate student in order to further his or her Portuguese studies. Consequently, instructors must continually «beat the bushes» to find students who do not fit this pattern if they hope to offer any course beyond the intermediate year. This situation entails another sad reality: several freshman and sophomore students who take up Portuguese do so because they waited until the last minute to enroll, thus finding all Spanish and/or French beginning sections filled; or because they believe that it will be easy since they have had some high school Spanish; or (at least in institutions that have a language requirement) because they have «flunked» their first term of Beginning Spanish or French and feel that Portuguese would be an easier language with which to fulfill the requirement. The resulting situation is a classroom where the instructor is facing a number of students who either share the impression that Portuguese is a «Mickey Mouse» subject, or find themselves at the bottom rung of the academic ladder. Now, let us present a better scenario: a first-year Portuguese class with a large number of intelligent and eager freshmen and sophomores. This setting does not necessarily portend an expanding program. For example, assume that, after two years of language study, many of these students decide they wish to continue studying the language and some may even wish to minor in it. The instructor approaches the chairperson of the department only to be told that, since only two years of Portuguese are on the books, the instructor may teach the third year as an independent study course without, of course, any additional remuneration. The instructor, faced with an already onerous teaching load and pressured by publication demands and departmental service, declines. Students are then disappointed and, soon thereafter, word is out that Portuguese is a dead-end subject for it does not go beyond the first two years and, consequently, no one can learn it in depth or minor in it. Another important point is that, at the time of these essays,
many universities still handled some or all of their student registration
through computerized cards distributed on scheduled days by faculty members or
graduate students. This system provided the opportunity for Portuguese faculty
to augment their
Various language departments, whether consciously or not, exploit and somewhat deceive Portuguese instructors by expecting from them what is, in many cases, unrealistic. For example, a typical description for a Portuguese job opening reads as follows: «Assistant Professor of Portuguese, tenure-track, Ph. D. in hand, native or near native fluency in Portuguese, area of specialization open, demonstrated excellence in teaching and commitment to program development. Publications and professional activities required for tenure and promotion. Ability to teach a second language highly desirable...» To recent Ph. D.'s in Portuguese or Portuguese/Spanish (French) eagerly searching for a job in a flooded market, the fact that there is an opening of this sort (it is tenure-track and not temporary) raises their expectations and clouds their better judgment. When individuals are fortunate enough to be offered this type of position, they assume their duties with the vague understanding that, if they maintain adequate enrollments in their Portuguese courses and publish, the reward will be tenure in their decision year. They soon discover, however, the amount of work that luring students into a Portuguese program entails, to say nothing of expanding that program beyond first and second-year course offerings. Naturally most accept their fate and, in many cases, are able to maintain student enrollment at an acceptable level. Two or three years later, in most cases, these individuals begin to realize that, as a result of time devoted to program development, they are unable to meet the one-or-two-books plus-list-of-articles goal unofficially set soon after their hiring -«After all, this is also expected of French and Spanish junior faculty». If by chance they are awarded tenure on the basis of their service, they often become the «red-headed stepchild» of the department, especially in terms of raises and promotions. On the other hand, if they do not secure tenure, and a significant percentage do not, many are unable to find employment in the field, either because of the low number of openings and large number of candidates, or because would be employers view their publication record as weak. The institution perpetuates the problem by bringing in another recent Ph. D. under the same job description, or instead hires a native-speaker from another discipline on a part-time basis, or, worse still, drops Portuguese from its curriculum. How then can this sad state of affairs be remedied? If the department or institution is serious about having a viable Portuguese program, it must also be serious at hiring time. Since the problem lies in the incompatibility of program development with research, the individual should be hired at the Associate level and with tenure. Also (and this is essential) he or she must be given carte blanche regarding the expansion of program, i. e., if there is a required number of students desiring a course or a major or even a graduate program in Portuguese, then it will be offered. Tenure provides the new faculty member the job security needed for the development of a successful language program, while its possible expansion provides the expectation of someday teaching Luso-Brazilian literature and culture courses. If a department is concerned that a faculty member may do little to build a language program once he/she is tenured, then it should hire someone who can teach one of the other languages offered by the department. In reality, this ought not be a concern for, as those of us who have specialized in Luso-Brazilian studies know, it is difficult to find one of us who would prefer to teach Spanish or French rather than Portuguese even if it means having to develop a program from scratch. Once a department has made this type of commitment, then the student situation should improve. Those deciding to take Portuguese, regardless of college year, have the understanding that a third-year course will be offered if there is sufficient enrollment; also, that a minor in Portuguese will be offered when the required number of course hours is met. These assurances should do away with the current student concept that Portuguese is only good for fulfilling a language requirement and is therefore a «second-class» language. In «An Eclectic Approach to Portuguese Program
Development», Ronald Harmon presents
These examples, if implemented, would no doubt be a palliative, but by no means a cure since they would only help to increase enrollment at the first- and second-year level. If what is wanted and needed are students who will take three or four years of Portuguese, it has to be inculcated in them that Brazil plays a very important role in today's world economy, and because of this, there are now U. S. graduate business programs with Portuguese language tracks. The average starting salary for these graduates is approximately $35,000. Nothing motivates students more than the belief that what they are learning can be used in the «real world» and that it may be a ticket to a high-paying position. Two graduate programs of this sort are the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona and the Master of International Business Studies program at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. In conclusion, it is interesting to note that, out of four non-tenured American professors of Portuguese involved with this collection, only one received tenure and remains at the institution he represented at the time of publication. It is therefore my expectation that, by bringing the above mentioned caveats and difficulties to the attention of both colleagues and university administrators, we may be able to keep more Portuguese programs on a sound footing. 
|
|||||||||||||||||||
