The modern technology drive in the department has also included studies of the integration of computer-assisted learning into courses, according to Frommer, who will study student reaction to computer instruction at this year's Harvard Summer School.
Senior Preceptor in Psychology Scott O. Bradner, a technical expert working with Frommer, says that in the next three months he and Frommer will be "developing test programs to experiment with next year, as well as creating an environment in which instructors can write their own programs even if they have no programming experience."
Bradner stresses that computer-assisted learning remains in the testing stages and that "there is nothing implied on the part of the University to buy any equipment."
Despite the individualized nature of computer-assisted instruction, Rivers emphasizes that the department's pedagogical approach to teaching language is "interactive" among teachers and students.
"We use the communication-task approach, in which interaction and shared tasks inspire communication between students and promote a less teacher-centered environment," Rivers explains.
Downplaying the intricacies of foreign grammar, intensive courses like Spanish Bab aim to teach successful language students the first three semesters of another language in just one semester.
"I speak entirely in Spanish and demonstrate everything--I put all my life in that class," explained Senior Lecturer Hugo H. Montero, who created Spanish Bab 18 years ago, and has taught it ever since.
"Hugo stands up there like an orchestra conductor and says a sentence. Each person around the room then has to change it a little bit--it's very fast, and there's no sitting and waiting," says Mark E. Fishbein '84, who took the class in the spring and afterward received a score of 770 out of a perfect 800 on the Harvard placement exam.
"Intensive courses in the Italian section have always been very good, and now we are offering intense elementary Italian both semesters," Burzio adds.
The intensive, interactive approach to language instruction may have begun at Dartmouth College. Although Dartmouth does not offer specific courses labelled "intense," according to John A. Rassias, a professor of French at the college, professors there "have a method in which there is full participation every minute of the hour."
"There is a high level of energy as students are asked questions rapidly in succession, and the attention level is extraordinary," he explains, adding that his Rassias Method is now used at more than 200 colleges nationwide.
Rivers partially attributes the success of the Harvard curriculum overhaul to a thorough training program for all doctoral candidate teaching fellows, in which they take a full-credit class on the methodology of language teaching and practice their own techniques in a classroom situation.
Prize
At the end of each year, the department also awards a $1,000 study prize to the best teaching fellow, "It's good incentive to see that their teaching is appreciated," Rivers says.
Another reason for the program's success, according to Rivers, is its flexibility. "I believe in giving people a chance to develop their own ideas," she says, adding that the writing requirements for language courses now focus on creativity--"things people will enjoy writing and discussing with other students."
Next year the four main sections of the department will continue revamping their curricula.
The French section will offer a new concentration in French culture and civilization, which will focus on literature and language while also starting new courses in French cinema and French feminist theory, for example.
"The concentration will be highly individualized, with a focus on France--but not just on languages and literature," explains Alice A. Jardine, the assistant professor in charge of the new concentration.
The Spanish section will introduce its "Spanish for Business" course, while Burzio says the Italian section will work on promoting its enrollment-starved intermediate level course.
Moniz adds that the Portuguese section may begin translating computer software already on the market into Portugese but that it will not offer any Portugese intensive course next year