News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 1/6/04   Click on image for publication quality photo KNIGHT IN THE ORDER OF ACADEMIC PALMS – Patrick Rolot, Consul General of France in New Orleans and members of her family toast Southeastern Louisiana University foreign languages professor Margaret Marshall following her recent decoration as a “Knight in the Order of Academic Palms” by the French government. From left, are Marshall’s husband, Skip Paul, daughter Audrey Paul, son Christopher Paul, Marshall and Rolot. SOUTHEASTERN’S MARGARET MARSHALL HONORED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO FRENCH LANGUAGE       HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University foreign languages professor Margaret Marshall has been honored by the French government for “outstanding contributions to the spread of French language and culture in the world.”       In a ceremony at the home of the Consul General of France Patrick Rolot in New Orleans, Marshall was decorated as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (“Knight in the Order of Academic Palms”) by the French Ministry of Youth, National Education and Research.       A member of the Southeastern faculty since 1984, Marshall has been teaching French to students of all ages for more than three decades. She served as head of Southeastern’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1996 to 2002.       Marshall said her life-long love of the French language began in childhood when her older brother repeated to her the phrases he was learning in school. “I thought it was the most beautiful language in the world, and I said one day I’ll speak it,” she said.        “I began at home,” she added. Her husband, Skip Paul, and children, Audrey and Christopher, are all bilingual. “So, we live what we feel is important,” Marshall said.       Marshall earned her bachelor’s degree in French from Syracuse University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Pennsylvania State University. Among her many activities in promoting French, She was instrumental in the “twinning” of five cities in Tangipahoa Parish and France, and, as the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Research Award, spent the spring 2003 semester at the University Aix-Marseille where she researched "linguistic insecurity” in Louisiana.       Marshall has served as president of the Council for Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) and the Louisiana Foreign Languages Teachers Association, and vice president of the American Association of Teachers of French. She also serves as a member of the board of the French American Chamber of Commerce.        Marshall has written books on French dialects and French Creoles, presented numerous workshops for teachers at national conferences, and has coordinated a Southeastern summer study program in France for the past four years. Spring 2004 News Releases News Release archive