Multilingual Teaching in an American Advertising Course: Implementation and Assessment

AbstractThis case study explores the use of multiple languages within a large Advertising Principles course in a US university. Course support materials-slides and syllabi-were provided in two languages, English and Chinese. Acceptance was measured through an online survey. Behavioral outcomes were measured through classroom observations and test score analysis. Acceptance was high among both international and domestic students. Compared to a prior semester, attention to classroom activities and adherence to course rules increased among international students, while attendance and test scores remained unchanged. Implications for advertising and journalism education are discussed.More International Students, But Not In Our ProgramsThe number of international students studying at the undergraduate level in American universities continues to increase. For the 2010-11 academic year, nearly 300,000 undergrads were studying in the United States, an increase of 6.2% from the prior academic year. The largest year-over-year growth rate is that of undergraduate students from China. Nearly 57,000 undergraduates in 2010-11 were from the People's Republic of China, and another 12,000 were from other Chinese-speaking countries, an increase of over 42% from the prior academic year (Institute of International Education, 20 1 1 ).International students are seen by educational institutions as a financial resource that pay higher out-of-state tuition rates and receive a smaller number of scholarships than domestic students (Lewin, 2012). However, a growing number of international students arrive with limited English-language skills, and initially are unready for full-scale immersion in American undergraduate classrooms (Bartlett & Fischer, 2011).Co-incident with the increase of international undergraduate students in American universities is the growth of advertising and journalism in the home countries of many of those students. Consensus projections are that the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China-will continue to experience double-digit growth in year-over-year advertising spending, in contrast to the projected U.S. advertising spending increases of 3-4% (Young & Clift, 2012). The growth is not limited to advertising. While newspaper circulation and revenue continue to decline in the U.S. and parts of Europe, the BRIC countries have shown year-over-year increases in newspaper circulation and revenue since 2007 (WAN-IFRA, 201 1).The increase in the number of international students and the growth of journalism and advertising in some of those students' home countries have not been accompanied by a rising undergraduate international enrollment in journalism and advertising programs in the U.S. The percentage of international undergraduates attending four-year universities has risen to 3% of the overall undergraduate population (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2011). However, the most recent survey of journalism and mass communication programs reports that only 1.5% of all undergraduate majors in journalism and mass communication programs are international students (Vlad, Becker & Kazragis, 201 1), and that percentage has remained essentially unchanged for many years. The reasons for the under-representation of international students in journalism and mass communication undergraduate programs are unknown. However, about a third of all journalism and mass communication programs in the United States require domestic and international students to pass an English grammar and spelling test for admission to the program (John & et al., 1991; Oukrop, Brown & Parsons, 1998). The test is in addition to the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test that is required of many international students for university admission. It is reasonable to suspect that English proficiency tests create barriers to entry for non-English speaking students.The rise in the number of international students, coincident with the growth of advertising and journalism in parts of the world, presents an opportunity and challenge to journalism and mass communication educators in the United States. …