The Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures is one of the largest and most important departments at LSU, enrolling a high number of undergraduate students each semester. To effectively manage its high class counts, the department utilizes a common tactic: standardization.

To ensure that every student who takes a foreign language course at LSU receives an equitable and enriching educational experience, WLLC standardizes syllabi across sections of every 1000 and 2000 level foreign language course. Students receive the same homework, are bound by the same absence policies and take the same exams. 

According to Rafael Orozco, the chair of WLLC, this standardization is a necessary feature of LSU’s foreign language program.

“It is important that students receive the same instruction so that when they go to the next class, they can have pretty much the same information and progress — hopefully and ideally — at the same level,” Orozco said.

To students in less popular foreign language sequences, the standardization of syllabi is fairly innocuous. 

“Our homework was standardized because the French department required it to be, but it didn’t really make much of a difference for us,” said philosophy junior and former Cajun French student Roan Guidry. “Because the sequence was more niche, we got to do a lot of stuff that people in other languages don’t. We got to interact with native Cajun French speakers, which gave us a better grasp of the language.” 

But for many students in more popular language courses — like Spanish, French and German — they said the standardization of foreign language syllabi has become burdensome. 

“The Spanish department makes it so that every Spanish class has the same absence policy. We get one out of three points for attendance even for excused absences,” said political science sophomore Shania Raimer. “It’s unfair to impose those absence policies on every class even when professors don’t think it’s necessary.” 

Raimer also complained that the WLLC’s standards have caused Spanish students to become overwhelmed with testing.

“In the last week, I’ve taken a midterm, an oral exam and a chapter quiz,” Raimer said. “The syllabus makes it so that we test more than we learn. It’s bad for everyone.” 

When approached about these complaints, Orozco countered with three responses. 

First, Orozco noted that the number of tests students in the more popular language sequences take is largely outside of WLLC’s control.

“LSU is a public university. The state’s donors require that we have certain testing requirements for our students,” he said. “We’ve got to get funding, so having the tests is necessary.” 

As for whether he believed that the state’s requirements had a positive effect on students’ educational outcomes, Orozco responded largely in the affirmative. “The requirements help make sure we stay in line. So I think they’re generally a positive thing.” 

Second, Orozco pointed to the advancements WLLC has made in recent years to make foreign language instruction more effective. 

“I personally signed off on the LSU World Language Assistant GPT. . . If you in your class had trouble with irregular verbs in the present tense, then your professor could generate personalized exercises to meet your needs,” he said. “We have this and a lot of resources to help all of our professors in all of our languages to be better instructors.”

Finally, Orozco expressed a willingness to work with students to make foreign language instruction better. “My door is always open. If [any student] wants to meet with me about our courses, I am more than happy to speak with them,” he said. 

He also sanctioned the creation of a student organization to help resolve any disputes between foreign language students and WLLC.

“If [anyone] wants to create some kind of organization to help express how students feel about our courses, I would be in favor of that,” Orozco said.

Whether these solutions will materialize — and whether LSU’s foreign language curricula will change in the near future — is anyone’s guess. But as more and more LSU students work their way through foreign language sequences, one thing is clear: foreign language requirements aren’t going anywhere, and students will have to find a way to navigate them.