Taking GSTEPs To Address The Foreign Language Teacher Shortage

Georgia’s teacher shortage continues to worsen. In fact, two foreign languages, French and Spanish, have been on the critical needs list of the Hope Scholarship Program for the last several years, since there are not enough French and Spanish teachers to fill the needs of Georgia’s schools. It is likely that the teacher shortage trend will continue, unless something is done to attract college students to enter the teaching profession. While this is a grimly painted picture, the Foreign Language GSTEP Curriculum Team has taken steps in the right direction with some thoughtful plans to turn this shortage around by recruiting more foreign language majors to consider teaching as a career.

The Foreign Language GSTEP Curriculum Team is composed of members of the Departments of Romance Languages, Germanic and Slavic Languages, Classics, Language and Literacy Education, and the Foreign Language Departments of Grayson and Collins Hill High Schools. This team has worked on two major projects to address the issue of foreign language teacher recruitment.

Dual Degrees: Making Teaching a More Attractive Choice

The first foreign language teacher recruitment project was to create and institutionalize dual degree programs in foreign languages to attract foreign language majors earlier in their academic careers. This was done because it was known that many Arts and Sciences students majoring in a foreign language try to obtain teacher certification during their fourth year, forcing them to take additional semesters to finish their work. When upper-division students were surveyed, many said they would have been interested in a dual degree program had it been available earlier in their academic careers. Some students indicated that they were already doing a dual degree on their own, but formalizing the process would have made it easier.

Therefore, an A.B. degree in a foreign language was combined with a B.S.Ed. degree in foreign language education, streamlining the two areas and making the dual degree major official. As a result, teaching languages has become a more attractive career choice for foreign language majors. In addition, graduates with dual degrees will be more attractive to employers and to graduate and professional schools.

Dual degrees were an outgrowth of the growing collaborative relationship between the College of Education and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences that has grown significantly due to the GSTEP grant. To find out about other dual degree programs have formed as a result of GSTEP, please visit the dual degree website at www.franklin.uga.edu/dual_degrees/.

Getting the Word Out About Foreign Language Teaching

The Foreign Language GSTEP Curriculum Team has been searching for ways to promote interest among UGA students majoring in foreign languages to enter the foreign language teaching profession. To this end, an information session for prospective teachers was held recently in Mary Lyndon Hall on campus. About 40 undergraduate and graduate students attended the question and answer session to find out more about career opportunities for teachers of French, German, Latin, and Spanish in middle school or high school. Topics included: how to prepare for a teaching career, how to obtain teacher certification, how to find a job, and more. Members of the Foreign Language GSTEP Curriculum Team as well as other practicing foreign language teachers and student teachers were present to answer questions. The event was promoted with mailed brochures, bus cards, and posters displayed throughout campus.

Materials created for the information session will continue to be distributed and posted on campus to increase visibility of foreign language teaching careers. Members of the Foreign Language GSTEP Curriculum Team plan to hold additional information sessions in the future to continue to offer support to those considering a career in foreign language teaching.

—Thomas Cooper