By Kira Taniguchi

As Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies for eight years and chair of Slavic and Eurasian studies for four years, Garza is no stranger to talking with students about their language learning experiences. Fed up with the disappointment in the lack of language proficiency evident in many of his undergraduate students at the end of their language studies, Garza knew the way students traditionally learn one of the 34 languages taught at the University needed to change.

“That frustration, about spending that much time on task, and not being able to do something with it, is something we don’t tolerate in too many of our disciplines,” Garza said.

The seed for the Texas Language Center sprouted in a consortium called the Language Policy Advisory Committee, formerly known as the Language Pedagogy Advisory Committee. The group consisted of language specialists from all eight language departments at UT who consulted with Senior Associate Dean Richard Flores, head of the LPAC , about how to improve the language program at the University.

By spring 2008, the committee was looking at recommendations in a Modern Language Association report. The last big recommendation found in the report expressed the need for a language center to “develop a forum for the exchange of ideas and expertise among language instructors from all departments.” Thus, the idea for the Texas Language Center was born.

“2008 was still what I would call good times at UT,” Garza said. “We were hiring a lot, we were expanding, we were teaching 35 languages at UT on a regular basis — I was really pleased.”

Then came summer of ’09, when talk of budget cuts began to circulate. Already operating on a slim budget, liberal arts was faced with a tough decision because the Texas Language Center was still not fully operational. Amidst the rumors of budget cuts, Garza was in talks about leaving his post with Slavic languages to assume the new role as director of the center. When budget cuts came down, cutting the language requirement was the first thing put on the table as a potential way to save money.

“It’s true, if we got rid of the language requirement, we would save a lot of money, we would also gut a lot of what liberal arts stands for,” Garza said. “So there was an outcry here [in liberal arts].”

Talks of cutting the language requirement eventually fizzled out, but misunderstandings about the language center did not. The development of the center which happened during a time when the dean’s office wanted to cut the language requirement bred skepticism about the center. Before the center’s opening in fall 2009, rumors were still swirling that the language center might somehow cause the undoing of UT’s entire language program.

“There was no question, we were viewed, in my opinion, from the outset, as an extension of the dean’s office,” Garza said. “We were created by the dean’s office, but we weren’t created as an extension of the dean’s office. I’ve spent almost all of this year trying to undo that perception.”

The Texas Language Center officially opened Sept. 1, 2009. It is not an official University department — it has no faculty and it does not offer courses or degrees — but the center does have a large number of affiliated faculty who teach language. But Garza said they are only affiliated to the extent that they receive the newsletters and bulletins sent out by the center.

“The Texas Language Center is here to help the language arts mission in the College of Liberal Arts,” Garza said.

So what exactly does the Texas Language Center do?

To Orlando Kelm, associate director of Business Language Education, one of the most important tasks of the center is to share information across various language departments at UT.

“Traditionally language departments live pretty independently from one another — great ideas from one department don’t always get passed on to other language departments,” Kelm said. “TLC serves as a sort of clearing house.”

One of Garza’s main goals for the Texas Language Center is to move beyond the way language is traditionally taught, especially since languages are playing a more important role than ever in 21st century economies. Right now, while UT’s language requirement differs from college to college, there is a two-year language requirement  for liberal arts, which Garza said is considered to be on the high end by other universities.

A two-year introduction does not help the student achieve the amount of proficiency needed to get a job Garza said. So the center is exploring ways to intensify the language experience at the University.

“So that in that two-year period, we can actually get more useful material out to our students, and to try to make it more effective so they can actually do more with the minimum requirement we offer,” Garza said.

This would mean changes in the way students traditionally learn languages. Garza believes class time should involve face-to-face interaction utilizing the language, rather than learning grammar and vocabulary from a textbook for 50 minutes. All of the grammar and vocabulary would be relegated to a computer program, which students would learn at home in order to dedicate more time to speaking the language in class.

These new intensive courses are being taught on a new cycle called the “six, six” model. “We will do six hours for one semester, six hours for a second semester,” Garza said. “The student will understand when she comes in, that she is in for a lot of work outside of class.”

Since the Internet offers material in every language in the world, it a resource at the students’ fingertips. Garza said he wants students reading online newspapers and participating in foreign language social networking sites in languages they are studying. The idea behind this is to immerse students in the language as much as possible right in their own dorm rooms.

The idea is to get the student to move beyond simply fulfilling a two-year language requirement. The center wants students to leave their language program with a language proficiency that enables them to have careers in other parts of the world.

“We are going to do all that we can to try to give you an immersion experience in a year that would fulfill the foreign language requirement, but actually get you to a functional level of proficiency that we think means something in a foreign language learning environment,” Garza said.

This means enticing students before they even arrive on UT’s campus their freshman year. Garza hopes to place younger students in upper division language classes, and get them more interested in language by offering study abroad opportunities if they fulfill certain requirements. Garza also hopes to implement courses on contemporary culture and cinema that students can utilize when they go abroad.

All of this work serves one ultimate goal: for graduating Longhorns to be hired by professional organizations because they can move to another country and function there as a result of the language program at UT. Garza said UT is moving past simple tourist knowledge of languages toward professional competence.

“The fact of the matter is thanks largely to the Internet and to a shrinking world because of the opportunities and availability of travel, and the ability to connect with our partners abroad, ” Garza said. “And to be part of that world, in my view, simply requires knowledge of language that goes beyond the traditional — to getting where students can really do something about it.”