Blended learning and disciplinarity: negotiating connections in French Studies in regional universities

Abstract

In this article, we outline the challenges facing French Studies in regional Australian universities resulting from an increasingly vocational curriculum and doubts about the cost-effectiveness of language learning in higher education. These pressures have resulted in a process of discipline restructuring and significant cuts in the numbers of staff teaching French Studies. The other major consequence outlined is the dislocation that has taken place in the link between teaching and research as academics with interests in the traditional aspects of French Studies have found their roles restricted to the delivery of low-level communicative language classes. Despite these considerable challenges, we offer a hint of optimism to colleagues in the discipline based on evidence from an increasing body of research into the impact of approaches to language teaching that combine traditional face-to-face instruction and online learning. In our opinion, this blended approach offers French Studies in the regions, not to mention other language disciplines, an opportunity to address the efficiency agenda and, at the same time, help to rebuild disciplinary breadth by re-establishing the link between teaching and research.

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