Using Student zyx Expectations and Perceived Needs to Rethink Pedagogy and zy Curriculum: A zyx Case Study* zyx Ali AIalou Columbia University Elizabeth Chamberlain Dartmouth College zyxw ABSTRACT Because the mission zyxwv of language departments in large research universities was traditionally the training of graduate students in literary analysis, less attention zy was devoted to the teaching of lower level language courses. Recently, however, revitalizing language pre grams has become a major concern for many departments. This study discusses a case of such revitalization at a major metropolitan university. The paper presents results of a pilot study aimed at assessing students' needs and redefining the goals and objectives of a traditional French language program. Introduction zyxwv Traditionally, language departments in large research universities have seen as their mis- sion the training of graduate students in liter- ary analysis, and have given less attention to the teaching and training of teachers of the undergraduate language courses. Recently, however, basic undergraduate education has come under increased scrutiny. More atten- tion has been devoted to the renewal and en- hancement of the undergraduate curriculum (Columbia Universiry Record 1996; Branch 1998), and-because of both shifts in student enrollment patterns and budgetary con- straints-revitalizing language programs has become a major concern of foreign language (FL) departments. zyxwvu As a consequence, change has become a necessity: While traditional FL departments are working toward designing curricula which better meet their student needs (Chaput 1993), institutions are prepar- Ali Alalou (Ph.D. University of California, Davis) is Assistant Professor of French and Director of the French Language Program at Columbia University. Elizabeth A. Chamberlain (Ph.D. Columbia University) is Research Assistant Professor and the Spanish Language Coordinator at Dartmouth College. ing to better coordinate FL instruction on a campus-wide basis (Branch 1998; McAlpine 1 998). Because of the variety of issues affecting FL instruction, meeting student needs is a well- known challenge, particularly in a general ed- ucation context. In fact, as Richterich (1983) suggests, it is not at all obvious that outcomes will match what students perceive as their needs. Having an idea of what students ex- pect, however, helps make informed deci- sions. The present report has several objectives: (1) to sum up the results of a pilot study aimed at assessing student needs in a French lan- guage program at a major metropolitan re- search institution in which the language program is currently being restructured; (2) to compare the needs of these students to those of others surveyed elsewhere; and (3) to out- line future goals of the designated French lan- guage program by addressing the issues of program revitalization through needs assess- ment. The report uses data from three sources: (1) a survey of students enrolled in a sampling of courses taught by the participating French lan- guage program; (2) meetings and interviews conducted with the faculty, the staff, univer- Foreign Language Annals, 32, No. 1, 1999