Walking through the halls of Edmund Casey Hall, it’s hard to tell St. Thomas University offers an entire French program, complete with a minor, major and certificate program. The only indicators are the posters outside Cecilia Francis’ office on the second floor. Francis is an associate professor in the department of romance languages.
First years are sorted into French courses based on their high school French experience. This leads to multiple levels of understanding in the classroom as everyone has their own unique background in French.
“I was surprised to find that St. Thomas did not offer a placement test, after seeing them at several other universities,” said Francis.
The French department has been trying to get a placement test for years. There are many levels of French schooling and understanding: early and late immersion, core, francophone, and international students who have their own background.
“The Spanish department has also been discussing the benefits of having a placement test, where more and more students are coming in with such strong Hispanic background,” said Francis.
St. Thomas doesn’t have the funding or the infrastructure to support a placement test and to pay for management to oversee the administration of the testing. STU doesn’t have a test, and would have to pay for the rights to use another school’s placement test.
“It also becomes a question of resource,” stated Francis, “It goes above and beyond what the professors here are trained to do. We run a [French] department. We would have to hire someone with a master’s degree to administer the test and go over the results.”
STU has a French lounge area, with three francophone student monitors. Located in room 329 of Edmund Casey Hall, the lounge is hard to find and very small. The room has a few tables with chairs, a desktop computer, bookshelves with newspapers, books, and a whiteboard. The romance languages department covers the cost of monitors, so students in first and second year can get one-on-one help or have group sessions free of charge. There are also French tutors set up through the university’s program.
There is also a new French cultural group, Les Troubadours, who meet for conversation, socializing, activities such as improvisation and karaoke, all in French. The group is open to any student wishing to participate in practicing the French language.
While STU is doing what it can to offer a complete French program, the language is thriving elsewhere on campus. The University of New Brunswick offers placement testing. Those who wish to pursue an education in French are required to take a test to put them in one of three streams for their first year. In second year, the immersion and francophone students are separated from the core program.
UNB has two language labs, a French lounge, and tutoring service to help with homework, essays and oral practice.
An advanced or superior understanding of French is important in the professional, bilingual world of New Brunswick and the rest of Canada. It’s not only employers who feel this way.
“French should be a cornerstone of STU academic programming,” said Francis.
