Report on the English and Foreign Languages (EFL) Department External Review.

Abstract

The English and Foreign Languages (EFL) Department is one of three departments within the Faculty of Arts (FOA) at the National University of Samoa (NUS). It is still the largest department in the Faculty with 18 Faculty members (12 Full time and 6 Part time staff) out of a total of 33 and delivers courses for students from all five Faculties of the University; Arts, Business & Entrepreneurship, Education, Nursing and Science and the Centre of Samoan Studies. Since 1999, the Foreign Languages component of the Department has been growing, especially with Japanese and Mandarin. Currently French is not offered even though recent discussions have been held at the Faculty level about its revival. However, since 2011 Japanese International Corporation Agents (JICA), senior and junior volunteers have ceased their involvement in teaching Japanese courses which are now localized, even though any future offerings of help in this area from JICA and Japanese lecturers would still be most welcome. We also acknowledge JICA’s support for the Annual Japanese Speech Competition for NUS. Samoa is hosting the United Nations Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference in September, 2014. These gatherings, held once every 10 years, focus on vital issues of sustainable development and signpost pathways in strategic areas for the future progress of small islands and their peoples across the globe. Along with climate change, poverty reduction, including food security together with gender equality , educational development is a critical area of concern where the National University of Samoa plays a crucial role in National Development and the EFL Department comes into focus with its offerings of specialist courses which leads to linguistic empowerment of Samoan citizens and the enhancement of its cultural capital. Participation and presentation of Conference papers at the National University of Samoa Measina and Samoa Conferences which are convened every two years is another highlight for academic staff to gain experience and professional development in this vital arena and gathering of professional practitioners in the dissemination and development of the corpus of knowledge. pg. 14 Overseas Conferences and Symposia also feature in staff profiles since the last External Review in 2005 with various members attending a Symposium at Auckland University in 2009, the University of the South Pacific in Suva in 2012, Otago University and other venues in Australia, Fiji, Vancouver, and New Zealand. The current Dean of the Faculty of Arts who is also a lecturer in the EFL Department also participated in an Applied Linguistics Conference at Victoria University, Wellington in December, 2013.