Flyers and newsletters represent an often-neglected opportunity for language departments to keep the public aware of their activities and to call attention to special language events and departmental services. With or without a university newsletter, a separate publication that describes departmental activities and shares teaching ideas is well worth the time and effort if it is mailed to all the state's language teachers and to the editors of all state foreign language newsletters. The element critical to effective use of these publications is frequency of exposure. It is important to keep the department and its programs in the public eye. Ideally, every department should be prepared to send public information teams to schools and other places on request, and to issue invitations to high school groups.
Students are always eager to receive items that bear a college or university insignia.
The chief objective of all such efforts is the maintenance and establishment of contact. If students have performed well on language placement examinations, for example, the value of congratulatory letters to students and their teachers cannot be overestimated. Modern duplicating methods put them within reach of even the most belabored departmental budget. The same information may also be effectively transmitted through a narrated slide program which can be mailed for showing anywhere on request. Most campus audiovisual personnel can offer valuable assistance in producing such materials.