Last Friday, University of Idaho’s Department of Modern Language and Culture celebrated the opening of their newest student resource — the MLC Cafe.
The cafe, aiming to offer a new take on a language learning lab, remains in Room 320 of the Administration Building, but with new decor and a fresh coat of light blue paint.
Posters in a variety of languages cover the walls, and a variety of seating options, including couches, cafe-style chairs and buoy chairs, adorn the room.
Similar to a traditional language learning lab, the cafe also offers technological assistance. Computers, a scanner and a large interactive screen are available for student use, as well as print, audio and visual media.
Rachel Halverson, MLC department chair and German professor, said she encourages language professors to bring their students to the cafe during class time. She also welcomes students use the space to hang out, study and practice their language skills.
Halverson said it will be staffed with upper division language student tutors by the end of the semester.
Rachel Halverson | Courtesy
The MLC department has been working on this project for several months. In the spring of 2017, a committee of faculty from MLC evaluated how they were using their space in an effort to see if they could provide a more welcoming place for their students.
“I came to U of I in the fall of 2016,” Halverson said. “When I started meeting with colleagues in other departments, I saw that they had spaces for their students to meet … I wished we had that kind of space for our students here in Modern Languages and Cultures.”
Lori Celaya, UI Spanish professor, said she saw a presentation about a foreign language cafe at a conference and brought the idea back to MLC.
Cafes are important parts of society in Spanish, French and German-speaking countries, so a cafe seemed like a perfect setting for an experiential learning classroom, Halverson said.
Celaya and other faculty members painted Room 320 in 2017, transforming the old language lab into a more welcoming space.
Heidi Spangenberg, UI facilities planner and interior designer, helped by finding furniture for the space that would encourage student interaction.
One popular feature among those who have already explored the space are the buoy chairs. They can be raised or lowered like office chairs, but they look like ottomans and move like yoga balls.
“I’ve already had my German 307 students in there. They love the buoy chairs,” Halverson said. “When you’re laughing and having fun, the inhibitions drop by the wayside and you’re more apt to use the language (you’re learning).”
Sarah Nelson, a UI French professor, worked with Celaya and Anne Zabala, UI’s annual giving program coordinator, to fund the project. Halverson credited these faculty members with setting up the project’s crowdfunding campaign.
“We were a little naive when we set out to do this,” Halverson said. “You can’t just spend money on furniture the way you want to. There are university policies. There are rules about vendors that you need to use if you have a budget over a certain amount. There are rules about fire code and room capacity … It took a year longer than we thought it would take, but it is far better than if we would have gone to the Goodwill and bought old sofas.”
Halverson said she hopes the MLC Cafe will help give students a more natural way to learn their chosen language. Conversation with other people allows people to experience non-structured communication, which will help them if they decide to study abroad, she said.
“I want to be able to walk down the hall every day and see students in there using that space,” Halverson said. “I want our students to be up here, I want them to be using it to study, to meet with their friends who are studying languages … During this advising period coming up, I want to see students in there waiting to talk to their adviser … I want to see activity in there.”