We believe that we have a lot to offer, for example, to business students who want to work with Chinese companies, or to architecture students who wish to do a co-op in Paris, or to engineers who plan to study in Germany. We want to cultivate connections across campus and to make the learning of languages more relevant to students who are majoring in various fields. My colleagues in the Center and I are also eager to make the Center more visible. In addition, I would like the Center to develop new courses that focus on helping students develop deeper understandings of target cultures and, at the same time, helping them to improve their language skills. “We want to cultivate connections across campus and to make the learning of languages more relevant to students who are majoring in various fields.” – Stacey Bourns

Over the next five years, I would like to see the World Languages Center develop more computer-based teaching resources, including additional hybrid and online courses, as well as “language maintenance” resources to help students sustain their language skills while they are away from campus for any reason (co-ops, etc.). What are your plans for the center and what would you like it to look like in five years’ time? You’ve assumed the role of director of the World Languages Center. The following is a Q&A with Professor Bourns about the World Languages Center, its role at Northeastern, and learning a new language. written French, and information structure.

Her research and publications have focused on grammar pedagogy, TA training, the role of applied linguists in language departments, sociolinguistics, spoken vs. Before teaching at Harvard, she was an associate professor of French and the coordinator of the French Language Program at the University of Utah. Bourns, who is also professor in the Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies, comes to Northeastern from Harvard University, where she was the director of language programs in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures since 2009. Dean Uta Poiger appointed Stacey Katz Bourns as director of the World Languages Center this summer.

Daughter of the Earth by Stacy Bourns