APSU hosting foreign language outreach for local students, teachers

(Posted March 15, 2019)

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – This March, the Austin Peay State University Department of Languages and Literature is promoting foreign languages within the community through two outreach events targeting local students and teachers.

On March 16, the department will host its 8th annual Foreign Language Instructor Workshop for APSU faculty and Clarksville-Montgomery County School System teachers. That event will be from 9 a.m.-noon in the campus’ Harned Hall, with nationally renowned educator Meredith White delivering the keynote address, “Weapons of Mass Instruction,” at 9:15 a.m.

“Meredith White is a star in the field of comprehensible input, and her presentation will be wonderful,” Dr. Beatrix Brockman, associate professor of German, said.

Foreign language instructors from Montgomery County, Robertson County and Tennessee Tech are scheduled to attend the event as a professional development opportunity.

Two days later, on March 18, Austin Peay will welcome foreign language high school students from across Clarksville for the department’s Modern Language Fair. This event, which is from 8-11:30 a.m. in the Morgan University Center, originally began as a competition for Spanish language learners, but the University added events for German and French students in recent years.

“High school students will present art, literature, drama, cuisine – yes, actual food – from their languages’ countries,” Brockman said. 

The department’s growing foreign languages program offers beginner and intermediate courses in classics, French, German, Greek, Latin and Spanish. The University also became one of the first in the southeast to offer classes in Japanese and Korean. For information on the program, visit https://www.apsu.edu/langlit/foreignlanguages/.