Missouri State University’s Jeff Loughary, senior instructor in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Religions, participated in a Fulbright-Hays Group Project in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Africa, in July and August 2025.

As one of only 14 selected, Loughary joined other high school and university educators in collaboration with the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). Approximately 90 educators applied for the project.

During their four-week stay at the Université de San-Pedro in Côte d’Ivoire, the group developed French lessons, wrote exam questions and learned more about Côte d’Ivoire society. The team collected resources and developed K-16 French curricular units and engaged in educational workshops. They will make their work available to all teachers of French at no charge on AATF’s website.

Focus on regional language of Nouchi

For his research and curriculum development project, Loughary concentrated on Nouchi, which he described as a popular slang used throughout Côte d’Ivoire society.

“I created an Integrated Performance Assessment to evaluate students’ communication across three modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational,” he explained. His findings will “help students make cultural comparisons between the languages they are studying and the languages they use in their daily lives.”

Loughary also collected resources and wrote questions for the National French exam.

Developing specific learning outcomes

Developing curricula involves identifying key questions, lesson objectives and outcomes that students should be able to address. Loughary’s project encourages students to examine how languages emerge and evolve to meet a variety of communication needs, he said. Another aspect of the lessons includes understanding the role language plays in shaping and expressing multilingual cultural identities. Finally, students will understand how different contexts influence language choices.

Students should also be able to compare Nouchi to other slang or language mixing, Loughary noted. They will compare their own language experiences to what they learned about Nouchi and communicate their observations about informal language, such as through writing a blog post.

Meanwhile, some of the questions Loughary developed for the National French exam focused on different ethnic groups of Côte d’Ivoire.

“Students are provided with a brief reading that includes a map and data table describing the number of speakers of each regional language divided by ethnic group,” he explained. “Students then have a series of questions to answer related to the source reading. All questions and answers are in French.”

From teacher to student to teacher again

Loughary also relived the student experience by taking classes in Bambara, a regional language.

“This experience allowed me to remember what language learning is like for my students who are learning French for the first time,” he said. “There was a lot I didn’t understand at the beginning, and I made a lot of mistakes, but it was rewarding to experience language learning as a student again.”

The Fulbright group also took time to immerse themselves in Côte d’Ivoire culture. They visited sea turtle habitats, learned about local industries such as cocoa plantations and visited national parks. They also toured the economic capital of Abidjan and the political capital of Yamoussoukro.

Modeling Missouri State’s public affairs mission

Loughary believes his experience reinforces all three of Missouri State’s public affairs pillars. As a citizen representing the United States, he noted, he reflected ethical leadership. Seeing the world from different viewpoints embraces cultural competence.

“Travel is vital to cultural competence,” he said. “By visiting a new place, I was able to see new examples of what leadership looks like and learn from the experience.”

Community engagement, he said, was natural since he stayed for four weeks. This extended time period allowed him to connect with others, working “side-by-side with new friends and colleagues.”

Lifelong lessons and new friends

The most important moments of the experience involved speaking to the people he met, Loughary said.

“Now, I have many new friends in Côte d’Ivoire, some of whom will collaborate with me on professional projects in the future,” he added.

Experiencing the many different cultures living within Côte d’Ivoire society made an impression as well.

“Everyone I spoke to had questions about the United States and told me it was ‘the country of dreams’ for all Ivorians,” he said. He described mosques and churches throughout the towns and villages co-existing peacefully.

“We spent time visiting both, and each side referred to the other as ‘our dear brothers,’” he said. “It was a beautiful example of living side by side in harmony.”

Loughary plans to recount his experience to his students to motivate and inspire them.

“Being able to travel and bring those memories to my students will hopefully inspire them not to be afraid of visiting new places off the beaten track,” he said. “My students will learn about new places and hear new vocabulary that is not often emphasized in our curriculum.”

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