Books & Book Chapters

Enrollments in French programs have steadily declined in the past few decades and continue to do so in a post-COVID world. As many institutions scramble to find quick and easy ways to recruit and retain students it has now become the job of individual departments to fight this same battle for their survival. This chapter argues for the usage of the Four-Frames Model (Bolman & Deal, 2020) as an approach to revamping French departments to ensure their longevity and relevance to the changing nature of work and the technology and proficiency-based expectations of the students.

Citation: Parker, J.L. & Threeton, T. L. (2024). Reframing French Education for the Future. In J. L. Parker & A. Saleh. The International Handbook of French Education. Star Scholars Network. https://press.starscholars.org/press/catalog/book/61/chapter/94

The following chapter presents an argument for reconceptualizing the teaching and learning of French in a Critical Multicultural framework (Banks, 2019). Previous research (Parker, 2020) on the topic has suggested that language classrooms are prime for such an approach as teachers aim for more effective practices that ensure all students can succeed. In re-envisioning the possibilities of the teaching of French through such a lens, this chapter offers teachers a holistic systematic approach to revamping French education to fit the needs of their diverse groups of learners.

Citation: Parker, J.L. (2024). Revolutionizing French Education through Critical Multicultural Education. In J. L. Parker & A. Saleh. The International Handbook of French Education. Star Scholars Network. https://press.starscholars.org/press/catalog/book/61/chapter/99

The current chapter seeks to contribute to the conversation by presenting the findings of three surveys of students’ motivation and attitudes toward world languages. Specifically, survey one details students’ motivations to take a world language. Survey two presents students’ attitudes toward their world language courses. Survey three captures STEM majors’ attitudes toward world language courses. Through understanding the world language experience from these perspectives, the findings of this study help guide curriculum leaders in their future decision-making as it relates to program offerings and the future possibilities of world language programs going forward.

Citation: Parker, J.L. & Smith, Y.C. (2023). Curriculum Leadership in Undergraduate World Language Programs. In K. Stein-Smith (Ed). The Importance of Learning a Second Language: Essays on Re-envisioning Foreign Language Education. Edwin Mellen Press

Conversations on race in America are hard. Regardless of background, environment, and beliefs, toward race, racism, prejudice based on race, implicit bias, systemic racism, and social injustice these conversations carry what I find to be a burden of defining. This burden includes the duty of defining one’s position on race, defining one’s boundaries on what is acceptable to say about race, and defining what constitutes a racist from an individual who has unique experiences. In this chapter, I seek to expand the conversation into foreign languages. Specifically, I take a unique approach by focusing on my experience in relation to learning French as an African American male second language learner living in Louisiana.

Citation: Parker, J.L. (2022). Speaking from the Margins of the Margin: An African American Perspective on Learning French in Louisiana. In Stein-Smith, K. & F. Jaumont (Eds). French All Around Us: French Language and Francophone Culture in the United States. TBR Books.

Frank, E., Huebener, E., Acosta Cuellar, H., Feldman, Y., Matus, I., Parker, J.L., Delgado, C., and Farudi, G. (2022). Libro Libro: An Introduction to Spanish I. Pressbooks. 

Frank, E., Huebener, E., Acosta Cuellar, H., Delgado, C., Farudi, G., Feldman, Y., Matus, I., Parker, J.L. (2022). Libro Libro: An Introduction to Spanish I and II. Pressbooks.