Professor Jean LeLoup to Retire

05/20/2009 

Jean W. LeLoup, who has served SUNY Cortland for 16 years, will retire on Aug. 31. She has earned the designation of professor emerita of Spanish.

LeLoup is on a leave of absence from SUNY Cortland since the 2007-08 academic year to serve as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., a role she also fulfilled from 1995-96.

She taught graduate courses for SUNY Cortland in Venezuela and Costa Rica during the summer in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008.

In 2006, LeLoup was honored with a prestigious SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. In 2001, she received a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A strong and vital leader in the field of foreign language education, LeLoup has achieved recognition and respect at the state, national and international levels.

LeLoup earned her Master of Arts in Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish) from Ohio State University, a Master of Education in Counseling from University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in foreign language education from Ohio State University. After teaching high school Spanish in St. Louis, Mo., for 16 years, she joined SUNY Cortland's International Communications and Culture Department in 1993 as an assistant professor. She became a professor in 2003. 

She is permanently certified in both Spanish 7-12 and as a guidance counselor to grades 7-12. At SUNY Cortland, LeLoup taught foreign language methods courses, supervised student teachers and served as a liaison between junior and senior high schools and the College. She coordinated adolescence education in Spanish and French, graduate studies in the Department of International Communications and Culture, and the Intensive Teacher Institute for Bilingual Education and Bilingual Special Education.

A noted authority in foreign language technology and pedagogy, her published scholarship includes 10 book chapters, 18 articles in juried journals and two technology ancillaries for Holt, Rinehart and Winston Spanish textbooks. Her more recent scholarship has focused on the areas of technology and the integration of culture in the foreign language curriculum, as well as professional development for foreign language teachers. She co-authored a college textbook for Spanish at the intermediate level, ¡Anda! Curso Intermedio, scheduled for release in fall 2009 by Prentice Hall.

LeLoup has delivered keynote addresses at major conferences in the foreign language field. She has presented numerous workshops on National Standards for Foreign Language Learning, foreign language technology, foreign language pedagogy and methodology. She has presented at national and international conferences.

LeLoup has developed numerous curricular programs for her department, including a Master of Science in Education in Second Language Education, both undergraduate and graduate programs in English as a Second Language (ESL), and a combined Adolescence French and Spanish program that leads to dual NYS certification. She revised all the other teacher education programs during the 2000 NYSED re-registry process and was a key member of many teacher education committees related to the national accreditation initiative.

Engaging in a SUNY-wide initiative, she was the lead coordinator for the development of several dual diploma ESL programs with Turkey, Poland and Azerbaijan institutions. She has devoted considerable time to working jointly with representatives from Anadolu University in Turkey, Azerbaijan University of Languages in Azerbaijan, and the Pultusk School of Humanities in Pultusk, Poland on curricula; and hosted international visitors and traveled to their countries to further these ties.

In 2002, LeLoup was appointed as a board member of the Levin Institute in New York City, a SUNY campus fostering international relations.

She is a member of the College's Study Abroad Committee, its Salamanca Subcommittee, and the James M. Clark Center for International Education.

A Fulbright Scholar to Ecuador in 1986-87, LeLoup received numerous New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers Awards for service to the foreign language profession and for her outstanding articles on foreign languages. She earned its much-prized President's Award for her outstanding contribution to the profession. In 2000, she won the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Award/Faculty Development Program-Houghton Mifflin Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology. In 2006, the association honored her with its Anthony Papalia Award for Outstanding Article on Foreign Language Education for an article she co-authored with her colleague Robert Ponterio, SUNY Cortland professor and chair of the International Communications and Culture Department.

Along with Ponterio, she was awarded two national grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for "FLTEACH: A Model for Professional Development and Foreign Language Instruction." The award-winning, international listserv for teachers of foreign languages provides an invaluable venue for several thousand participants to converse on topics in foreign language teaching.

On campus, she has served as a United University Professions Academic Delegate, as a member of the Center for International Education Council, the SUNY Cortland Faculty Senate and the Fine Arts and Humanities Subdivisional Personnel Committee.

Within the profession, LeLoup has twice chaired the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages FDP-Houghton Mifflin Awards for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology Committee, and chaired or co-chaired three other statewide foreign language education post-secondary committees. She has served as a scorer for the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations, Spanish Content Specialty Tests. She was a contributing editor to "Teaching with Technology," a regular column in Learning Languages, the journal of the National Network for Early Language Learning. With Ponterio, for 12 years she co-authored a regular column, "On the Net," for the highly respected online journal Language and Technology.

LeLoup plans to continue her FLTEACH listserv collaboration with the College. She and her husband, Jeff, will live in Colorado.