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The English Department acknowledges that it must provide training in a variety of cognitive skills including analyzing, synthesizing, speaking, listening, reading, evaluating, and appreciating language for itself. The English Department acknowledges that the primary means to achieve intellectual development in these fields is through the teaching of specific writing skills (such as paragraph and essay formation, rhetorical strategies, and the mastery of grammatical and mechanical competencies) and the critical reading of a wide variety of texts, both print and non-print. Thus, the English Department recognizes that in order to teach students to write effectively, it must also instruct students in other related skills: how to read a written text critically (textual reception) and how to write effective and successful texts of their own (textual production); how to respond to the challenges of understanding non-print texts (such as charts, maps, films, and advertisements); how to compose with an eye to clarity, logic, and the conventional requirements of the typical (non-specialist) reader; how to become sensitive to the varieties of English usage; how to appreciate both the cultures of the American experience and those of other peoples in a way that manifests respect and inclusiveness.

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In order to achieve this expansive and inclusive agenda, the English Department is committed to providing service to the University's students through a thorough program in basic composing skills as well as the opportunity to take language courses in a variety of forms. To this end, all full-time members of the English Department participate in initial writing assessment and placement; all full-time members teach courses specifically designated as writing courses. As a matter of department policy, all writing textbooks used in courses are culturally diverse, being inclusive in content and editorial attitude and sensitive to matters of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and culture. In order to provide the student with the tools for independent and critical appreciation of print and non-print texts, the department intentionally assigns class work with the help of some of the following sources: tutoring facilities in The Center for Academic and Personal Support, the campus Library (and other off-campus facilities), computer technology, Internet instruction, participation in Arts and Ideas events, Windows (the University undergraduate literary publication), writing portfolios and qualifying examinations, off-campus theatrical performances, films, and poetry readings.

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The English department faculty deliberately select texts that respect the vision suggested by authors whose gender, race, ethnicity, class, and culture may be markedly different from the reader's. Texts are examined to identify the assumptions that produced them, as well as the assumptions that readers bring to them. Overall, the department seeks to expand students' awareness of cultures beyond the Western and actively promote intercultural awareness. In the second category, the department seeks to foster an aesthetic sensitivity, to help students arrive at a consideration of literary value. Thus, texts are examined to reveal aspects of craft and form, especially in terms of artistic power. In discussing literary texts, the department is sensitive to changing understanding of the field of English Studies and is guided by an awareness of the current practices and courses taught elsewhere.

In addition to promoting a study of literature, the English Department accepts the
notion that texts can take many forms. In support of the position held by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the department strives to promote literacy in the realm of non-print and electronic media. Since much contemporary culture is devoted to visual images rather than print, the department seeks to assist students in developing a sophisticated awareness and response to emerging art forms, especially film and the Internet. Just as with literature, the department holds that media must be understood in terms of message, form and craft. Likewise, with the ready adoption of electronic sources of information, the department wishes students to be critical and self-aware users, rather than mere passive recipients of information. Courses stress the ability to interpret and evaluate sources and producers of information.

In teaching texts, whether print or non-print, the department strives to incorporate theoretical understanding, employing many different approaches to the study of text. Using models based on New Critical, Structural, Post-structural, and Reader Response assumptions, the department attempts to foster an intellectual engagement which enriches the students' understanding of text and which takes them from private discourse into public discourse which occurs about literature. Throughout its coursework, the department seeks to integrate the scholarship of critics with that of student commentary, to foster an understanding of literary tradition and culture.

Finally, the department seeks to expand the students' awareness of the English language and its development over time. While the concerns for language acquisition, phonology, socio-linguistics and other aspects of language are addressed primarily in Linguistics, the department also includes the discussion of language concerns in composition instruction. There sensitivity for language use, especially the connotative value of individual expression, is stressed, as is the concern for language and its rhetorical structure. The English department cherishes the intrinsic structures of the English tongue as well as its beauty. The Department recognizes the historical phenomena which produced Modern English as well as the role of English in today's world community. While recognizing the practical reasons for learning how to write and speak English fluently, the Department also honors its history and development and its unique place among modem languages as a rich depository of words and sounds from every major international tongue.

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In teaching literature and language, the English Department employs many forms of pedagogy, especially those that support the institutional emphasis on student learning. In writing, the department recognizes the effectiveness of many elements of the Writing Process model: drafting and revising in text production, portfolio assessment for evaluation. Interactive models of instruction include the workshop, small and large group discussion, oral and electronic presentations and the like. Although individual instructors are at liberty to design the mix of instructional modes, the department as a whole supports any instructional model that is theoretically sound and attempts to address the varieties of student learning. No one system of instruction is more highly valued than another. Instead, the appropriateness of subject matter and teaching strategy is always the determining factor in organizing class syllabi and class interaction.

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All faculty are expected to maintain professional membership in organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and Modem Language Association (MLA) as well as other appropriate groups. Faculty are expected to attend local, regional and national meetings of these organizations and to share the understanding that results from those associations with other instructors, and especially with their students through the adoption of new and innovative teaching strategy. In addition, the department strives whenever possible to maintain associations with local area schools and to promote a collegial association with them in sponsoring in-service events and other programs. In addition, whenever possible, individual faculty are encouraged to maintain a scholarly agenda. That may take the form of formal conference presentations or publications, but it may also take the form of informal in-services presented to the English Department or faculty at large. For example, through the Faculty Development Program, English faculty has invited writing experts to campus to address models of writing across the curriculum.

In addition the faculty are expected to organize and execute Arts and Ideas projects, to invite Scholars to contract for special inter-disciplinary activities, to volunteer for faculty standing committees, to participate in University-wide task forces, retreats, special events, and recreational activities, to demonstrate support for student events (for instance, athletics, theatrical and musical performances, liturgies). Overall, the department extends its teaching through much non-curricular involvement and by serving as role models of teaching and faculty life to the community at large. Using an applied knowledge model, the department imparts the value of literary understanding into everyday life.

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In anticipation of undergraduate and graduate needs, the English Department is considering expanding the teaching of writing into its own course of study. The Department is considering revising the tracks beyond those listed in the 1998-2000 catalogue. The Department has already understood the need to provide English as a Second Language instruction to a growing number of international students at the University. The English Department has requested that the number of students in remedial classes be limited to fifteen so that more personal attention can be given to each student and that all students take at least one semester of computer-assisted writing (College Writing 1). Currently the Department is engaged in a serious review of departmental structure, curriculum, and resources.

In addition, the English Department cooperates with the Education Department in formulating new strategies for teaching in elementary and secondary schools and in the community itself The Department is currently under review by NCATE and anticipates a site visit in Fall 1999. In response to the NCATE review, the Department has made changes in the content of the English Education curriculum to accommodate the changing demands in US middle and secondary schools.

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