Dana Grant Given for Language Program

The College will initiate a program to improve language and cultural instruction at liberal arts colleges. A $485,000 Charles A. Dana Foundation Grant will support a three-year collaborative program that will bring more than 50 faculty members from private four-year colleges to Dartmouth to learn the Rassias method of language instruction developed by Dartmouth profes- sor John A. Rassias. The visiting faculty will refine and adapt the Rassias method to different institutional settings.

"A collaborative operation of this kind is crucial to this country's ability to communicate effectively with the rest of the world," said Rassias. "Our nation's dangerously inadequate understanding of world affairs has its roots in our scandalous incompetence in foreign langauges. Critical to any improvement of this intolerable situation is an urgent need for better-trained teachers and for extensive retraining of those already serving in the classroom."

The Dartmouth collaborative team will address problems such as lack of effective teaching materials, dull and unimaginative teaching methodologies, and too few opportunities for faculty members to enhance their language ability.