Critical Competencies and Advanced French Studies: A Toolkit for Collegiate Educators and Advisors

Principal investigator and project co-director

Heather Willis Allen, Department of French and Italian; Second Language Acquisition PhD Program

Project co-director

Kristin Michelson, Texas Tech University

Project consultants

Gilles Bousquet, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rebakah Paré, Paré Consulting

Faculty experts

Cécile Accilien, University of Maryland

Lars Erickson, University of Rhode Island

John Moran, New York University

Elyse Petit, Santa Rosa Junior College

Todd Reeser, University of Pittsburgh

Deb Reisinger, Duke University

Christine Sagnier, Princeton University

Nisrine Slitine El Mghari, University of Kentucky

About the project

This collaborative initiative of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas Tech University, and Washington University in St. Louis addresses the need to articulate the value of advanced French study and the transferrable skills imparted through undergraduate French curricula.

The project goals include:

  1. Identification and description of the critical competencies associated with advanced collegiate French study via a working group of collegiate French instructors with diverse professional specializations and identities from eight colleges and universities, including minority-serving institutions;
  2. Creation of a toolkit of advocacy materials available through the French Embassy and the website for the American Association of Teachers of French for collegiate French programs and institutional advisors to help students, advisors, and faculty recognize and articulate the critical competencies developed through advanced French study;
  3. Dissemination of project findings and materials via publications, conference presentations, and a webinar. All three of these goals aim to strengthen collegiate French enrollments through collective reflection and advocacy by project participants.

Sponsor and grant funding

French Embassy in the United States, $12,000, 2023-25