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"We know that students who have the ability to
write and speak a
language in addition to English will have greater employment
opportunities, and also have richer lives. Mastery of a second language
also is another indication of an educated person."
Dr. André
Beauzethier
Associate Professor of French
School of Arts & Sciences
The College of New Rochelle
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What
are the courses that you teach at CNR, Dr. Beauzethier?
I teach French, the language, and the literatures and
cultures of France and of the francophone world, mainly: Africa, the
Caribbean, and Québec. I also teach Methods and Materials for
the Teaching of Foreign Languages for the Education Department.
Tell
us a little bit about your approach to teaching language.
What I attempt to do is integrate Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences into my courses.
As Howard Gardner puts it, each person has a unique
cognitive profile. After long research and experimentation, Gardner
gave us a new definition to the word ‘intelligence’ and developed his
theory of Multiple Intelligences. When asked what he meant by saying
that the theory of Multiple Intelligences may be best understood when
we know what it critiques, Gardner replied, “The standard view of
intelligence is that intelligence is something you are born with; you
have only a certain amount of it; you cannot do much about how much of
that intelligence you have; and tests exist that can tell you how smart
you are. The theory of Multiple Intelligences asks, instead: ‘Given
what we know about the brain, evolution, and the differences in
cultures, what are the sets of human abilities we all share?’ My
analysis suggested that rather than one or two intelligences, we human
beings have several intelligences. What makes life interesting,
however, is that we don’t have the same strength in each intelligence
area, and we don’t have the same amalgam of intelligences. Just as we
look different from one another and have different kinds of
personalities, we also have different kinds of minds.”
In
other words, there are many ways of learning?
That’s right. One can be either word smart, logic smart,
self smart, people smart, music smart, body smart, or picture smart. An
individual, although possessing all seven intelligences, will usually
have developed one intelligence more than the others and be, for
example, able to use words very effectively orally or in writing and
have, therefore, a strong linguistic intelligence. Another will be said
to have a strong logical-mathematical intelligence because he/she is
sensitive to logical patterns and relationships and shows the capacity
to use numbers effectively.
And
you take these abilities into consideration when teaching language?
Yes. Integrating the concept of Multiple Intelligences
into the teaching of foreign languages is to understand the differences
among students, and to organize the curriculum around them. I use
various entry points into the content and use an amalgam of strategies,
among which each student will find at least one approach stimulating,
one that will match the strongest facet of his/her mind. “Seven kinds
of intelligence would allow seven ways to teach,” according to Gardner.
That is how I teach my classes, I respond to the ways that my students
learn best.
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 On campus, the
students who have the ability to speak another language, and who use
that language, also enrich the whole College Community. It is wonderful
to walk across our campus and pass students and faculty members
speaking freely and easily in a foreign language. It is what an
academic community should be, a place for ideas expressed in the many
languages of the world.
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What
are the benefits and value of studying a foreign language
at the College?
We know that students who have the ability to write and
speak a language in addition to English will have greater employment
opportunities, and also have richer lives. Mastery of a second language
also is another indication of an educated person. On campus, the
students who have the ability to speak another language, and who use
that language, also enrich the whole College Community. It is wonderful
to walk across our campus and pass students and faculty members
speaking freely and easily in a foreign language. It is what an
academic community should be, a place for ideas expressed in the many
languages of the world.
As a French professor, I take satisfaction in seeing
conversations that started in the language classes continue outside of
the classroom, and go beyond the particular subject matter.
I might add that in our beginning classes, all of the
students start on the same footing, and it is not uncommon to find
previously unsuccessful students doing very well.
One
of the special aspects of your Modern and Classical Languages
Department is the Bridging Cultures experience. What is this
total immersion program?
During our Bridging Cultures
course, we take our students to another country. For example, the
French Department and the Social Work Department went together to the
French-speaking country of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
From the point of view of the
French Department, our purpose was to have some of our students improve
their French, as they learned more about the culture of that country
through this cross-culture experience.
While doing this, the Social
Work students also focused on the society they found in Guadeloupe by
studying families and the community. We visited schools, spoke with
professors and students. We visited hospitals and listened to doctors
and nurses. We had a meeting with a famous Guadeloupean woman writer,
Dany Bebel-Gisler. We had the opportunity to speak with politicians,
social workers, leaders of protest groups. We spoke with people in
restaurants, shops, on the street, and on the beach, of course. All of
that in French, except for the doctor at the hospital who was very
proud to show us he could speak English. It was a wonderful experience.
We are planning a trip to Québec for Spring 2007.
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 These graduates are
using the skills they learned
at The College of New Rochelle, their knowledge of French, and also the
literatures and the cultures of the francophone world. Many of our
former students have become translators and interpreters. A few others
have gone on to careers in law, insurance, finance, business, library
science, and corporate training. We are very proud of their
achievements and frequently ask our former students to come speak at
the College...
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What
have some of your students done – in terms of careers with the foreign
languages they have learned here at The College of New Rochelle?
I can tell you about some of the career choices of many
of our French students.
A large number of them have become teachers, as well as
chairs of their departments. One former student from our department has
become a linguistic specialist in higher education. Another is a
principal of a high school. Several former students are working in
publishing and with international organizations such as the United
Nations, Cartier, the famous French watch making and jewelry company,
and Associated Press. These graduates are using the skills they learned
at The College of New Rochelle, their knowledge of French, and also the
literatures and the cultures of the francophone world. Many of our
former students have become translators and interpreters. A few others
have gone on to careers in law, insurance, finance, business, library
science, and corporate training. We are very proud of their
achievements and frequently ask our former students to come speak at
the College for our Modern and Classical Languages Colloquia and
Presidential Lectures organized by the Westchester Consortium for
International Studies to share their career experiences for the benefit
of our students.
