The Pilot
Wednesday, September 30,1998
Page 5
New professor speaks the language
Angela D. Sanders
special to the Pilot
Gardner-Webb
University has a new faculty
member that had to learn
English as a foreign lan
guage.
Nathalie Davaut, the new
french professor in the
Department of Foreign
Languages, is from Issy-les-
Moulineaux, a town of about
50,000 people just outside of
Paris, France.
When asked what attract
ed her to Gardner-Webb
University, she said that the
“nice, Christian atmosphere”
was an important contribut
ing factor. Her previous job
was at a school which was
“quite secular.”
“I was looking for a more
Blevins offers international
view for Gardner-Webb
Suzanna Saadi
Pilot staff
Re-entering American
culture again for the first time
in the past 15 years, new reli
gion professor Dr. Kent
Blevins and his family face
new challenges, goals and
environment.
Before coming to
Gardner-Webb, Blevins was
a professor for three years at
the International Baptist
Theological Seminary in
Prague in the Czech
Republic. Prior to that he
was a professor in Portugal at
the Portugese Baptist
Theological Seminary.
In addition to his teach
ing position in Portugal,
Blevins also pastored two
Portugese-speaking churches
during his 12-year stay,
which began in 1983.
Blevins earned a B.A. at
Wake Forest University. He
received a M.Div. and a
Ph.D. in ethics from
Southern Baptist Theological
Sem-inary.
According to Blevins, he
loves, “seeing new places,
new sights, new cultures - it’s
interesting.”
Blevins’ wife, Debbie,
shares his view in that she.
“loves contacts with students
and people” as she and their
three children Nicholas, 14,
Jessica, 12, and Timothy, 7,
have traveled with him inter
nationally.
Debbie currently works
for Melvin Lutz in the office
of academic advising.
In light of the change of
scene and challenge of being
a professor at Gardner-Webb,
Blevins likes the area and
people of his new workplace
and hopes to “open windows
and different perspectives”
for students from what he has
learned both in study and
abroad.
ar
YOTS
n
Presents
Apocalypse
Now
A Francis Ford Coppola, movie
October 7
7:30 p.m.
111 Communication Studies Hail
religious atmosphere,”
Davaut said.
She has taught in both
small and large universities
and likes the small university
setting better because “you
get to have a more personal
relationship with your stu
dents.”
Ms. Davaut uses a teach
ing style which has been used
for years at other universities.
It is called the communica
tive approach. This technique
involves frequent use of the
target language. English is
rarely spoken in Davaut’s
class discussions except to
possibly explain a concept.
This encourages the students
to leam quickly because of
the frequent use of the lan
guage.
Interaction among the
students is very important to
Davaut. She tries to commu
nicate with her students by
asking them to “relate things
to their personal lives.” Ms.
Davaut believes the fact that
she is from France is a defi
nite plus for her students.
Because she is familiar with
the area and the culture, “it
helps make the learning
process more exciting for
students.”
“Teaching is not just a
job to me, it’s a
passion,”Davaut said.
Students’ studies at
school and their development
as people is important to her.
“I realize that college is a
huge transition for most stu
dents.”
Family and friends are
very important to her, also.
Her parents and brother are
home in Issy-les-
Moulineaux. “It’s always a
pleasure to visit them. It’s not
enough to just talk on the
phone or write.”
She loves to travel but
noted that she doesn’t have as
much time to travel as she
would like. She’s seen many
places in the United States,
but wishes she had more time
to travel abroad. She also
likes to listen to music in her
spare time. However, her
favorite hobby is reading.
She said, “if I don’t read for
more than a week. I’ll get
sick.”
Davaut wants her stu
dents to know that she’s
available if they need to talk
to her. Students can receive
help both inside and outside
the classroom. She said, “I
love helping people out.”
YOTS lecture to
feature Parker
Brooke Buchanan
Pilot staff
On Wednesday, Oct. 14,
at 7 p.m. in the Hamrick audi
torium, Dr. David Parker will
be conducting a Year of the
Scholar lecture concerning
medieval London and his
upcoming academic book
Commonplace.
Commonplace is about
books written in England dur
ing the Middle Ages and
Renaissance period by com
mon people. These books
contained things such as
recipes, religious stories and
prayers. Sometimes there
were even books on opinions
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of politics, religion and also
on what was happening at the
time.
Along with the descrip
tion and literary analysis of
the text. Dr. Parker looks at
what the authors reveal about
the people, places and times
of the 1400-1500.
Since the books were
written before the printing
press was invented, people
had to make and print the
book themselves or pay a
large sum of money to do it
for them. Either way, all of
the books were done by hand.
Dr. Parker received spe
cial training on how to read
these hard-to-read texts dur
ing graduate school that
would help him in his
research for Commonplace.
Commonplace is sched
uled to be published by
March 1999. It will only be
available to college libraries
and to certain medievalist
who are interested in the sub
ject.