The University of Saint Louis Foreign Language Program: Introspections and Realizations

his study was meant to present an evaluation of the delivery of the University of Saint-Louis’ Foreign Language Program-Mandarin Chinese. Using descriptive research design,  coupled with focus group discussion with the students in total enumeration, data along the different aspects of the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese, was ascertained using a developed and validated questionnaire. The student-respondents have evaluated the following areas: 1.Objectives of the Lesson/Course 2) Lesson Strategies 3) Lesson Assessments 4) Student Engagement 5) Learning Resources and Environment 5) Classroom Management 6) Outcomes. Moreover, the grades of the students along two major assessments-oral and written were also looked into to validate the perceptions of students along outcomes. In addition, a structured interview with the teachers was also conducted to provide furtherinformation.Looking within, data gathered and analyzed reveals that the University’s Foreign Language Program with the offering of Mandarin Chinese is generally very satisfactory along all areas evaluated. The oral and written examination results as reflected in the grades of the  students show that the students have gained adequate skills in both oral and written Mandarin Chinese, although among all areas, it’s thewritten Mandarin that got the lowest mean rating among all items under “outcomes”.From the foregoing, realizations have been made that while the evaluation is generally verysatisfactory using the scale, there is a need for the University to look into specific items under the majorareas by way of designing intervention programs to further improve the delivery of the current foreignlanguage program to its students. Moreover, an in-depth study of the same can be expanded to otherclasses delivered by Filipino professors.

Keywords: Foreign Language Program, Mandarin Chinese, Evaluation of Language teaching andlearning, Outcomes in Language teaching and Learning